Ibero-America Conquers Series Mania Forum 2026
Two projects with Spanish and Hispanic-American ties are among the 15 selected from over 450 submissions at Europe's most important audiovisual co-production forum, at a time of record investment by global platforms in Spanish-language content.
Europe's Most Important Audiovisual Forum Opens its Doors to Ibero-America
The Series Mania Forum, Europe's most influential audiovisual co-production event, has revealed the 15 projects selected for its Co-Production Sessions 2026, to be held on March 24 in Lille, France. Among those chosen from more than 450 applications from 65 countries, two productions with Ibero-American ties stand out for the first time: a Spanish-Chilean co-production and a series set in 1980s Spain.
The Two Selected Ibero-American Projects
The proposal with the greatest regional projection is The Glacier Murders, a co-production between Brutal Media (Spain) and Fábula (Chile). The project, consisting of six 50-minute episodes, is a thriller that alternates between Patagonia and Catalonia: a young Spaniard inherits a remote hotel in southern Chile that holds a frozen corpse, and together with a disgraced detective, discovers that the crimes date back to the secrets of his own family in Barcelona. Screenwriters Mariano Baselga and Enrique Videla are behind the project, produced by Arlette Peyret and Álvaro Cabello.
The second selected production is Without Standing (100 ACRES), an eight-episode historical drama set in Madrid in 1981, when Spain had just legalized divorce. A secretary who is blacklisted opens a clandestine law firm for desperate women, turning survival into a business that sows enemies in its wake. Screenwriter Jessica Aran and producer Candela Izquierdo lead the project.
A Milestone for the Spanish-Speaking Market
The 2026 edition marks a historic moment: Uruguay and Panama are participating in the co-investment forum for the first time, joining a list of new territories that includes Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Cyprus, and Malaysia. The 15 projects will compete before a jury chaired by Jorge Pezzi, head of fiction at Movistar Plus+, along with representatives from ARTE (France), ZDF (Germany) and SVT (Sweden). The winning project will receive a prize of 50,000 euros and access to European financing networks, including funds from the European Union's Creative Europe program.
The Unstoppable Rise of Spanish-Language Content
The recognition comes at a time of unprecedented expansion for Spanish-language series. Netflix has committed more than 1 billion euros to Spanish production between 2025 and 2028, after finding that Spanish titles generated more than 5 billion hours of viewing on the platform, the highest figure among non-English-speaking countries in Europe. According to data from Parrot Analytics, Spanish and Portuguese originals grew by 266% between 2020 and 2024, well above the 178% recorded in other languages.
Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ have also multiplied their commitment to Latin American content, making Spain and Mexico two of the main Spanish-speaking production hubs on a global scale. In this context, presence at the Series Mania Forum has become a strategic lever for Ibero-American creators to access European co-investment and expand their international reach.
A Signal for the Sector
With the selection of The Glacier Murders and Without Standing, the Series Mania Forum sends an unequivocal message: Ibero-American talent has ceased to be a rarity in the major European markets and is consolidating as a central player in the global audiovisual landscape. On March 24 in Lille, it will be possible to see if this commitment also translates into the forum's most coveted award.
