SeriesLab 2025

SeriesLab is open to professional European scriptwriters alongside with their producers, and also to international teams working on a project with European co-production potential. It’s aimed at all kinds of fiction series projects at an early development stage.

The purpose of the training course is to create a solid and clear concept document of the project, highlighting its main selling points, and the first draft of the pilot episode script. The final package should be enriched by additional materials, strengthening the selling potential of the project - such as mood board, mood video, and a pitch.

For a overview of the programme, please visit the SeriesLab & SeriesLab Story Editing page.

DURATION: from June to November 2025. The programme takes place over a period of approx. 6 months and foresees three one-week long residential workshops (June, September, and November 2025), plus some online sessions between the workshops. It ends up with a final industry pitching presentation.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Friday 10^th January 2025, 4.00 pm CET

If you missed the Q&A online session with the Head of Studies Eszter Angyalosy please contact the project manager Alice asking for the recording presbitero@museocinema.it. 

SeriesLab is organised by TorinoFilmLab – Museo Nazionale del Cinema with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Sub-programme of the European Union. SeriesLab 2025  is realised in partnership with VAF - Flanders Audiovisual Fund, hosting the 1^st workshop in Belgium and supporting the participation of one Flemish project; and with Ayuntamiento de Madrid and Comunidad de Madrid, hosting the 2^nd workshop in Madrid, Spain, and supporting the participation of one project from Madrid.

SeriesLab is open to teams of European writers or writer-directors and their producers, and to teams of international writers or writer-directors and their producers working on a project with European co-production potential.

The programme is open to both original concepts and adaptations; in this second case, the team must have secured the rights for the original material.

Eligibility criteria:
a. Applicants must send a concept for fiction TV series – mini (limited) series and multiple-season series; series (episodic format) or serials (continuing format) are all acceptable. Concepts for documentary series projects will not be accepted.
b. Applicants can submit only 1 project per year. However, a project that is refused one year, can be resubmitted another year if the project has gone through substantial changes.
c. Applicants must confirm their full availability for all the residential and online workshops, as well as for the final presentation. They also must commit to working on their assignments between workshops.
d. The working language of all SeriesLab workshops, meetings, and events is English; thus, a good knowledge of English is mandatory in order to participate.

PARTICIPATION FEES

3,000 Euro (+ VAT, if due) per team of 2 people. A third participant (co-writer or director) can join in exceptional cases, with an additional fee of 2,000 Euro (+ VAT, if due).

The fee covers training (residential and online) and hospitality (including accommodations and part of subsistence) during residential workshops. Participants are responsible for their travel costs.

SCHOLARSHIPS

AYUNTAMIENTO DE MADRID and COMUNIDAD DE MADRID
Thanks to our partnership with Ayuntamiento de Madrid and Comunidad de Madrid, one project from Madrid selected for SeriesLab 2025 will receive a scholarship covering half of the participation fee.

VAF - Flanders Audiovisual Fund
Thanks to our partnership with VAF - Flanders Audiovisual Fund, one Flemish project selected for SeriesLab 2025 will receive a scholarship covering half of the participation fee.

Our commitment is to guarantee accessibility to the TFL’s activities to as many talented participants as possible and to ensure diversity and inclusion through selection of projects/participants.

Across TFL programmes, a limited number of scholarships - covering half of the participation fee - will be available for participants from racial and ethnic underrepresented groups and/or being from a country not providing scholarships for this kind of training, or participants in any other proven situation of need for financial support. We strongly encourage our applicants to research and apply for financial support within your national/regional funding bodies first, who may have bursaries and grants to cover the training costs.

1^st residential workshop: early June (Belgium TBC)
2^nd residential workshop: mid-September (Spain TBC)
3^rd residential workshop, final presentation and meetings: November (Turin, Italy TBC)
Plus, some online sessions between the workshops.

The requested materials – to be submitted all together in one single PDF and all in English – are:

- Logline (2 lines maximum)
- Updated CV for each applicant (2 pages maximum, per CV)
- Concept presentation (7,500 characters, spaces included)
- Pilot step outline structured in bullet points:
a) if the pilot is a half-hour format (under 44 minutes), the outline must be 25 points maximum and 7,500 characters (spaces included)
b) if the pilot is a one-hour-format (between 45 and 60 minutes), the outline must be between 35 and 45 points maximum and 10,000 characters (spaces included)
- The first five pages of the pilot script
- Producer’s letter of interest
- Audiovisual approach documents (mood board, etc.), if available
- A short video introduction (2 mins maximum), in which the applicants explain, in their opinion, the most important selling points of their project and why an audience should be interested in watching the series. The spoken language of the video must be English (other languages with or without English subtitles will not be accepted). The video should be uploaded on YouTube, Vimeo, or Google Drive. The video link - and password, if needed - should be included in the application package.
- A short presentation of each applicant for communication purposes (including the information listed HERE)

Any application package that won’t include all the requested materials will be considered ineligible.

The written material must be redacted using the font Courier, 12 points.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS:  Friday 10^th January 2025, 4.00 pm CET

At the end of the pre-selection process, the shortlisted applicants will be notified at the beginning of April and interviewed via Zoom meetings from 8^th to 10^th April 2025 (dates TBC).

Please, click on the "APPLY NOW!" button in the right-side column of this page to access the application form and submit your project. Before starting the application process, you need to create an account on the TFL Visitor Page (if you don’t already have one).

For more information please contact: presbitero@museocinema.it