Press Releases
European Film Market & Co-Production Market

The Berlinale Series Market is the European Film Market’s dedicated platform for serial content from around the world. The 12th edition of the event will take place from February 15 to 18, 2026 at CinemaxX on Potsdamer Platz. This year’s programme includes conferences, showcases, networking events, and the flagship label Berlinale Series Market Selects, featuring a line-up of series from around the world with high market potential.

The new edition will also feature docuseries, thanks to increased synergy with the EFM’s DocSalon. As part of the programme, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will once again present the Co-Pro Series Pitches.

As the “Country in Focus” at the 2026 European Film Market, Morocco will present a showcase at the Berlinale Series Market, offering special insights into upcoming Moroccan series projects as well as the country’s cash rebate advantages.

This all aligns with refocussed series and episodic programming within the festival’s Official Selection, with all series sitting in Berlinale Special Series, and featuring six new series in 2026.

Berlinale Series Market Selects: Thrillers, Dramedies and Rebellion

The flagship label Berlinale Series Market Selects presents 17 scripted titles and three docuseries. The scripted series span a wide range of genres, from drama and thriller to biopics and tragicomic stories and originate from Argentina/Uruguay, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile/Mexico, Denmark/Norway, Germany, Iceland, Canada, the Czech Republic, Morocco, Switzerland, Portugal, and Spain. The docuseries come from Canada, Turkey, and the USA.

More information on Berlinale Series Market Selects 2026

A New Space for Connections and a Spotlight for Excellence

This year, Berlinale Series Market joins forces with Studio Babelsberg – the world’s oldest large-scale film studio and today one of Europe’s leading production hubs – to create a dedicated networking space for industry professionals. The Studio Babelsberg Lounge, located on the first floor of CinemaxX, will welcome guests during the mornings of February 16, 17, and 18, offering an inspiring space to connect and collaborate.

As part of this exciting partnership, we are proud to introduce a new highlight: the Studio Babelsberg Production Excellence Award. This distinction will honour one outstanding series from the Berlinale Series Market Selects lineup, recognising exceptional producing that combines creative vision, excellence in realisation, and an innovative producing approach with international potential.

Series Match: Germany & Ibero-America

For this edition, the Berlinale Series Market and Iberseries & Platino Industria are strengthening their three-year partnership with a new initiative connecting Ibero-American and German production companies working on series projects in the early stages of development.

Together, they have selected five companies from Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, and Spain: Boutique Filmes, Movioca, Alterna Media, Villano, and Funicular Films. These companies will meet with five selected German counterparts: Zeitsprung, UFA, SKP Entertainment, Studio Zentral, and Beta Film.

Additional German production companies, broadcasters, and commissioners are welcome to participate and can register via .

Between risk-taking stories and narrative changes

In today’s hyper-connected landscape, where streamers and broadcasters compete fiercely for viewers’ attention, established IPs are often seen as the safest bet for strong ratings and subscriber loyalty. Yet bold originals such as Adolescence and The Studio prove that risk-taking can pay off in spectacular ways.

Can original concepts break the industry’s dependence on IP, or are they merely rare exceptions? Opening the Berlinale Series Market Conference Programme, the panel “Risk-Taking and Disruption: IPs and Originals” brings leading industry voices together to explore these questions and more.

What needs to change in the television industry to make gender-balanced representation the norm? Who controls the stories, the funding, and the decisions —and why does “playing it safe” so often mean working with more men, both on and off screen?

Building on the success of “Owning the Narrative” in 2025, we continue the conversation with “Changing the Narrative: Gender Balance in the Industry”, focusing on practical solutions, actionable recommendations, and inspiring examples where meaningful progress is already being made.

In times of political and economic uncertainty, defying the status quo has become a defining theme. Increasingly, series are tackling injustice —from the climate crisis to the rise of authoritarian regimes —, but how can creators craft stories that resonate globally without losing their original intent? And as every series is ultimately a commercial product, how can companies avoid cynicism when selling these narratives?

The panel “Rebel Rebel: Series Battling the Status Quo” brings together creators and producers from market and festival titles to explore these questions and share insights.

The showcase Up Next: Germany presents some of the most interesting series projects from Germany for the coming year. The selection includes Westend Girl (Flare Film GmbH in co-production with WDR and ARTE, in collaboration with Beta Film, funded by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and GMPF), in which 19-year-old Ronja is forced to grow up overnight when her parents are suddenly arrested for drug trafficking.

Also featured is The Dark Ones (Studio Zentral with Network Movie Film- und Fernsehproduktion GmbH, funded by Screen Flanders (Belgium) and FISA+ (Austria) for ZDFneo), about Soma, a young woman searching for her origins—and the only person who can stop mysterious beings creeping into our world through a crack between dimensions.

The line-up further includes 4 Blocks Zero, the prequel to the multi-award-winning gangster drama 4 Blocks, which tells the story of the Hamady family in 1990s Berlin (W&B Television, funded by GMPF and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg for HBO Max), as well as the docuseries Clangold (WT) (Beetz Brothers Film Production, funded by GMPF and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg for HBO Max), about one of the most spectacular robberies in German history: the theft of the “Big Maple Leaf” gold coin from Berlin’s Bode Museum.

Berlinale Series Market takes place in primary partnership with the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. It also receives support from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and its media partner is “Variety”.

The European Film Market is part of Berlinale Pro, which unites the European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents, and the World Cinema Fund. Berlinale Pro is the festival’s full-circle industry infrastructure, serving the global film industry as an incubator, enhancer, and supporter at all stages of film development, production, sales, and distribution.

Press Office

January 15, 2026