Canneseries: 8 Things It Said About International Drama

CANNES — Canneseries suggested we are “living in a golden age of global television,” said Harlan Coben, emphasizing the world “global.” Here, extrapolating from its series , are 8 trends in global drama:

1.WOMEN POWER

Women are sticking it to men. Sometimes quite literally, as in “Killing Eve,” where Jodie Comer’s Villanelle, a brilliant, if nonchalant, female assassin, finds an original use for a hair-pin and an Italian mobster’s left eye. “Bullets,” from Finland’s Vertigo, which won the sneak-peek MipDrama Buyers Summit Coup de Coeur, forefronts two strong women – an undercover cop, an ex-terrorist – in a series which is both high-octane political thriller and a female friendship drama. “Angelica,” one of the most liked projects at In Development, is set at the last abortion clinic in a conservative U.S. state which becomes a flashpoint for broader divisive social confrontation. Of the 12 drama series projects presented at In Development, there’s a pretty even gender balance in lead characters: Only three feature sole male protagonists, seven balance men and women, two – “Angelica” and “Whatever, Linda” have largely female ensemble casts. In Canneseries competition, “State of Happiness” recasts traditional women’s melodrama bears – interclass love, restrictive parents – in a drama which seeks to explain the modernization of Norway through the broadening romantic prospects of its two female leads.