Inaugural Canneseries Festival Highlights Television’s Ascendance

A respected presence in the Southern California entertainment industry, Ryan Ly served as the head of CAA’s Television Literary Department. Now the principal of Curate Entertainment, Ryan Ly remains apprised of industry developments.
Reflecting the increasing predominance of television series worldwide in an age of Netflix, the French city of Cannes launched the inaugural Canneseries festival in April. With the opening night featuring a big screen preview of Versailles, a popular period drama, the festival featured a glitzy Palais des Festival stairs ascent. This mirrors the Cannes Film Festival, which has been held in the same location for 70 years.
The inaugural Official Competition included worldwide standouts such as Spanish director Cesc Gay’s romantic suspense drama Felix and Here On Earth, which is set in Mexico and stars creator Gael Garcia Bernal. Another acclaimed choice was the comedic spy thriller Killing Eve, which was written by series star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
The event’s jury includes noted entertainment figures such as actress Paula Beer, producer and writer Harlan Coben, and director Audrey Fouche. As Coben described it, the successful event indicated that we are now “living in a golden age of global television.”
