EXCLUSIVE: Germany’s Seriencamp is gearing up for the 2026 edition. The industry-facing confab returns to the German city of Cologne, running from June 9-11, running alongside the public Seriencamp Festival, which will host the world premiere of Westend Girl, starring Golden Globe nominee Helena Zengel.
Seriencamp is the biggest TV event in Germany, with the major broadcasters, streamers, producers and creatives all in town. Deadline presents its German TV Disruptor Award at the event, and details of this year’s recipient will be revealed soon.
Organizers said the industry is undergoing a transformation and they will shape this year’s twelfth edition accordingly, leaning in to both the challenges and opportunities in the new world of drama.
“Good stories will always find their audience – but how they are told, produced, distributed, and, above all, discovered is currently changing rapidly,” said Gerhard Maier, Artistic Director at Seriencamp.
“While the future of the series industry will be shaped by new and contemporary content, it will also depend on the willingness to explore new approaches to content development, production, and distribution, to investigate technological possibilities, and to question existing certainties in the process. Over the course of three days, the Seriencamp conference will explore what this means specifically for creatives, broadcasters, and producers.”
Drama producers are negotiating challenging terrain the European scripted TV sector. In the environment, getting the funders and commissioners in the room is always welcomed by the program-makers. Seriencamp has commissioners from ZDF, WDR, SWR, ARD DEGETO, ORF, SRG, RAI, NRK, SVT and DR already confirmed. Pubcaster ZDF’s production and distribution division ZDF Studios returns as the event’s main partner.
As well as the Meet the Commissioners strand, the popular pitching sessions will return. A strand called PLOT NXT will run through June 11-12 focusing on concrete examples of how artificial intelligence can be harnessed in the TV business. A day before the conference kicks off, regional funders Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the Film- und Medienverband NRW and producer group Produktionsallianz will run a conference event called Story Vision Europe that Seriencamp badge holders can attend.
Since 2023, the main funding partners of the events have been the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.