Most people, after having the marathon couple of months that Shondaland Creative Partner Betsy Beers has had, would take some time off to unwind. While it’s normal for the self-described “Eveready Bunny” to hop from one thing to the next without pause, the past few months have required an especially large amount of stamina: going to Denver in May to accept a well-earned Impact in Television Award at the TV symposium SeriesFest and then to New York weeks later for the global premiere of the third season of Bridgerton, as well as the London premiere soon after that, along with the day-to-day demands of being half of the top TV team in Hollywood, alongside Shonda Rhimes.

For the past five years, Beers, alongside Shondaland founder Shonda Rhimes and Head of Creative Production Tom Verica, have partnered with SeriesFest to offer on-the-rise female directors the opportunity to shadow Shondaland productions with the Women Directing Mentorship (…) As for the SeriesFest leadership team, they have nothing but praise for Beers and her Shondaland team, as they continue to work together with the Women Directing Mentorship program, which was awarded this year to writer/director Shelby Blake Bartelstein.

All weekend long tv-stars filled Denver for ‘SeriesFest!’
It’s a nonprofit and international festival celebrating the art of independent TV series creation.

It’s a chance to learn about and see new shows, meet the best talent in the tv industry and so much more.
This year, series fest celebrated 10 years and GDC’s Spencer Thomas had a chance to check it out over the weekend and chat with some of the iconic cast of Grey’s Anatomy.

International television festival and non-profit organization SeriesFest revealed the winners of its Season 10 Independent Pilot Competition at an awards presentation on Sunday in Denver, capping off the 2024 event. Jurors screened 45 pilots from creative voices around the globe at this year’s milestone celebration and selected winners in categories including “Independent Pilot,” which receives $25K in-kind post production support from Company 3, “Digital Short Series,” “Late Night” and “Pitch-A-Thon.”

SeriesFest is thrilled to announce award winners for Season 10!

DENVER — Actor Jocko Sims and Dr. Nia Schwann Mitchell joined forces at SeriesFest: Season 10, an annual TV festival in Denver to participate in a panel on the importance of Black doctors.

The event included a screening of the TV show “New Amsterdam” followed by a panel discussion on representation in medicine on the big screen and in real life medical settings.

Sims, who played Dr. Floyd Reynolds on the show “New Amsterdam,” said the role taught him about the impact he can have on future generations who watch the show and see a Black man playing the role of a doctor.

“Being on New Amsterdam, I had parents reach out to me to say, ‘Thank you for the role that you’ve played… My Black son or daughter now want to be doctors because of Dr. Reynolds.’ And that was very inspirational,” Sims said. “I think it was about that time where I started to realize, well, this show and this role that I have is making a greater impact than I realized. And I started to look and I started to learn about the disparities in health care.”

Sims said those disparities recently hit close to home.