SeriesFest
A Celebration of Episodic Storytelling
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Shondaland was heavy in the house at SeriesFest, an immersive annual five-day festival in Denver, Colorado, devoted to celebrating television and the brilliant minds who make it. Now in its 10th year, SeriesFest showed a lot of love to Shondaland, a longtime supporter of the conference, with a big honor for executive producer Betsy Beers, as well as a very cool mentorship award to up-and-coming director Shelby Blake Bartelstein, who’ll now get to visit the set of an undisclosed Shondaland show to shadow a director.
Read MorePitch-a-Thon Presented by SeriesFest
Friday, June 14 at 3:30 p.m. / Fermentation Hall at The Momentary
Five filmmakers with selections at the 2024 Bentonville Film Festival will participate in an exclusive live pitch session with top television, new media and digital professionals in hopes of moving their projects – and careers – forward. Panelists include Lisa Ann Walter (Actor/Producer/Comic), Sarah Minnie (Head of Artist Development + Production, OTV), Erich C. Smith (Agent, TCA), Elias Plagianos (Writer/Director), and moderator Claire Taylor (Director of Programming, SeriesFest). Filmmakers pitching include Sylvester Folks, Set Hernandez, Cynthia Kao, Liann Kaye and Gabriella Moses.
Ashley Michel Hoban serves as the showrunner of ‘Dr. Death’ on Peacock, and we had the opportunity to speak with her about season two of the show, before its release in December of 2023. As luck would have it, Ashley was in attendance at SeriesFest this year for a pair of panels, giving us the opportunity and honor of speaking with Ashley again, to follow-up with her regarding the show, now that season two is on the airwaves.
Read MoreShelby Blake Bartelstein jokes that she’s a “recovering actor” whose “gateway drug” was musicals in junior high. Her passions have served her well, though: The Chicago native went from the theater to applying that same spunky, eccentric outlook to commercials for some of the world’s biggest brands. One of her projects, “I Can’t Wait to Wash My Face: The Musical!,” from Olay, went viral and made its TV debut on the 2018 MTV VMAs.
Read MoreIn the fourth year of the partnership, Shondaland’s commitment to expanding industry opportunities gains new ground.
Read the ArticleIs Chicago’s next great comedy television series right around the corner? The Pitch-A-Thon initiative, powered by Denver/West Coast-based SeriesFest, Second City, and IFA Chicago is dedicated to discovering and nurturing the most promising independent episodic creators. The winner of the inaugural Chicago Pitch-A-Thon has been announced.
Read the ArticleEXCLUSIVE: Janelle Monáe and her Wondaland Pictures have partnered with the non-profit SeriesFest on the ninth season of Storytellers, its Script Writing Competition spotlighting female-focused stories within the episodic arena.
Read the ArticleSeriesFest and National Geographic Documentary Films have selected A.K. Sandhu‘s docuseries We Beg Your Pardon, America as the winner of the “Spotlight Your Town” initiative which supports an inclusive group of unscripted storytellers creating authentic, community-driven stories that embody the breadth and diversity of the people and places they represent.
Read the ArticleAfter a two-year in-person hiatus, SeriesFest finally made its way back to the SIE Film Center for its much anticipated Season 8. The six-day festival, which took place from May 5 to 11, featured everything from exclusive screenings to panel discussions with some of the biggest names in entertainment.
Read the ArticleSeriesFest, which returns for an in-person event, will kick off its Season 8 slate with a little bit of royalty.
On Thursday the annual television festival revealed the lineup, with Starz‘s new drama Becoming Elizabeth, set to get things started on May 5.
Read the ArticleEXCLUSIVE: SeriesFest and Shondaland have reunited to highlight a new generation of directors with the return of the Women Directing Mentorship competition.
First launched in 2018, the Women Directing Mentorship is a competition designed to discover aspiring female directors with a unique voice and provide them a launchpad for their career.
Read the ArticleSeriesFest and Shondaland have announced Tamika Miller as the winner of their annual Women Directing Mentorship.
The Women Directing Mentorship was first launched in 2018 as a partnership between SeriesFest and Shondaland, founded by Shonda Rhimes who is a champion of inclusion in front of and behind the camera.
Read the ArticleSeriesFest is expanding its commitment to female-forward initiatives, renewing its partnership with Shondaland, introducing an Executive Elevation Mentorship Program and presenting a live-streamed roundtable discussion about the current state of parity in the industry, Variety has learned exclusively.
Read the ArticleSeriesFest has partnered with producer Shonda Rhimes’ company Shondaland to launch a new initiative supporting female television directors.
The Women Directing Mentorship will be an expansion of SeriesFest’s Featuring Women platform, and will offer participants the opportunity to shadow a director for an episode of a Shondaland production.
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