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Cadiz’s South Intl. Series Festival looks to be shaping up to deliver a highly eclectic third edition. Balancing world premieres with high-profile streamer releases, the official section shines a spotlight on a much needed diversity in an increasingly conservative international TV landscape. 

Title range from intimate dramas exploring mental health or trans identity to epic dramas inspired by ancient mythology and innovative fiction/documentary hybrids in a 2025 competition with a solid international outlook. 

Backed by heavyweight players such as Fremantle, HBO Max, Mediaset España, Atresmedia, Sky Studios, Paramount+ and Movistar Plus+, these projects are often designed not only for local resonance but also to travel across borders. 

Below, a closer look at South’s main competition lineup:

FICTION OFFICIAL SECTION

“Atomic,” (Gregory Burke, U.K.)

Inspired by the non-fiction book “Atomic Bazaar,” by William Langewiesche, the adventure series dives into the global threat of nuclear weapons production and how the stakes of state-sponsored nuclear activity have reached frightening levels. Starring Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones”) and Shazad Latif (“Star Trek: Discovery”), it follows the unlikely friendship between two men who become caught up in a cartel’s plot to transport uranium across North Africa. Pulse Films produced in association with Sky Studios.

“Corbeaux,” (Pierre-Louis Sanschagrin, Canada)

A French-language horror drama directed by Stéphane Lapointe for Canada’s Encore Télévision in collaboration with Québecor Contenu. After a series of gruesome murders shakes the city, a young rebellious investigator teams with a veteran colleague to solve them, starting a terrifying race against time where bodies pile up and the duo must both confront their own demons. With Mylène Mackay and Pascale Bussières, the series world premiered at Berlinale Series Market.

“El Centro,” (David Moreno, Spain)

A realism-infused spy thriller series produced by Movistar Plus+ alongside Pablo Isla’s Fonte Films (“Mugaritz”). Creator David Moreno and director David Ulloa, the duo behind Canneseries player “El inmortal,” re-team to delve into the inner workings of Spain’s CNI intelligence service, the plot sparked by a murder that ignites a high-stakes hunt for a traitor. Juan Diego Botto (“On the Fringe”), Tristán Ulloa (“Berlin”), Clara Segura (“The 47”) and Elena Martín (“Creatura”) star.

“Ella, maldita alma,” (Aurora Garrido, Spain)

Produced for Mediaset España by ITV Studio’s Plano a Plano and based on a book by writer Manuel Rivas (“Butterfly Tongues,” “Unauthorized Living”), the series narrates a supernatural-tinged thriller. The series toplines Maxi Iglesias (“Valeria”), Martiño Rivas (“Nacho”) and Karina Kolokolchykova (“The Grandmother”). Lensed in Cádiz and presented at SouthSeries 2024 as a project, it returns for its world premiere.

“Futuro desierto,” (Lucía Puenzo, Mexico)

One of the biggest series to come out of Latin America, “Futuro desierto,” Lucía and Nicolás Puenzo’s six-episode near-future psychological thriller and family drama, explores big questions sparked by AI. With  José María Yazpik (“Narcos: Mexico”), Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey (“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” ) and Andrés Parra (“Pablo Escobar, El Patrón del Mal”). Gaumont USA produces for Paramount Television International Studios; Colombia and Mexico-based TIS Studios handles international.

“Little Disasters,” (Sarah Conradt, U.K.)

Starring Diane Kruger (“Troy,” “Inglourious Basters”), the series is based on the novel by Sarah Vaughan (“Anatomy of a Scandal”), exploring female friendships and motherhood through the lens of four women. A Roughcut TV production for Paramount+, with Spanish licensing via HBO Max. Fremantle leads international distribution. 

“Nails,” (Araceli Álvarez de Sotomayor, Spain)

SkyShowtime’s third locally commissioned original series in Spain, world premiering at Cádiz. Produced by Federation Spain in partnership with SkyShowtime and Telemundo Studios. The story of four women from different backgrounds and of different ages who meet in a nail salon. Their repeated encounters spark a unique friendship, turning them into partners in crime.

“Romi,” (Iker Azkoitia, Spain)

A procedural drama produced by Joko TV (Producciones Mandarina) for Mediaset España. It features a hearing-impaired private detective who investigates the long-ago death of her father, which she suspects to be murder. Headlined by María Cerezuela, 2022’s best new actress Goya Award winner for “Maixabel,” “Romi” is distributed by Mediterráneo Mediaset España Group, appealing to both inclusive-minded programming and suspense genre fans. Creator Azkoitia was a writer on Netflix mega-hit “Élite.” Inés París (“The Barrier”) and Claudia Pinto (“L’Alquería Blanca,” “Beguinas”) direct.

“Sense FilTRES,” (Nico Ariso, Spain)

Creator-director-actor Ariso brings irreverence and topicality in this experimental drama produced by 3Cat. The series blends scripted and documentary-style sequences to confront contemporary social taboos. Premiering on 3Cat’s streaming platform, it marks a bold Catalan voice in the official section.

“War of the Kingdoms,” ( Andreas Bareiss, Germany)

One of Europe’s biggest series, an epic drama reimagining of “The Nibelungenlied” directed by Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert, the duo behind mystery series “Pagan Peak,” and co-written by “Murder Mindfully” scribe Doron Wisotzky. Produced by German giant Constantin Film for RTL, the series blends mythology with sweeping visuals and romantic intrigue. Fremantle handles international sales;  Movistar Plus+ will launch the series in Spain.

“What It Feels Like for a Girl,” (Paris Lees, U.K.)

Coming-of-age drama series produced by Hera Pictures (“Mary & George”) for BBC Three and iPlayer, exploring trans identity through a fierce realism, adapting the memoir by transgender trailblazer Paris Lees. Filmin has the series for Spain.

NON-FICTION, OFFICIAL SECTION

“Vulnerables,” (Gonzalo Sagardía, Spain)

After the pandemic, young people and teenagers have developed a series of mental health issues related to excessive screen time and social media use. This series aims to show the consequences these excesses have on the mental health of youth. An Onza Entertainment production for Atresmedia, developed with guidance from psychiatrist Marián Rojas, an executive producer alongside José María Irisarri and Santiago de la Rica.

“La Húngara, toma que toma” (Mediaset España, Spain)

The three-episode documentary chronicles the journey of La Húngara, a pioneer artist in flamenco fusion, from her humble origins to the Latin Grammys, revealing her struggles and resilience after family losses. The film features moments from her tour and insights from artists like C. Tangana and Antonio Carmona. Produced by Lyomedia for Mediaset’s Infinity platform.   

“Una historia muy heavy,” (Alejandro Torres, María José Camacho, Spain) 

Produced by Magnetika Films for RTVE Play, the series focuses on Obús and Barón Rojo, legends of Spanish heavy metal and rival bands since the 1980s, who face off on a historic tour that could be their last. The series revisits the origins of metal in Spain through this rivalry. 

”The Agent – The Life and Lies of My Father,” (NRK, Norway)

Created, produced and distributed by high-flying Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, this award-winning documentary series, which took best documentary at Canneseries 2025, delves into an estranged father-son relationship entangled by secrets, deception and belated revelation.

“TikTok: The War of Data,” (“TikTok, un réseau sous influence,” Vincent de Cointet, France)

Teaming Morgane Production and Arte France, the docuseries dissects the geopolitical and social impact of TikTok. It blends expert interviews, user-generated content, and data analysis, offering a cautionary, global perspective on social media influence.  

SPOTLIGHT SOUTH

“Bardot,” (Alain Berliner, U.K.-France-Belgium)

Produced by London-based Featuristic Films, France’s Timpelpictures and Belgium’s Agent Double, the docuseries captures the international icon’s cinematic and cultural impact with rare footage and interviews. Distributed by Fremantle, set to premiere via Movistar Plus+ in Spain.

“Crimen y ley,” Season 2, (Jorge Molina, Daniel Gamero, Spain)

Co-produced by Grupo ADM and Producciones Cibeles for Andalusian public broadcaster Canal Sur. Guided by crime novelist Susana Martín Gijón, the docuseries travels through the region exploring criminal cases and how the actions of law enforcement and judicial system worked.

After years of retirement and general seclusion, Kim Novak returned to the public eye as a presenter at the Oscars in 2014 — a welcome surprise for classic film buffs and a vicious snarking opportunity for tabloid media and social media’s worst, including one Donald Trump, who seized on the 81-year-old star’s physical appearance and vocal delivery with crushing cruelty.

For Novak, who hit back with a comparatively gracious statement against bullying and ageism, it was proof that Hollywood misogyny endures decades after her 1950s heyday — and perhaps a reminder of why she took early leave of the industry in the first place. She doesn’t bring up the matter in “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” and one hopes she doesn’t think of it much. But her legacy, and sentiments binding past and present, are much on her mind in Alexandre O. Philippe‘s warmly conversational documentary portrait.

If you’re wondering whether the title “Kim Novak’s Vertigo” is a dig at the legendary director of the actor’s single most celebrated film, it isn’t: Alfred Hitchcock is fondly recalled throughout the doc, to the point that his ghost is even thanked in the closing credits, for being “undeniably present during the making of this movie.”

Some viewers may want to deny that, though Novak appears to believe it, and she’s a hard figure to argue with. Funny and expressive and thoughtful in her nineties, she’s also brazenly, engagingly eccentric in ways that have little to do with age: Having willingly passed through the madness of movie stardom into a state of post-celebrity isolation, she speaks as someone not altogether of this time or place. Slight in some respects, Philippe’s 76-minute film resonates as what is today a vanishingly rare first-hand window into the joys, terrors and vagaries of Hollywood’s golden age.

This isn’t the first Hitchcock-adjacent project from Philippe, the prolific Swiss-American director of cinema-centric documentaries who previously deconstructed “Psycho’s” iconic shower scene in his 2017 film “78/52.” Philippe’s oeuvre has focused with an endearing obsessiveness on direction and formal craft: Star portraiture is newer territory for him (beginning with a William Shatner study in 2023), but there’s a palpably relaxed affinity between him and Novak that makes for discursive and illuminating interview material, as well as a striking vulnerability in various voice notes sent by the star to the director — in which she can strike a more melancholic note than in their in-person dialogues. “I feel like I’m very close to the end,” she says in one of them, at the film’s outset, adding, “I need to free something that’s been in the closet of my mind.”

More than something, it turns out. Novak’s musings range from anecdotal but unsentimental reminiscences about her beginnings in the film industry — she was signed by Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, who changed her name from Marilyn and persistently dubbed her “the fat Polack” — to more searching reflections on her craft (“I feel more proud of having been a reactor than an actor”) to sometimes lacerating recollections of family life, and her creative but hard-up parents’ conflicted reaction to her stardom.

Her father kept the miscarried foetus of his only son in a jar in the garage, while her mother admitted that she attempted to abort her. Her grandmother, a freer spirit with a bluebird tattoo, was more of a role model to the young Novak, and her image recurs frequently in the swirling, surreal paintings that the star produces to this day. Painting, which Novak took up after quitting Los Angeles for Big Sur and pivoting away from a full-time acting career in the late 1960s — a shift she refers to as “getting reborn” — is the art she describes as her “survival mode.”

Well-chosen clips track the evolution of Novak’s star persona from the ingenue days of “Picnic” to her sleeker transitioning into femme-fatale parts to the flintier, more liberated possibilities of her turn in the 1968 industry satire “The Legend of Lylah Clare.” But it’s Novak’s dual role as Judy and Madeleine in “Vertigo” on which the film fixates most intently, and the star — who appeared to have had a better time working with the Master of Suspense than various other Hitchcock blondes — is most forthcoming both on her experience making it, and how the film happily haunts her still.

“It’s a wonder ‘Vertigo’ didn’t blow my mind,” she says, though to hear her speak of it, you wonder if it kind of did. The tension between the images of Madeleine and Judy, merged into each other at a man’s instruction, still strikes Novak as akin to her own struggle to maintain her identity and a sense of self in an industry ruled by male desire and ego.

Uncovering the original gray suit worn by Madeleine from a box in the attic, she’s overcome with feeling for a garment she found dowdy at the time of shooting. “It’s part of me,” she sighs. “That’s the good thing about getting old — you can look back and everything is beautiful, because it’s life.” Simply constructed, with no agenda more important than simply letting its subject talk and eagerly listening in, Philippe’s enjoyably besotted film is inclined to agree.