Damien Chazelle’s Netflix Series ‘The Eddy’ To Bow At Berlin Festival

The Berlin Film Festival’s sixth Berlinale Series lineup will include Damien Chazelle’s anticipated Paris-set musical-drama The Eddy for Netflix, Jason Segal’s starry AMC series Dispatches From Elswehere, buzzy Cate Blanchett project Stateless and BBC-HBO Max show Trigonometry.

Moonlight star André Holland leads cast in The Eddy, about a French club owner dealing with the everyday chaos of running a live music venue in the heart of Paris. The festival will show the world premiere of the show’s first two episodes.

The compact, high-quality lineup also includes German-language drama Freud. Scroll down for the lineup in full and details about each show.

This is the first program for new Berlinale Series head Julia Fidel who previously worked on the festival’s Panorama and Generation strands. The dramas will screen at the Zoo Palast cinema, which will also host the Berlinale Series Market, formerly known as Drama Series Days.

The Berlinale Series strand is curated by Berlin’s new artistic director Carlo Chatrian. The festival’s competition lineup will be announced later this month.

Berlin’s market will also include a ‘Co-Pro Series’ pitch event for projects seeking international partners. Among the projects is he first series by Berlinale and Golden Globe winner Hany Abu-Assad. Scroll down for that linuep.

Berlinale Series 2020

C’est Comme Ça Que Je T’aime (Happily Married)
Canada

Creator: François Létourneau

Showrunner: Joanne Forgues

Director: Jean-François Rivard

Cast: François Létourneau, Patrice Robitaille, Marylin Castonguay, Karine Gonthier-Hydman, Sophie Desmarais

Broadcaster: Radio-Canada Télé, Tou.Tv Extra

World premiere

Episodes 1 and 2 of 10, in total 86’

At the beginning, Huguette and Gaétan, Serge and Micheline send their kids off for three weeks of camp. At the end, there are four naked corpses floating in the pool: who slept with whom and who killed whom? Marriage, Suburbia, hell in Quebec 1974.

Dispatches from Elsewhere
USA

Creator: Jason Segel

Cast: Jason Segel, Eve Lindley, Sally Field, André Benjamin, Richard E. Grant

Broadcaster: AMC

World premiere, opening series

Episodes 1 and 2 of 10, in total 120’

An enigmatic institute promises the chosen few an escape from everyday life into a world full of beauty and magic. But is this a game, an alternative reality or a conspiracy? And what are Peter, Simone, Janice and Fredwynne risking?

The Eddy
France

Creator: Jack Thorne

Directors: Damien Chazelle (Ep. 1-2), Houda Benyamina (Ep. 3-4), Laila Marrakchi (Ep. 5-6), Alan Poul (Ep. 7-8)

Cast: André Holland, Joanna Kulig, Amandla Stenberg, Tahar Rahim, Leila Bekhti, Adil Dehbi, Benjamin Biolay

Broadcaster: Netflix
World premiere, Closing series

Episodes 1 and 2 of 8, in total 136’

Bandleader Elliot is improvising his way through a complex score of problems: his Parisian jazz club ‘The Eddy’ isn’t doing too well. Ruthless debt collectors are breathing down his neck. And then his teenage daughter Julie arrives from New York.

Freud
Austria / Germany / Czech Republic

Director: Marvin Kren

Cast: Robert Finster, Ella Rumpf, Georg Friedrich, Christoph Krutzler, Brigitte Kren, Anja Kling, Philipp Hochmair, Noah Saavedra

Broadcaster: ORF, Netflix

World premiere, opening series

Episodes 1-3 of 8, in total 167’

Vienna, 1886: restless, high on cocaine and striving for recognition, young Sigmund Freud embarks on a nerve-wracking, hypnotic trip into the depths of the human soul with a mysterious medium and a traumatised policeman.

Mystery Road 2
Australia

Creator: Ivan Sen

Directors: Warwick Thornton, Wayne Blair

Cast: Aaron Pedersen, Jada Alberts, Sofia Helin, Callan Mulvey

Broadcaster: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

World premiere

Episode 1 and 2 von 6, in total 110’

A headless corpse is found floating by the shore in the Northern Territory. As if this weren’t mysterious enough, Detective Swan and his colleague Fran have to contend with protests against the excavation of an indigenous site. Then another body turns up.

Sex
Denmark

Creator: Clara Mendes

Director: Amalie Næsby Fick

Cast: Asta Kamma August, Jonathan Bergholdt Jørgensen, Nina Terese Rask, Sara Fanta Traore

Broadcaster: TV 2 Denmark

International premiere

Complete short-form series, 6 episodes, in total 77’

At the call centre, Cathrine gives advice on sex and love, but is herself at a loss. After a kiss, she wants more from her colleague Selma. Her boyfriend Simon feels that what little they have is actually plenty. But what if that’s not enough?

Stateless
Australia

Creators: Cate Blanchett, Elise McCredie, Tony Ayres

Directors: Emma Freeman (Ep. 1-3), Jocelyn Moorhouse (Ep. 4-6)

Cast: Yvonne Strahovski, Jai Courtney, Asher Keddie, Fayssal Bazzi, Dominic West, Cate Blanchett

Broadcaster: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

World premiere

Episode 1 and 2 of 6, in total 107’

Escape, disappear,start over. Behind barbed wire in the Australian desert, the world comes together in a dramatic way for four very different people. Is home a place? Or a trauma? What if you’re not even in the position to dream about it?

Trigonometry
United Kingdom

Creators: Duncan Macmillan, Effie Woods

Directors: Athina Rachel Tsangari (Ep. 1-5), Stella Corradi (Ep. 6-8)

Cast: Ariane Labed, Thalissa Teixeira, Gary Carr

Broadcaster: BBC2, HBO Max (USA)

World premiere

Episodes 1-5 of 8, in total 220’

Today’s London: Gemma is a chef, Kieran a paramedic, and Ray, who moves in with the young couple, is at a loss. They fall in love, each for themselves and all together. Can this go well? Or is it the best thing that could possibly happen to them?

Projects selected for Co-Pro Series 2020:

The King’s Wives (writers: Hany Abu Assad, Amira Diab; director: Hany Abu Assad), Abbout Productions, Lebanon
Babyland (writers: Simona Nobile, Dianne Jones, Martichka Bozhilova; director: tba), Agitprop, Bulgaria
Precious (writers: John F. Guerra, Joost van Gelder; director: tba), Atlantic Films & Lemming Film, Netherlands
Dark Victory (writer/director: Matthew Saville), Goalpost Television, Australia
Pawns (writers: Michael Idov, Lily Idov; director: tba), Metrafilms, Russia
Transitniki (writers: Heide Schwochow, Constantin Lieb, Christian Mackrodt; director: tba), Rohfilm Factory, Germany
Signals (writers: Óskar Jónasson, Margrét Örnólfsdóttir, Sjón, Jóhann Ævar Grímsson; director: Óskar Jónasson), Sagafilm, Iceland
Dome 16 (writer: Thomas Seeberg Torjussen; director: tba), Tordenfilm, Norway
Snow (writer: Michaela Taschek; director: Barbara Albert, Sandra Wollner), Witcraft Filmproduktion, Austria