The Cannes International Series Festival, better known as Canneseries, is an international series festival held annually in Cannes, France. This year's Canneseries will take place from April 5 to 10. The festival is running parallel with the major media market MIPTV in Cannes.
The festival was founded in 2018 and consists of four sections: Competition, Short Format Competition, Documentary Series Competition and Out of Competition Series. Previously, the Public Service Fund-supported ‘The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen’ (2022) and 'Prisoner' (2023) and have been selected for the competition at Canneseries.
There is a strong Danish presence at Canneseries, which has announced its program for the 2024 edition. The Danish thriller series 'Dark Horse', written by Sara Isabella Jønsson, produced by Pernille Tornøe and Victor Cunha for Monolit Film with support from the Danish Public Service Fund and shown on Danish broadcaster TV2, will be presented in competition for long format series. Karoline Lyngbye is the conceptual director of the series and has directed episodes 1-4, while Katrine Brocks has directed episodes 5 and 6
Creator Sara Isabella Jønsson and Producers Pernille Tornøe and Victor Cunha:
"We are very happy and proud that 'Dark Horse' has been selected for Canneseries. From the start, our ambition was to make a series with a clear Danish anchorage, but whose tone and expression was elevated beyond a traditional drama. It has been great to feel that this has resonated strongly with viewers, young and old, in Denmark, and we look forward to seeing whether this will also be the case when the series finally meets an international audience at the festival. In any case, we are happy to join the ranks of strong Danish series that have been represented at the festival in recent years.”
In 'Dark Horse' we follow 17-year-old Anna (Josephine Højbjerg) and her mother Eva (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), whose sudden move from Shanghai to Eva's hometown in Denmark is shrouded in mystery. Anna, a clever but introverted girl, has always been on the move with her restless mother, who in the pursuit of new experiences has left a trail of failed relationships across the world. While attempting to adjust to their new surroundings. they both make a series of decisions that set them on a collision course, not only with the law, but ultimately with each other.
The main writer and creator of 'Dark Horse' is Sara Isabella Jønsson, who has written screenplays for the feature films 'Persona non grata' (2021), 'Unruly' (2022) and served as co-creator on Nicolas Winding Refn's Netflix series 'Copenhagen Cowboy' (2023) among others. The series is produced by Pernille Tornøe and Victor Cunha for Monolit Film with support from the Danish Public Service Fund which is administrated by The Danish Film Institute.