Serielizados Unveils Competition Lineup Featuring ‘Celeste’ Season 2 and Hagai Levi’s ‘Etti’

Spain’s Serielizados festival has announced the titles competing in its national and international lineups for the 2026 edition. The event is scheduled to take place in Barcelona from October 19-28, followed by a streaming rollout on Filmin.

Leading the national competition is the world premiere of Celeste Season 2, produced by Movistar Plus+ and 100 Balas. The series, which previously won best screenplay at the 2024 festival and triumphed at Series Mania with a best series award and a best actress honor for Carmen Machi, returns with Machi reprising her role as tax inspector Sara Santano in a new evasion case. Creators Diego San José and director Elena Trapé, both recognized for the 2025 best screenplay winner Jakarta, will attend alongside the star.

Also premiering in the national category is Killing a Bear (Matar a un oso), one of the most anticipated new entries from Movistar Plus+. Co-produced with Arte France, the six-episode drama is based on real events surrounding the first criminal investigation in Spain for the killing of a wild animal, specifically the death of a bear named Cachou in the Pyrenees’ Aran Valley in 2020. Showrunners Jorge and Alberto Sánchez-Cabezudo will be present, along with a cast including Eduard Fernández, María Rodríguez Soto, Miki Esparbé, Pol López, Nora Navas, and Àlex Monner.

Both titles join previously announced national entries In Vitro from HBO Max-3Cat, which serves as the festival’s opening film, and Segunda Temporada from Filmin.

The international competition, featuring six titles, is headlined by Etti, a French-German-Dutch co-production. Creator Hagai Levi, known for In Treatment and Scenes from a Marriage, is expected at the Catalan premiere. Adapted from the diaries of Dutch writer Etty Hillesum, the Arte France drama explores a young woman’s turbulent relationship with her psychologist against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The series follows festival runs at Venice and Series Mania.

Arte France will also present Camarades, a satire set during the May 1968 student uprisings. Created by Benjamin Charbit and Dominique Baumard, the show earned Manon Kneuzé a best actress award at this year’s Series Mania and is set to premiere on arte.tv on September 16.

Two UK productions acquired by Spanish streaming services will also be featured. BBC comedy Ann Droid, starring and created by Diane Morgan, follows a self-help robot exploring grief and human connections. The series was recently renewed by the BBC after its opening episode garnered 7.6 million views, making it the broadcaster’s second-biggest new scripted launch of 2026. Additionally, Channel 4’s factual drama Dirty Business, starring David Thewlis and Jason Watkins as detectives investigating an environmental disaster, will be showcased on Movistar Plus+.

The lineup includes German entry A Better Place, a suspense drama about prison system failures co-created by Alexander Lindh, and Naked, a series on sex addiction co-written by Silke Eggert. Both are produced under the ARD-WDR banner.

Spanish director Rodrigo Sorgoyen, whose film The Beloved was shortlisted for the Oscars, will preside over the international jury alongside comedian and showrunner Victoria Martín. The national competition jury includes Claire-Marine Pietriga from Canneseries, Berlinale Series advisor Rowan Woods, and Finnish producer Roosa Toivonen.

Serielizados co-head Betu Martínez described the festival motto as “life through series,” noting that the selected shows reflect current societal anxieties with strong authorial voices. He highlighted a shift toward Northern and Central European productions and the expanding role of public broadcasters as risk-takers. The festival also features highlights such as a talk with chef Ferran Adrià regarding the Netflix drama Genesis, screenings of the animated series Belzebubs, and a focus on Basque and Catalan talent.