In a rainy Sunday, at the Television and New Media Festival in Dogliani (Piedmont), Italian production companies supported by Felipe Tewes (Netflix Originals International Director for Europe and Africa) talked about the new upcoming Italian series for the next Netflix season.

Laura Buffoni from Fandango talked about Luna Nera (Black Moon), a series set in the 17th century about witches and witches hunters. A female team to tell a story about women not for a female-only audience. This is an ambitious project for Netflix as Felipe Tewes explained: “it’s ambitious but we are very excited about it. All goes always back to the passion of the creators, and those at Fandango have such a connection with this project. And in particular, for us, it’s also about the idea of voices that could be underrepresented. We didn’t want a show created by female directors and female writers for a female kind of show, whatever it could mean, but we wanted and found a period-fantasy for all kinds of audiences that happens to be made by women.”

Ilaria Castiglioni from Indiana talked about Curon. Curon is a small village in Trentino Alto Adige with an artificial lake. From the water of this lake emerges a bell tower built in 1357. In winter you can reach it walking on the ice but there is a legend about it. It seems that on some winter days you can hear the bells ringing, even if they were removed from the bell tower before the construction of the lake. Curon it’s a supernatural mystery thriller written by a young team of screenwriters led by Suburra – The Series writer Ezio Abbate.

Nicola De Angelis from Fabula talked about the second season of Baby that reached 10,000,000 accounts for the first season and written, once again, by a team of young writers, The Grams.

Last but not least, Francesca Longardi from Cattleya talked about the ambitious reboot of a movie (previously a book) that made his mark on a whole generation of teenagers back in 2004: Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo (Three Steps Over Heaven). The series will keep the heart of the original story pointing to the characterization of the characters, especially the female ones. The female characters need to be strong and independent, as it is in Netflix tradition.

Felipe Tewes, talking about these series, said that: “every producer is making a different show but all we (Netflix) found in all of these shows is that each creator feels a very intimate connection with that story, that world, that show, and they have a very full picture of the story they want to tell. If that passion, that connection isn’t there, it becomes a very difficult process.”

And what about the audience?

“I would say that it’s not about what’s different from the other international products but it’s more about what these series have in common between all audiences. We are discovering and proving again and again that audiences across the world are connecting with the story for the story and for the people in that story. Where the story takes place is really a kind of the color that lands on those characters and their relationships and what happens to them. So I think a great example is the case of Baby. The Grams told me how they grow up watching Dawson’s Creek and how Pacey and Joey where real people to them and how where they were living wasn’t important to them. They were connected to them and their story not to the place where the story was set. And now, I know because I experienced it myself, a teenager in Los Angeles told me that they love Chiara and Ludo, and wants to understand if Chiara will end up with Damiano. The fact that they live in Rome? Is an interesting element that makes the series feel a little bit different for them but that the audience watches it because of the connection with those characters and with their story.”

And now, in Los Angeles, thanks to Baby all the teenagers know what a macchinetta (a mini car that can be driven by under 18-year-old teenagers without a driving license) is.