Kaelo Iyizoba’s project, Birthright, will feature in the Writers’ Pitch section.
By Joseph Jonathan
The line-up for the 2025 Seriesly Berlin Pitches has been announced, with 16 new serial projects selected to present at this year’s festival. New York-based Nigerian-American filmmaker, Kaelo Iyizoba, a 2023 Durban FilmMart alum, 2025 Sundance Cultural Impact Residency Fellow, and a top-ten winner of the 2025 Tyler Perry Studios Dream Collective Program, stands out as the only African among the chosen creators. His project, Birthright, will feature in the Writers’ Pitch section.
Seriesly Berlin, a festival dedicated to the evolution of serial storytelling, returns for its second edition from 15th to 18th September 2025, with the Seriesly Berlin Conference held on 17th and 18th September. The festival highlights serialised storytelling across television, streaming platforms, gaming, podcasts, immersive experiences, and more.
The Pitches, scheduled for 17th September, provide a platform for eight projects in the Co-Production Pitch (in development) and eight in the Writers’ Pitch (early stage), connecting creators with industry professionals for financing, production, distribution, and international collaboration.
Iyizoba’s Birthright is described as a sweeping historical epic set in 19th-century Nigeria. The series follows a man, spared in childhood by ancient gods, who profits from the slave trade of his people. As colonial forces and Christianity expand, threatening the survival of the gods themselves, he must fight for them or perish alongside them.
With its blend of history, mythology, and colonial struggle, Birthright brings a distinctly Nigerian lens to a global stage.
Co-Production Pitch Selections
Among the eight projects in the Co-Production Pitch are:
- Indi/Pendent (Germany/India), a queer Berlin–Chennai comedy where a musician and her cousin accidentally write a song that could take Germany to Eurovision.
- The Last Baroness (Slovakia), a period drama from Biba Bohinská about a rebellious baroness facing war and the rise of new regimes.
- The Last Family on Earth (Germany), an adult animated sitcom about a dysfunctional family forced to survive the apocalypse together.
- The Life Changers (Taiwan/South Korea), a crime-action thriller from Golden Horse–nominated director Fu-Hsiang Hsu, backed by executive producer TJ Park.
- The Promise of India (Netherlands), a documentary exploring the hopes and challenges of Indian millennials navigating tradition and modernity.
- Tonight: Lola Blau (Germany), a musical drama blending history and performance, written by Gabbie Asher and co-produced by ZDF Studios.
- Villa Hilda (Finland/Sweden), a cozy mystery romance about a celebrity chef and a one-hit author seeking refuge on a remote island.
- Zebras (France/Germany), a dramedy about four expats chasing self-discovery after a zebra upstages Berlin’s famous bear.
Writers’ Pitch Selections
The Writers’ Pitch features eight early-stage projects, including Iyizoba’s Birthright. The others are:
- All Our Fathers Are Dead (Germany), a coming-of-age dramedy about Berlin teenagers forming a club to learn manhood after losing their fathers.
- Automat (Germany), a 2.5D animated sci-fi about students trapped in a digital maze of truth and deception.
- Chatbots Don’t Kill People (Lithuania), a drama-comedy about a travel agent uncovering a tech conspiracy after an AI chatbot is blamed for suicide.
- N.I.M.R.O.D. (Germany/Romania), a sci-fi psychological drama about a teen who discovers a Cold War-era weapon that grants immense but dangerous power.
- The People We Eat (Italy/Denmark), a horror comedy about a family of cannibals disrupted by their daughter’s vegetarianism and a nosy neighbor.
- The State Operetta (Austria), a political dramedy satirizing democracy with biting absurdity and realism.
- Who’s Burning Now (Germany/Switzerland), a mystery where a teenager discovers her heritage as both witch and witch hunter, igniting a secret magical war.
“The selected projects reflect the remarkable diversity of today’s creativity in serialised storytelling. Stories come from across the globe and cover a broad range of genres and subjects,” says Dennis Ruh, the Festival Director for Seriesly Berlin. “The 2025 line-up presents a dazzling spectrum of international talent and bold new voices. They vividly illustrate where serial content is heading worldwide. We see a strong presence of stories combining cultural specificity with universal themes.”
With Birthright, Iyizoba joins a global cohort of storytellers shaping the future of serialised content. His selection not only amplifies African representation at Seriesly Berlin but also reflects the growing recognition of African stories in the global market.