"Normally, we would have chosen a TV festival. But we considered that this series was a cinematographic creation and that it needed a film festival," Leshem said in an interview with AFP.

This reasoning, he and the co-creator of "Bad Boy" Hagar Ben-Asher, are not the only ones to have had it. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which has served as a launching pad for many Oscar-winning films, is also now standing out as a springboard for prestige television, as evidenced by its programming in 2023.

Netflix unveiled the first episode of its highly anticipated mini-series "All the Light We Cannot See", a World War II epic based on Anthony Doerr's novel "All the Light We Can't See" and starring Mark Ruffalo.

Amazon's Prime Video channel also featured "Expats," a drama set in Hong Kong and exploring the intertwined lives of the city's rich and poor expats, starring Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman.

American director Lulu Wang , during the presentation of the series "Expats" at the Toronto Film Festival on September 8, 2023 in Canada © VALERIE MACON / AFP/Archives

According to TIFF boss Cameron Bailey, this expansion of programming is the result of "the growth of series and the real integration between those who make series and those who make cinema films".

Series "that travel easily"

"Bad Boy," which is still looking for a broadcaster in Toronto, looks at the true, surreal story of Israeli comedian Daniel Chen, who was incarcerated in a juvenile detention centre as a child.

The series shot in Hebrew shows that the secrets of his past, 20 years later, are a constant burden and threat.

As Leshem and Ben-Asher explain, the teenager, then known as Dean, learned to use humor to survive behind bars.

"This is not a dark story. It's the story of a guy whose talent showed up in a very, very tough place," Ben-Asher told AFP.

Mr. Leshem explains that they rejected from the outset the offer of an American studio to make "Bad Boy" in English. "We wanted to have the freedom to do it in the most authentic way possible."

Subtitles no longer sound the death knell for TV series: the worldwide success of series like "Narcos" and "Squid Game" testifies to the fact that the public is not afraid to consume content in a language other than their own.

"That's the strength of television today. Different stories can travel easily," Ben-Asher said.

"All the Light We Cannot See," which will air on Netflix on Nov. 2, tells the story of a blind French girl and a young German soldier whose lives collide in the occupied French city of Saint-Malo, and under bombs.

Director Shawn Levy at the premiere of "All The Light We Cannot See" at the Toronto Film Festival on September 10, 2023 in Canada © Robert Okine/Getty/AFP/Archives

Director Lulu Wang, known for her film "Farewell," chose to unveil the penultimate episode of "Expats" rather than the first, saying there were "several possible ways to approach a story."

In the series based on the novel "The Expatriates" by Janice Y.K. Lee, Nicole Kidman plays an American mother who experiences a family tragedy.

The broadcast of "Expats" is scheduled for 2024 on Prime Video.

Nicole Kidman and Mark Ruffalo did not attend the premieres, as Hollywood actors and screenwriters are still on strike.

© 2023 AFP