DUANJU  NEWS

Note: Despite their similar names, shortflix.net and Shortflix India are two separate entities with no known connection to each other, and their activities and operations differ. The information presented in this article relates exclusively to shortflix.net. The international expansion of duanju is also beginning to raise new issues surrounding distribution rights. Several series originally released on official platforms now appear to be republished on third-party websites without clear attribution or any identifiable licensing agreement. This is notably the case for the French series Les aventures avec ma voisine, also distributed under its English title Next Door Adventure. Produced by Sanjorge Production, the series was recently found on the platform shortflix.net without any known authorization from the production company. According to information obtained by Duanju News, Stardust TV has reportedly confirmed its intention to initiate legal proceedings against shortflix.net. Other platforms also appear to be affected by the situation, as their catalogs are referenced on the platform, including FlickReels, ReelShort, DramaShorts, CandyJar, NetShort, ShortTV, DramaTV, MinuteDrama and FlexTV. Unlike simple indexing websites, shortflix.net directly monetizes the series available on its platform, using a model similar to that of official microdrama applications. This situation comes at a time when some creators are already facing automated copyright claims on official platforms. As a result, identifying rights holders within the international duanju ecosystem could become a significant issue for the industry. With the global rise of the vertical format, the protection of creative works, licensing rights, and the unauthorized circulation of content could quickly become a major challenge for the duanju industry.

Ranking of YouTube Channels Offering Duanju (also known as Micro Drama) Based on Subscriber Count, as of May 12, 2026. By clicking on the channel name below, you can access it directly. Rank Name YouTube Subscribers 1 DramaBox 14,2M 2 ReelShort 13,7M 3 DramaWave 5,3M 4 NetShort 5,08M 5 GoodShort 1,72M 6 My Drama 1,29M 7 StardustTV 885K 8 Drama Bites 665K 9 ShortMax 632K 10 PineDrama 563K 11 SnackShort 535K 12 MoboReels Shorts 530K 13 Story TV 508K 14 KALOS TV 470K 15 Vigloo 402K 16 HoneyReels 294K 17 DramaPops 190K 18 ZeroShort 157K 19 Best Short Series Collection 152K 20 SHRT - Short Drama & Movies 148K 21 Drama flow 133K 22 Cool Drama 130K 23 JoyReels 128K 24 LoveShots 125K 25 ShortsWave Official 122K 26 DomiReel 106K 27 SaltyTV 102K An omission? Contact our editorial team: studio-phoceen@hotmail.fr

Harlequin, one of the world's largest romance publishers and a subsidiary of HarperCollins, will adapt 40 of its stories into duanju series as part of an agreement signed with Dashverse. The productions will be broadcast on DashReels, a platform specializing in vertical mobile series. The partnership envisions animated adaptations from the Harlequin catalog, built over decades around popular romance. The publisher boasts a massive library of titles already familiar to an international audience, with characters, worlds, and narrative conventions easily adaptable to the short-form mobile format. The stories will be divided into short, vertical episodes, following the model popularized by DramaBox, ReelShort, and ShortMax. Dashverse, for its part, is leveraging Frameo, its AI-powered production tool, to accelerate episode production and content distribution. The agreement directly connects a major intellectual property holder with a specialized vertical distribution platform. The industrial appeal of the partnership lies primarily in Harlequin's scale. The company has been publishing romance novels worldwide for over 75 years and already possesses a catalog structured for serialization. The duanju model allows existing novels to be transformed into ongoing mobile content without starting from scratch in terms of editorial development. The convergence between traditional publishing and vertical drama platforms is becoming increasingly visible. Catalogue owners are now seeking formats capable of quickly producing high-volume mobile adaptations. Sources: • Harlequin – March 30, 2026 • Publishers Weekly – March 30, 2026 • C21Media – March 31, 2026

The screening of the series King Gandolfi took place on May 7, 2026, in Toulon at the Chalucet Media Library, as part of the MEDSERIES Club. Organized by Quattrocento in partnership with the City of Toulon, the event offered an immersion into several formats of contemporary serialized storytelling on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival. Presented as the opening screening, King Gandolfi is an offbeat medieval comedy series following a King confronted with trials involving mystery, honor, and power. Between a sacred medallion, betrayals, and unexplained disappearances, each situation contributes to building the legend of a ruler as unpredictable as he is unsuited to his own role. Filmed in the south of France, the series makes use of numerous natural and historical locations, including the Roquefavour Aqueduct in Ventabren, the Château de Tarascon, Daudet’s Mill in Fontvieille, the calanques of Marseille, the Mill of Régusse, and the Saracen tower of Cournonterral. Created by Guillaume Sanjorge, the series features Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Marthe Villalonga, Laurent Artufel, Anthony Joubert, Michel La Rosa, Stéphane Martinet, Sébastien Bugeja, Cyril Etesse, François Viette, Rémi Barrero, Nicolas Tacussel, Roger Nicolas, Jordan Deluxe, Karine Lima, Claudia Notte, Alexandre Thibault, Aurèle Barbieri, Sami Bentayeb, Gérald Michiara, and Raphael Forte. Designed for mobile viewing with short episodes, King Gandolfi was presented as a work adapted to the Duanju format, a model of vertical mini-series particularly popular in China. The screening highlighted how the South of France region is currently experimenting with new hybrid audiovisual formats combining digital distribution and theatrical experience. The MEDSERIES Club program continued with Buddy Bob, a mini-series written and directed by Anne Loriot, followed by Paoliwood, a series recounting the ambitious attempt to introduce Pascal Paoli to Mel Gibson. Together, the screenings offered more than two hours of programming blending humor, intimate storytelling, and projects deeply rooted in Mediterranean cultures. Guillaume Sanjorge and Michel La Rosa at MEDSERIES How MEDSERIES discovered the Duanju format Even before watching King Gandolfi among the projects submitted to the MEDSERIES Club, one of the festival organizers recalls hearing about these Chinese mini-series for the first time in a context completely unrelated to the professional Duanju industry. During a casual conversation, someone described these short-form series watched on smartphones during daily commutes. A few hours later, upon discovering King Gandolfi among the selected works, he realized that the series perfectly matched this rapidly emerging narrative format.

Jen Cooper, a key figure in Duanju in England and founder of Vertical Drama Love, organized a physical awards ceremony in Los Angeles dedicated to the format: the Vertical Drama Love Fan Awards. The event took place on April 23, 2026, at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, a venue with a capacity of 350 people, bringing together creators, actors, platforms, and audiences around vertical productions. The ceremony relies on an international fan voting system, with participation from over 100 countries, and a selection focused on content actually viewed on the apps. Among the talents showcased were Eric Guilmette, Noah Fearnley, Sam Myerson, Nicole Mattox, Mariah Moss, and Seth Edeen, all from the American microdrama ecosystem. Holding a physical event in Hollywood marks a significant milestone. Duanju series are gaining public recognition, adopting codes similar to those of the audiovisual industry: ceremonies, awards, and increased visibility for talent. The awards ceremony extends distribution and enhances the value of certain productions. The duanju format is thus beginning to organize itself in the United States with its own dedicated events, supported by recognizable creators and actors, within a developing Western market.

In the ecosystem of the new "Duanju" format, certain trajectories are as important as the series themselves. Magali Semetys is one of those French actresses whose experience lends credibility to a script still under construction. Accustomed to the rhythms of television and the demands of cinema, she applies her expertise to a shorter, more direct, vertical narrative, where the performance must be immediately clear, and where every intention, every glance, every silence becomes a catalyst. Magali Semetys built her career in a style familiar to French audiences, with popular long-running series and regular television appearances, allowing her to firmly establish a character in viewers' daily lives. This experience becomes a particular asset when the narrative becomes more concise and everything has to unfold more quickly. Cinema, for its part, has taught her a different kind of depth: how to bring a role to life over the course of a film, with a different kind of precision, one that is specifically designed for the big screen. In 2024 and 2025, Magali Semetys attended the first two public screenings organized by the Studio Phocéen association in Paris, which presented this format for the first time in France, on November 23, 2024 , and June 14, 2025. Her presence at these two events contributed to raising the profile of a format that was still new to French audiences. Currently, Magali Semetys is involved in two series using the Duanju format. In Militiamen , she plays a police inspector tasked with interrogating the main characters: a tense and confrontational role designed to quickly bring contradictions to the surface, push the characters to reveal themselves, and drive the plot forward under pressure. Watch the series: Link In Amber , she plays the sister of a man haunted by the disappearance of the woman he loved. More ambiguous, more introspective, this character holds certain information about the disappearance and nurtures the idea of an incomplete truth. Watch the series: Link Two different styles, but the same narrative function: to be a turning point, the one that forces the protagonists to take a stand and propels the story forward. To learn more about Magali Semetys, listen to the podcast interview by Maëlle Billant, where she discusses her career.

France Télévisions is the main public broadcasting group in France. It operates several national channels and a free streaming platform, france.tv, which is primarily funded by public money. In addition, the group has a network dedicated to its overseas territories, called " La 1ère ," which produces and broadcasts local content in Africa, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific. The group is introducing two short, serialized series, specially designed to be broadcast directly on its platforms and social networks. The first is powered by Slash, a platform dedicated to 18-30 year olds. The videos are short, with a sequential narrative and regular releases. The series "P*tain de soirée" (Damn Party) is co-written and performed by Roman Doduik, in collaboration with editorial teams within France Télévisions. Distribution relies on Slash's social media accounts and those of the creator, with direct distribution on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. The second initiative is led by the Overseas Territories division of La 1ère. The series "L'île entre nous" (The Island Between Us) is produced in Guadeloupe and tells a romantic story between characters deeply rooted in the local community. Talents such as Axelle René and Gilles Saint-Louis are involved in its creation and production. The series is broadcast on Guadeloupe La 1ère's social media channels, with short episodes released sequentially, optimized for mobile viewing. During a presentation at the Media Club International on March 5, 2026, James Labbé, deputy director of content responsible for TV channels at the Overseas division of France Télévisions, explained that this project was initially launched independently before being fully integrated, due to its success. The content is accessible directly online, without going through linear broadcasting, with circulation ensured by platforms and social networks. Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge

In the south of France, in La Ciotat, the Eden Theatre , built in 1889, remains a unique place. Recognized as one of the birthplaces of cinema, it preserves the memory of the first moving images and the beginnings of audiovisual storytelling. It was here that the Lumière brothers, pioneers of cinema, filmed and screened, at the end of the 19th century, short sequences of a few dozen seconds that captured moments of everyday life. These films, intended to capture reality or to dramatize it, laid the foundations of a visual language and explored the possibilities of visual storytelling. At that time, cinema was, by its very nature, a short format. From the outset, filmmakers like Georges Méliès sought to go beyond mere filming by introducing visual effects, illusions, and transformed narratives, thus recomposing reality. This logic is extended today by digital technologies and artificial intelligence. More than a century later, a new short format has emerged internationally: the duanju, developed in China and often referred to as a "microdrama." However, this format cannot be reduced to a simple technical variation; its scope, economic models, and distribution methods define it according to its own logic, directly adapted to contemporary uses, particularly mobile viewing. The big screen structured its narratives. The telephone now constructs its own. It is within this dynamic context that the Eden Theatre, still active and in tune with the evolutions of the film world, recently hosted a talk by producer Guillaume Sanjorge. Having been involved in this format since 2023, he defended the idea of a new stage in the history of audiovisual storytelling, at the crossroads of uses and technologies. This reflection is part of a broader international dynamic, notably through the Global Traffic Conference 2026, organized in Shenzhen on April 23 and 24. The event brings together the main players in these emerging formats and demonstrates their rapid structuring on a global scale. Tickets for the Shenzhen event: https://baijing.cn/ui6v6

Launched by Chinese producer Wenwen Han , Short Drama Alliance (SDA) is an international platform dedicated to professionals of duanju, these vertical mini-series designed for smartphones. The Short Drama Alliance's mission is to connect creators from around the world, foster international co-productions, and make China's thriving short drama ecosystem more accessible. The platform offers: a free discussion space for authors, producers, translators and distributors, monthly reports on Chinese market trends (DataEye), guides, webinars and strategic analyses to better understand this new narrative language, a premium membership program for organizations wishing to access targeted resources and collaboration opportunities. To join the platform: www.shortdramaalliance.com #WenwenHan

The market for film photography is projected to reach nearly $5 billion by 2025. The "Camp Snap" camera, screenless and inspired by film photography, has sold over a million units. Companies are anticipating this shift. A segment of young people is turning away from traditional smartphone uses, despite the increasing image quality. Generation Z (born between 2000 and 2010) is beginning to adopt screenless cameras and rediscover film, in the United States, Europe, and Asia. This movement is part of social media fatigue, the quest for authenticity and slow media, as well as a return to analog ( analog revival ). For the past twenty years, social media has transformed the image into a tool for self-promotion. Photography is no longer simply about capturing a moment, but about producing a version of oneself in comparison to others. This performative image must be seen, validated, and compared, with demands akin to those of audiovisual professionals. The ego is constantly engaged, and sharing loses its logic of lived experience. With screenless cameras and film photography, there is no instant control, no retouching, and no immediate publication. The image regains its uncertain, delayed, imperfect character, freed from this pressure, like the photo albums of yesteryear. This situation can also be extended to online video on social networks. The dominant formats (Reels, Shorts) focus heavily on the individual in a selfie talking, mixing self-exposure, influence and reaction, and perpetuate a logic of short, self-centered and above all repetitive content for more than 15 years now. Recent criticism and litigation in the United States targeting platforms like Meta, accused of spreading videos harmful to young people's mental health, highlight the limitations of this model. Several court decisions and ongoing legal proceedings support users. The success of analog formats in photography signals an expectation that could also translate into a growing separation between the object of capture (the camera) and the object of dissemination (the phone screen), a trajectory particularly favorable to fiction professionals. A vast opportunity is also opening up for professional fiction adapted to phone screens. Formats that reintroduce narrative will restore the image of social networks. The user once again becomes a spectator of a story, remotely and without needing to represent themselves. It's a way to escape a space where the ego is constantly engaged. Article written by Guillaume Sanjorge #GuillaumeSanjorge