No one believes me when I tell them that, for one week in April, Denver becomes the center of the television universe. A Brigadoon for Schmigadoons.

I’m still not entirely sure why Denver, but it’s been happening for 11 years now, so I’m just going with the Mile High flow here.

SeriesFest has become a very big deal for the city and the local entertainment industry.

By the end of what is essentially a fun and fully public film festival for independent episodic TV, about 15,000 people will have attended sneak-peek screenings of about 60 developing drama and comedy series that have hopes of coming soon (or returning) to a streaming service near you. It mostly plays out at the Sie Film Center.

There will also be parties, panels, awards and other activities, like an indie-film talk with the head of the Boulder-bound Sundance Film Festival, an “innovation talk” with the top exec at Universal Television, and a chat about AI with the unions that make the movies.

There will be several show-specific chats with casts and crews. One is “Cooper’s Bar,” which is itself a SeriesFest success story. SeriesFest has been the launching pad for more than a dozen independent projects that later secured mainstream distribution.

If you’ve never been, you should toe-dip (or cannonball) your way into what has become a most unique stop on the local cultural calendar. But like any robust festival, you have so many options that making a plan might seem overwhelming. So here’s a rundown of recommended SeriesFest events you might want to check out through May 4.

The party kicks off Tuesday at Red Rocks with a night of comedy headlined by Amy Schumer. She rose to stardom for her comedy but has emerged as a remarkable dramatic stage and screen actor who clearly can still make people laugh. Case in point: Her new Netflix comedy “Kinda Pregnant,” a film about a spiraling woman who accidentally falls for her dream guy when she accidentally puts on a fake baby bump.

Appearing with Schumer at Red Rocks will be Mia Jackson (“Life & Beth”) and Jaye McBride (“Netflix is a Joke”), with music from local bands The Honey Empire and the Voices Rock! choir.

The big-ticket event of the week is Friday night’s “SeriesFest Soirée,” where badass “Better Call Saul” star Rhea Seehorn will receive the fest’s Excellence in Acting Award for her body of work.

Seehorn is the creator and executive producer of “Cooper’s Bar,” which was introduced at SeriesFest in 2020, was then picked up by AMC Networks, launched on AMC+ in 2024, and quickly earned Seehorn her third Emmy Award nomination (following two for playing Kim Wexler in “Better Call Saul”). Next, she will star in an upcoming untitled Vince Gilligan Apple TV+ series.

Also Friday, both Michael Peña (“The Shield”) and Allen Leech (“Downton Abbey”) will accept the fest’s Impact in Television Award. (They both also speak on a panel at 1 p.m. Friday.) Jason Ritter (“Matlock”) will receive the Distinguished Artist Award, and the 2025 Impact in Television Award will go to Britain’s Carnival Films.

The party starts at 6 p.m. at Asterisk, 1075 Park Avenue West.

Separate but equal, a special “Cooper’s Bar” screening will take place at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, giving fans advance peeks at Episodes 4, 5, and 6 from Season 2.

A lot of Denver-bound names you won’t recognize, but they are the real power behind the cameras. Showrunners Carla Kettner (“Alert: Missing Persons Unit”); Barbie Kligman (“Doc”), Daniel Lawrence Taylor (“Boarders”), Eric Ledgin (“St. Denis Medical”), Audrey Morrissey (“Live Animals”) will comprise a panel called “Leading the Narrative: Inside the World of Showrunners” at noon Saturday.

Other panels and workshops will address the future of storytelling, the power of media and identity and how to craft compelling pitches. Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez will take part in “Inside the Indie Ecosystem: Film, TV and Festivals,” which will explore the interconnected forces that drive the storytelling landscape today. (10 a.m. Thursday)

Marquee screening: ‘Sunny Nights’

Will Forte (“Saturday Night Live”) and D’Arcy Carden (“The Good Place”) star in “Sunny Nights,” about a strait-laced man who teams with his loose-cannon sister to start a spray-tan business in Sydney – but they become tangled up in the criminal underworld. Creators Nick Keetch and Ty Freer will be in attendance for the 8 p.m. Wednesday screening.

Maury Povich, podcaster

From the “bet you didn’t see this coming” department, Maury Povich is coming for a live taping of his new podcast “On Par with Maury Povich.” The longest-running daytime talk-show host in TV history will chat with political journalist Jessica Yellin about the (regrettable) evolution of media. (2:30 p.m. Saturday)

And the ACLU podcast “At Liberty” will turn the microphone on host W. Kamau Bell for a live taping led by comedian Mo Fry Pasic talking with Bell about political comedy at this American moment. (5:30 p.m. Wednesday)

Marquee screening: ‘The Four Seasons’

Italian-born Marco Calvani, who will make his U.S. acting debut in Tina Fey’s upcoming Netflix series “The Four Seasons” alongside Steve Carell, Colman Domingo and Will Forte, will receive SeriesFest’s “Breakthrough Actor” award at a 2 p.m. Thursday screening of the show. He will be joined by co-showrunner and co-writer Tracey Wigfield. The show is based on the 1981 film of the same name.

Here’s the pitch

A signature event of every SeriesFest is “Pitch-A-Thon,” where dreamers are invited to present their ideas before a panel of industry bigwigs. Where else can independent content creators go before top executives in the hope of moving their unproduced projects forward? (Nowhere. That’s where.) It’s a fascinating and inspiring thing to watch. One of the experts who will offer feedback is actor and producer Lisa Ann Walter, who plays Melissa Schemmenti on ABC’s top comedy “Abbott Elementary.” That’s at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. She will be back at 4:15 p.m. Thursday for another panel called “The Evolving Role of Actors in Television.”

Who else is coming to Denver?

Some of the actors who will be visiting SeriesFest to screen or panel include Tawny Cypress of “Yellowjackets” (she’s a Coloradan living in Conifer), Jocko Sims (“Grosse Pointe Garden Society”); Stephen Moyer (“Art Detectives”); Cooper Raiff (“Hal & Harper”); Mayan Lopez (“Lopez vs. Lopez”) Louis Mustillo (“Cooper’s Bar”). Other showrunners and executives include Justin Spitzer (“St. Denis Medical”); Patrick Macmanus (“Devil In Disguise”); Benoit Marchisio (“Enjoy”) and Kit Williamson (“Unconventional”).

Also making the rounds will be Gov. Jared Polis, who is in large part responsible for Colorado recently guaranteeing $5 million in annual tax incentives through 2029 for companies that film in the state and hire locally. 

Fertility Now!

A block of digital shorts will be packaged for screening at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday (April 30) at the Sie. One to watch is MotherEarth Inc., a feminist comedy that follows a young entrepreneur who starts a dating app for people who don’t want to have kids because of climate change — only to find out she’s pregnant.

“Surprisingly, developing the project made me realize I wanted to have kids of my own despite all the negativity in our world, so I’ll be attending the festival with my 10-week-old son,” said filmmaker Isabel Siragusa. It stars Nandini Bapat of “Silicon Valley” and “Abbot Elementary.”

At 3:30 p.m. Thursday, comedian Sarah Adelman (“Game Theory”) will introduce a world-premiere screening of her new digital series “Busted!” It follows the true story of an impulsive scientist at an elite New York City sperm bank who’s secretly moonlighting as a raunchy stand-up comedian. Also featuring “Saturday Night Live” cast member Emil Wakim and Emmy Award-winner Judy Gold (“Life & Beth”). Co-creator and director Emily Everhard is an award-winning filmmaker from Colorado. Her sister, Sophie, plays a supporting role. 

Online auction

SeriesFest has added an auction component that is unusual because it’s loaded with items you might actually want, including a signed Nikola Jokic basketball, a signed Cale Makar hockey stick and an Epiphone acoustic-electric guitar signed by Nathaniel Rateliff and (all of) The Night Sweats. Also offered are taping and on-set experiences at “Bridgerton,” Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live!’ “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune.” Also: VIP tickets and backstage passes to a live “Pod Meets World” show June 4 at Denver’s Paramount Theatre. Tons more at seriesfest.com/soiree.

SeriesFest is also doing its first-ever Industry Expo on the backlot of the Sie Film Center on Saturday, May 3.