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Toledo, Spain — Less than a decade ago, the number of international premium series, beyond its telenovelas, coming out of Portugal each year could be counted on one hand. Following, 20 titles from Portugal being moved at this week’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment where Portugal is one of its Focus Countries. Wide raging and ambitious, the titles confirm Portugal’s TV revolution.

“Aquarium,” (West Coast, Portugal)

From the Azores-based doc producer West Coast, driving into fiction from 2023, a social dramedy inspired by the 2003 best-seller “Tomorrow at the Same Time, Diary of a Portuguese Stripper).” Leila, 30, abandons days as a marine biologist for nights as the first Portuguese stripper at the prestigious Medusa Club. Written by Brazil’s Marina Schneider, “‘Aquarium’ questions what it is to be a woman today, through the critical and oneiric eyes of two young Brazilian authors,” say directors Stella Carneiro, writer of comedy “Golden Shower,” and Portugal’s Saul Neves and Virgílio Ferreira.

In a move that could suggest the start of a promising future for Portuguese telenovelas in Spain, sales house Onza Distribution has sold primetime hit soap “Cacau” (“Cacao”) to Mediaset España, one of the country’s two big commercial free-to-air broadcasters.

Premiering Jan. 15 in Portugal via broadcaster Tvi, the telenovela scored a standout 19.5% audience share on its debut. Since then, it continued leading Portuguese TV primetime, averaging a 19% viewership share.

“Cacao” is produced by leading Portuguese telenovela outfit Plural Entertainment for Tvi. Following its remarkable track record, Mediaset España inked with Onza to air “Cacao” on its thematic channel Divinity.

Set in a cocoa plantation in Itacaré (Brazil), the telenovela follows a young girl of Portuguese family named Cacao – played by actress Matilde Reymão – who makes chocolate with exotic flavors.

Her life changes when the man who seemed to be her biological father, Joaquim – actor Paulo Calatré – reveals her true...