MIP Junior is now 25 years old! Yes you heard it right. The silver jubilee celebrations of MIP Junior started at JW Marriot Hotel, Cannes in France with some amazing sessions, screenings, conferences, panel discussions and loads of networking sessions. AnimationXpress India team was there to celebrate the junior version of world’s largest content market. There was a great participation from the Indian animation fraternity as well this year and we spoke and chatted with all of them about their plans. Well, we got a lot of breaking news from them about which we will talk later. Right now, let us go through some of the highlights of day one of MIPJunior on 14 October, 2017.
New Visitor Workshop
On 14 October, the content market’s day one started with a workshop for new visitors. Isabelle from Reed Midem says, “This is a very great MIPJunior so far. We have a lot of programs this year in the screening library. I am taking care of people who come here for the first time. Here we give tips on how to attend conferences, discuss with people about their experiences and know about the mistakes they make. It is always about learning.” People at MIP always have that care and empathy for the first timers who either lose their way or face difficulties. So if you lose your way, then relax. You will be helped with a sweet smile and a Bonjour!
Venues
The venues were named as conference room 1-Renoir, conference room 2-Renoir where there are close seated chats and discussions. There was also CR-Grand Theatre-1 where all the big screenings, panel discussions happened. Screening room one and two were the places specifically reserved for the buyers and sellers so that they can watch a new IP and give their points. The whole thing can be seen at the screening lists, email points report afterwards. There were private meeting tables, a networking lounge on the lobby and a rooftop place for networking as well. Overall it was a closed focussed market targetting mostly animation industry.
International Trends
This year, the number of programs screened has grown to 1400 and undoubtedly has been growing every year. The event was for two days from 14 to 15 October, 2017 at JW Marriot Cannnes with 1600 executives from 50 plus countries and around 700 buyers. There were strategic keynotes, worldwide premieres, international pitch and match making sessions.
Zokast Kids TV
On day one, Zoland Animation (China) launched Zokast Kids TV, an SVOD for kids in partnership with M.E.I Group (France). The service caters to children from all ages, offering up to 1,000 hours in multiple languages. It will be launched late this year first in South East Asia with English and Chinese languages and subsequently the roll-out will include North America and the rest of the world with additional languages in French, German, Italian, Neutral Spanish and Dutch.
Fox/NatGeo Latin America acquisitions director Ana María Nunez said, “Buying for kids you have to move in advance, at the origin of the product. If it is already finished, it is not so good if it is still available.” Atresmedia, Spain acquisitions director Javier Uriarte said, “In kids we like the transgressor series, as Netflix’s Rick and Morty. We are re-branding our DTT Neox with a three-hour slot for kids.”
Eurodata TV
Eurodata TV worldwide head of content insight Avril Blondelot addressed the audience about Binge Watching session: Kids Success across the globe. She also announced Eurodata TV ‘s worldwide launch of NoTa Kids. It is a new content monitoring service for younger audiences covering eight countries and 77 TV channels, plus Amazon and Netflix. She said, “Discovery, family, imagination, fun are the four key trends in 2017.” Indeed we agree to it!
We Kids
The MIPJunior networking lunch was organised by We Kids. Founder and CEO Sean Chu welcomed everyone and thanked 220 producers and distributors who licensed their properties to We Kids. He welcomed opportunities for acquisition, pre-buying, gap financing, co-productions. Big news is that it is organising an animation incubator competition to discover innovative Chinese talent making creative properties for the global market. Interested participants can submit animated shorts from January 2018 onwards. The winners will get deals with Nelvana, We Kids and Toon Boom.
Hey there are lot more news left from the MIP Market, Cannes! Au Revoir.