“This was one of the best editions of Mipcom in recent years”, Laurine Garaude, director of the Television Division of Reed Midem was pleased to declare at the end of the Cannes entertainment market held from October 8th – 11th.
This was confirmed by the figures: 12,900 delegates, 4,400 of which were buyers, from 104 countries.
There were rises in particular for Latin America (with 36% more participating companies), China (+ 30%), South Korea (+ 12%), Canada and the United States (+11%). The effervescence of the international visitors – both the historic and up-and-coming players – acted as a counterpoint to the “calmness” of the Italians in the Cannes Palais.
In fact, the satisfaction for the return, alongside the APT [Association of Italian Television Producers], of the ICE in its new guise as the “Agency for the foreign promotion and internationalization of Italian businesses”, cooled when it became apparent that the Italian pavilion had not recovered the space lost due to the public body’s absence at the last two editions. Space was thus rather cramped for the 26 companies without a stand that had gathered under the ICE “umbrella”.
The most dynamic Italian companies were the ones involved in animation which has a greater vocation for internationalization. So Iginio Straffi’s Rainbow, whose “Winx” has reached the 5th series, now travels around the worldwith partners of the caliber of Nickelodeon, Kid’s Warner Brothers, Disney and Cartoon Network.
Mondo TV also enjoyed a high profile at Mipcom. The company has recently launched itself in the United Arab Emirates by co- producing the series ‘Modesh’ with DEPE of Dubai, and has entered into an agreement with Turner Broadcasting for the distribution of the “Gormiti”: at Cannes it presented a new series, “The Drakers”, co-produced with Ferrari (inspired by the “world of Ferrari”), which will be ready for fall 2013.
Naturally Mipcom also featured the presence of Atlantyca, the transmedia company famous for creating the “Geronimo Stilton” publishing phenomenon (75 million books sold in 150 countries and translated into 36 languages), which has also generated two successful television series distributed in over 50 countries.
The international nature of the brand from the company founded by Pietro Marietti has also made it possible for Atlantyca to distribu- te a Russian produced series at Cannes, “The Fixies”, aimed at Europe, Malaysia, Singapore and Korea.
With regard to distribution, probably the most interesting new feature was the Croisette debut of Aldebaran Distribution, the first “pure” distribution company: “Our sole aim”, Anna D’Alessandro, who set up the company with her partner Cristina Angelucci, a licensing expert, told Cinema & Video International, “is to distribute Italian excellence expressed through animation products all over the world”
The initial results are very promising: at Can- nes Aldebaran presented a catalogue that was filled with historical Italian animation brands such as The Animation Band (“Lupo Alber- to”, “Stefi”, “Spaghetti Family”), Enanimation (“Uffa! Che pazienza”), Gertie Production (“Penny X”, “About Love”) and a young com- pany from Naples, MAD Entertainment (“La cantata dei pastori”, currently in production).
TRENDS/Weinstein, Campion, Spacey: is Tv better?
“When you look where the most interesting plot lines, storylines and characters are, it’s in television”. These are the words of Kevin Spacey who is at Mipcom to present the TV series, “House of Cards”, made for Netflix, directed by David Fincher, in which he stars alongside Robin Wright.
Drawing attention to the greater creative opportunities that TV offers compared to cinema, Spacey was in good company at Mipcom: “TV is such an exciting area at the moment and movies are shrinking to some extent” sayd producer Harvey Weinstein, who was launching a live show, “The World Dance Award”, the new program from the TV division that The Weinstein Company is planning to expand.Oscar winner Jane Campion, presenting “Top of the Lake” (See Saw Films, Screen Australia, Screen NSW, Fulcrum Media Finance per BBC, UKTV, Sundance Channel and BBC Worldwide), a TV series consisting of six one hour episodes that she has created and directed, said: “I think feature films can be quite conservative and of course television too, but we were lucky enough to meet up with Ben Stephenson of BBC2 and get the support of See Saw Films who gave us all the freedom we needed to express ourselves. It was also a luxury to be able to tell a long story. I love novels. I like having long relationships with characters and I love the idea of watching something and living with it for a while”. “The Walking Dead”, one of the ‘hottest’ current TV series, was one of the protagonists of the “Creative Talks”. It was presented as the first TV series to have had a film type launch, i.e. same day and date in 120 countries (by Fox and AMC), also thanks to its clear ‘cinematographic feel’.
