New Frontiers of Storytelling for producers and broadcasters who are growing increasingly hungry for content that evolves, taking on different forms.
This is how Laurine Garaude, director of the Television Division of Reed Midem explains the theme of the upcoming Miptv, the Cannes entertainment market which will take place from 3rd to 6th April 2017.
The attention is all on Drama, given also that next year, at Miptv 2018, the first edition of the Cannes International Series Festival will be launched. is new festival, which was initiated by the Mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, will take place alongside Miptv and is also backed by Reed Midem, with Canal Plus as a partner.

The Mip Drama Screenings will return for the second year, “this year we will have two categories: there will be six ‘works in progress’, and another six of which the whole first episode will be shown (compared to only twenty minutes last year). We are also expecting even higher attendance, with over 450 buyers (versus 350 last year), and 700 participants in total”, declares Garaude, going on to explain that whereas on one side this ‘hunger for content’ is directed towards the so-called ‘high end’ series, i.e. of greater quality and with heavy investment, on the other it is directed towards the production of programs with a short format, for digital, mobile and internet consumption.
“Buyers and commissioners are increasingly interested in formats that range from just a few to ten minutes: this year we are launching the Digital Short Form Pitch, a brand-new forum for the creators and producers of digital native short form series that will feature two categories, Drama (all genres), and Kids’ Content (animation and youth live action, ages 6-11).”

There is also a lot of excitement about the content for younger viewers:
“For the rst time we will be hosting a world premiere screening for kids programming, we expect over 13,000 buyers and a very large presence of kids programming executives; the Emmy Kids Awards will return and we will have a new conference track “The Future of Kids”.
We had previously organized a summit on this topic, but it was closed door event, for VIPs only. This year it will be open to everybody, and will deal a lot with digital innovation, short forms and virtual reality.”
VR is another important new feature of this edition of Miptv, with a dedicated summit that will gather together the biggest influencers involved in VR today, “virtual reality has a crucial impact on the production of content, so we are laying the foundations for building a marketplace on VR,” continues Garaude.

The section dedicated to brands is also growing in importance with PepsiCo as the ‘brand of the year’, and Adam Harter, vice president of Marketing and Cultural Connections, who will be giving a keynote speech entitled “A New Era of Brand Storytelling”,where he will discuss unique integrated brand marketing best practices, including Pepsi’s recent partnership with the hit TV series “Empire”.
“We will organize lots of conferences and match-making events for brands, even inside the Mip Digital Fronts, now in its fourth edition.”

A new match-making event will also be held at Mip Doc, the two days dedicated to documentaries that precede Miptv and which, in addition to the packed library of nished products, will pay even more attention to co-productions:
“ There will be an event dedicated to co-productions, with 30 guests made up of buyers and commissioners: 2 hours of match-making for documentary producers. then, as usual, the International Pitch will return and, for the third year, the International co-production summit.”