MIA audiovisual market launches Animation Forum for 2022

MIA – International Audiovisual Market returns to Rome, Italy for this 8th edition from October 11-15, complete with an MIA digital platform allowing registered attendees to access live and on-demand sessions. Created by ANICA (Italian Association of Cinema, Audiovisual and Digital Industries) and APA (Association of Audiovisual Producers), the event continues to grow year on year, welcoming more than 2000 professionals from industry in 2021 and reviewing over 500 projects submitted this year from 65 countries.

The 2022 market will launch an exciting new section dedicated to Animationorganized by an all-female team (Maia Tubiana, Carla Vulpiani, Daniela Di Maio and Sabrina Peruca), alongside the already existing editorial divisions dedicated to Doc&Factual, Drama and Film. The category covers both episode and feature film projects seeking co-production partners, buyers and financial backers.

For its first edition, the Animation co-production market and presentation forum has selected 13 projects from 12 countries. These projects include TV series, standalone films and feature films, and were selected for their strengths in terms of visual assets, script and strength in terms of story and financial structure, and they closely mirror the major macro-domains of animation co-production. in Europe. The market showcases early-stage projects as well as previously announced projects looking to close the final funding gap and finalize development.

The selection committee composed by Mounia AramFounder & Distributor of MA Company (France); Simon CrowFounder and CEO of SC Distribution International (UK); Cecile PadulaVP, Kids & Family, Brand Head South Europe Middle East & Africa at Paramount (Italy); Claudia Schmidthead of children’s and family entertainment at Beta Films (Germany); Kristel Toldsteppstudio manager and producer at Afilm (Estonia).

Among the selected projects, Italy will be represented by Sergio Manfio The Black Diamond Race, developed by Gruppo Alcuni and produced by Francesco Manfio; a period pre-teen series set in the midst of early 21st century modernism and Studio Movimenti featuring Flydog by Giorgio Scorza and Davide Rosio, a series that follows the paths of contemporary storytelling artists and underground pop culture heroes — promising to be far from politically correct.

A strong female project in both direction and production comes from Denmark, in the feature film by Copenhagen Bombay I am Helendirected by Karla von Bengtson and produced by CEO Sarita Christensen, named one of the world’s 25 executives to watch by Animation Magazine in 2015.

From Amsterdam’s Submarine, a production company and studio with an animation roster under its belt that includes a host of award-winning films and series, comes echo boy, a romantic sci-fi thriller about a cynical teenager determined to solve the murder of her parents committed by Echo, a faulty humanoid robot designed to serve. The adaptation of Matt Haig’s novel of the same name is produced by Submarine co-founder Femke Wolting.

France, a leading country in animation production, will be represented by Sacrebleu Productions with Felix! He knows how to explain everything!, a comic, adventurous and mysterious series about little Félix and his incredible stories, created by Thomas Leclercq, Lucas de Thier & Ludovic Lefebvre, produced by Ron Dyens. And Laïdak Films will present the feature film Twist and turn the wishing well (by Hugo de Fautcompret, produced by Ivan Zuber), based on the winner of the Special Jury Special TV Prize at Annecy and nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, Mom falls in the rain.

Elsewhere in the program, MIA will showcase, through the prism of co-production examples, one of the world’s most interesting and under-explored markets, Africa, in the Defining global markets panel, where speakers will discuss a new vision of the international audiovisual landscape from the perspective of South African and Ghanaian animation producers. Among them will be Mounia Aram (MA Company), Sithembiso Mpehle (Tshimologong) and Francis Y. Brown (AnimaxFYB), which will explain how to navigate the global animation industry.

The additional step selections are:

Anselmo Wannabe by Massimo Ottoni (Italy/Portugal)
Produced by Federico Turani (Ibrido Studio)

Beelzebub by Samppa Kukkonen (Finland)
Created by JP Ahonen, produced by Tehri Väänänen (Pajama Films)
The breath of the mountain by Lorenzo Latrofa (Italy)
Produced by Alessandro Borrelli (La Sarraz Pictures)
Comrades by Olivier Patté (France/Poland/Belgium/Luxembourg)
Produced by Maria Blicharska (Blick Productions)

Fio Lina and the maestro (Swiss)
Produced by Sarah Born (Catpics)
No pets! (Italy/Spain/Poland)
Produced by Boris Bertolini (Nuvole e strisce)
Sidi Kaba and the front door by Rony Hotin (France/Luxembourg/Belgium/Germany)
Produced by Sebastien Onomo (Special Touch Studio)