Mipcom 2015 news 4

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Thursday 8 October 2015

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PERSONALITIES OF THE YEAR

Industry luminaries gathered to honour Gary Newman and Dana Walden at the Carlton last night page 4

YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND

The photographer and film director Yann Arthus-Bertrand discussed his film Human at a packed session on social responsibility and the media page 10

OTT & GLOBAL TV SUMMIT

The closed-door OTT And Global Channel Strategy Summit found that user experience is key to successful content distribution page 14

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IN PICTURES

Fox Television Group’s Gary Newman and Dana Walden receive the first ever joint MIPCOM Personalities Of The Year awards from Reed MIDEM CEO Paul Zilk at the Carlton last night 197_ALL 3 MEDIA_N4_COM MIPCOM Stand R8.C20

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IN PICTURES Lea Michele (left), Gary Newman, Dana Walden and Claire Danes

Friends, colleagues and industry luminaries gathered at the Carlton for a gala dinner in honour of Dana Walden and Gary Newman

Sky’s Sarah Wright (left), 20th Century Fox Television’s Gina Brogi and BBC’s Sue Deeks

Jakob Mejlhede of Modern Times Group (left) with Disney’s Ben Pyne

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20th Century Fox Television’s David Smyth (left), with Endemol Shine Group’s Sophie Turner Laing and 20th Century Fox Television’s Scott Gregg

Kino Lorber’s Richard Lorber (left) and Constantin Film’s Gary Marenzi

The X-Files creator Chris Carter (left); 20th Century Fox Television Distribution’s Kristen Finney; The X-Files producer Gabe Rotter

Bruce L Paisner of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS) (left); Rola Bauer of StudioCanal; ProSiebenSat.1 Media’s Ruediger Boess

20th Century Fox Television’s Scott Davis (left), Roderick Molinare and Jose Luis Gascue

20th Century Fox London’s Kathryn Hubbard with Virginie Boireaux of 20th Century Fox Paris

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NEWS

MIPCOM Personalities examine Fox’s success stories and the latest X-Files Gary Newman: “grounded in authenticity”

Dana Walden: “great results come out”

AOL’s Nate Hayden

EVERYTHING IS GO FOR MOBILE CONTENT AT AOL AT WEDNESDAY’s keynote, AOL vice-president of originals and branded content, Nate Hayden, revealed that his job is remarkably similar to when he was working at FremantleMedia.

“What we do at AOL is much like any TV studio and I regularly work with the same people that I worked with previously, but of course there is a big difference in that our audience has different expectations,” he said.

“For example they relate just as much to influencers and YouTube stars like Nicole Richie as they do to more traditional celebs.”

Since Verizon acquired AOL, Hayden is also now working with a team that is purely focused on mobile viewers.

“Verizon’s Go90 project is amazing in that we have 150 million potential viewers, and for us the stigma of mobile content, that it is short and somehow sub-standard, is just wrong. We’re currently busy creating six scripted series for Go90, and the premium content strategy is hugely important for us.

“The main difference between content for mobile and traditional TV content is that it has a different dynamic because it has to establish an immediate connection with the audience.”

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OX Television Group cochairmen /CEOs Gar y Newman and Dana Walden used their MIPCOM Personalities Of The Year keynotes to cover topics including the decision to bring back The X-Files.

Speaking in the Grand Auditorium, Walden said: “An extensive show library gives people a chance to rediscover an old show and create a new appetite.

It’s all about whether the creators still have great stories to tell. If it feels like a story is not fully told, we’re definitely going to move forward with it.”

Fox will be hoping that The XFiles can have the same kind of success as breakout hit Empire.

Commenting on the genesis of that show, Newman said: “[The production team] came in and pitched the most specific characters in what felt like an incredibly authentic world. While it was heightened, at its core it was very grounded in authenticity.”

While there has been a lot of emphasis on serialised drama in recent times, Newman said that the age of the procedural “is definitely not over”.

“These things go in cycles. The procedural was so successful in

the US it’s inevitable people will get a little tired. But if a writer comes along with a great procedural that recreates the genre... we’re very interested.”

On sharing responsibilities with Newman for 16 years, Walden said: “Over time we found a great benefit in both our points of view: decision-making, running the business, seeing the future, managing personalities — there was so much benefit to having a partner. When there’s pressure or stress or tension in an organisation, and there’s one person you can sit in a room with and strategise, great results come out.”

Facebook’s tools of the trade for TV SOCIAL media giant Facebook has unveiled a series of tools that will enable broadcasters to link their live TV shows directly with the platform, which currently has more than 1.5 billion active monthly users.

Media Mastermind keynoter Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s vice-president EMEA, explained the tools’ development was inspired by the more than four billion daily video views recorded on the platform, 75% of which were via mobile devices.

“Television and Facebook are happy bedfellows. Some 85% of people on social media are on Facebook during live TV broadcast,” Mendelsohn said. “So we want to make it easier for broad-

Facebook’s Nicola Mendelsohn: “Television and Facebook are happy bedfellows”

casters to integrate with Facebook, especially during live TV.”

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Mendelsohn did not mention rival Twitter. But introducing the four new tools appears to be part of Facebook’s ambitions to outrun the micro-blogging pioneer in the second-screen race to win the most TV viewers.

The four tools comprise: Hashtag Voting and Polling, designed for shows requiring viewers’ participation; Native Polling, which invites viewers to be more immersive about their comments; the Photo and Video Submissions tool, which enables viewers to submit questions and comments in the form of photos and videos; and the Facebook Video Gallery, which offers programme producers different ways to curate the content submitted by viewers.

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NEWS Hollywood big hitters step up to event documentary challenge

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IG Hollywood names, including Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer, director Ron Howard, plus actors Angela Bassett and Morgan Freeman, are examples of the new

“super mega aspirational” factual filmmakers changing the face of documentary features.

That was the message from Liz Dolan in her keynote interview at Wednesday’s The Blue-Chip Legacy: Aspirational Megasession.

As executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at Fox International Channels (FIC), she is one of the influential commissioners and producers funding a new generation of “awe-inspiring” event documentaries.

Breakthrough is an anthology of one-hour factuals jointly commissioned by FIC sister company National Geographic Channel (NGC) and industrial conglomerate GE. Directed by Hollywood stars such as Howard, Bassett, Brett Ratner and Paul Giamatti, each one explores revolutionary sciences impacting our lives.

Meanwhile, Morgan Freeman is presenting and executive producing NGC’s The Story Of God, his quest to discover whether there really is an entity known as God. “It’s an important time for Big Science to be heard and for people to understand the world they live in,” Dolan said. “National

Liz Dolan of Fox International Channels

Filmmakers who make a difference “I LIKE being a thorn in people’s sides. I’ve realised film can make

a difference,” Pakistani filmmaker and activist Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy said at the Social Responsibility — Media’s Role In Creating And Provoking Global Change conference session.

Obaid Chinoy was Pakistan’s first Oscar winner — for Saving Face, about acid attacks on women, which helped to criminalise the practice — and her work has since touched on the thriving transgender scene in Karachi, indentured labour, pomipcom neWs 4 ®

Yann ArthusBertrand

lio and domestic terrorism.

She showed a clip of her latest film, about Pakistan’s traditional musicians, and a kids film that became Pakistan’s highest-grossing animation. “This film has very powerful messages about what girls can achieve, about corruption and nepotism,” she said.

“I always say Pakistan’s biggest assets are its kickass women,” she added. “I want to leave a better country for my daughters.”

Yann Arthus-Bertrand interviewed more than 2,000 people in 65 countries for his film Hu-

Geographic believes the power of science and storytelling can change the world.”

Another megasession keynoter was Anthony Geffen, CEO at UK-based Atlantic Productions, a company well-known for using the latest technologies, from smartphones to virtual reality.

He said he was astounded when US president Barack Obama requested the opportunity to interview David Attenborough, the celebrated British broadcaster and naturalist.

He also announced David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef, filmed 60 years after the octogenarian first made a film about the world’s largest coral reef.

Event dramas might be great revenue generators, but documentaries can reach more people, said keynoter Natalie Humphreys, controller of factual and daytime production at UK public broadcaster BBC. She said that for the $100m spent on blockbuster dramas like Netflix’s House Of Cards, “we made 80 to 100 hours of TV that reached three-quarters of the UK’s population”. man. “In a world torn between tradition and modernity, are our basic needs the same everywhere? What does it mean to be human?” Arthus-Bertrand asked.

“All the team was changed by the work and we hope the viewer will be changed too.”

The project, which has resulted in multiple versions of the film on multiple platforms, mostly available for free, was hailed as a model for how creatives, corporations and foundations can work together for good. “I’m an activist, and close to 70, I want to get to the essential. I don’t want to be light, and TV is so light often,”Arthus-Bertrand said.

The official MIPCOM daily newspaper Thursday 8 October 2015

Director of Publications Paul Zilk Director of Communication Mike Williams EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor in Chief Julian Newby Deputy Editor Debbie Lincoln Sub Editors Neil Churchman, Neil Crossley, Sarah Kovandzich Reporters Ben Cooper, Andy Fry, Emelia Jones, Juliana Koranteng, Max Leonard, Rachel Murrell, Gary Smith, Hannah Stephens, Joanna Stephens, Nigel Wilmott Editorial Management Boutique Editions Technical Editor in Chief Herve Traisnel Deputy Technical Editor in Chief Frederic Beauseigneur Graphic Designers Gaelle Daireaux, Veronique Duthille, Carole Peres Head of Photographers Yann Coatsaliou / 360 Medias Photographers Christian Alminana, Olivier Houeix, Michel Johner, Yohann Mortier. PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Publishing Director Martin Screpel Publishing Manager Amrane Lamiri Publishing Co-ordinator Emilie Lambert Production Assistant, Cannes Office Eric Laurent Printer Riccobono Imprimeurs, Le Muy (France). ADVERTISING CONTACT IN CANNES Silvia Ferreira: +33 (0)6 17 47 55 45 Reed MIDEM, a joint stock company (SAS), with a capital of €310.000, 662 003 557 R.C.S. NANTERRE, having offices located at 27-33 Quai Alphonse Le Gallo - 92100 BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (FRANCE), VAT number FR91 662 003 557. Contents © 2015, Reed MIDEM Market Publications. Publication registered 3 rd quarter 2015. Printed on FSC certified paper.

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Marco gives Cannes market a taste of his new Humble Pie

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ELEBR I T Y chef Marco Pierre W h it e, wh o fa mously drew attention to himself by throwing out customers if they asked for salt and pepper, is at MIPCOM to serve up Humble Pie, a new 8 x 60 mins format for Zodiak Rights.

Retiring from cooking in 1999, White now delights in being free to do as he wishes. “I have no reputation to uphold,” he said. “When I was a three-star Michelin chef I was always behind the stove, touching every plate with my fingers or my eyes. It was about integrity, conviction and belief.”

These attributes are key to a contestant’s victory on Humble Pie, produced by Fizz —

part of RDF Television. The show is a fusion of entertainment and cookery format, testing amateurs’ culinary skills, confidence and psychological strength.

Presented by Melanie Sykes and blind-judged by Marco Pierre White, four aspiring chefs battle it out for a cash prize. The twist is that after each round the competitors must ruthlessly critique each other’s dishes and then face a dilemma: whether to eliminate themselves and cashout for a smaller exit fee if they think Marco will have rated their dish the worst, or stay in the game for the big cash prize but risk going home emptyhanded.

“It really is gastronomic poker,” White said. “It is interesting to

Marco Pierre White: “gastronomic poker”

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observe people and see how convincingly they can present their argument — it’s a clever show.

“I was surprised at how some people lack faith in their own ability — and equally, how one or two of them are completely deluded! I believe this show has legs and I like the fact a family can enjoy watching it together.”

Hu mble P ie premieres on UKTV entertainment channel Wat ch t h is month.

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NEWS Bassem Youssef

ABU DHABI DRIVES CONTENT DELIVERY “WHY make our show in Abu Dhabi?” asked Egyptian satirist, cardiac surgeon and social-media superstar Bassem Youssef. “Because it got banned in Egypt.

Where we come from, a show can get closed down by a phone call.”

Youssef was speaking at yesterday’s session From Playgrounds To Galaxies Far, Far Away: Abu Dhabi Content Evolution.

Paul Baker, executive director film and TV services at Abu Dhabi-based media and entertainment hub twofour54, spoke about the UAE government’s efforts to develop Arabic content for television and digital screens through twofour54.

“Seven years from our launch, we’re growing a sustainable media and entertainment industry, and increasing the quality of Arabic talent,” he said.

“We’re talking to about 300 million people who speak the same language.”

Last month saw the return to television of Iftah Ya Simsim (Sesame Street), 25 years after its predecessor was closed down by Iraqi troops in the Gulf War. The show is produced by Blink Studios, one of the 380 partner companies working out of twofour54’s production complex. Overseas companies are welcome too, said Baker: “Bringing in big-name [projects] like Star Wars: The Force Awakens proves our ability to make world-class content.”

Panel shares clear thinking around OTT and 4K Ultra High Definition

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O D E R AT O R Chris Forrester introduced the OTT And 4K Ultra HD session yesterday by stressing the extreme importance of OTT to the industry and adding that in many markets, it is the only way people can access 4K content.

Arthur Mrozowski, vicepresident visual, NanoTech Entertainment, spoke of the vertical channel offerings of its UltraFlix, which boasts a colossal library of 4K content. “NanoTech has created one of the first attempts at solving an issue of getting 4K content,” he said, before going on to talk about converting the films of major studios and distributors. “The cost of conversion is significant and time consuming,” he said.

It was a point echoed by Berk Uziyel, executive director, SPI International, who said that SPI’s content has been approved by the studios and meets the standards of most 4K manufacturers.

“It’s already up and running and working, it’s already out there and we’re very proud to be able

Ericsson’s Kris Hardiman: “take advantage of OTT”

to say we’re one of the pioneers of starting with a 4K channel.”

Kris Hardiman, head of product marketing, Ericsson, detailed the findings of the company’s Results Consumer Lab Report, which concluded that HD is becoming

the new baseline expectation for quality, while 4K is arriving as the new premium paidfor service that will sit behind that. According to the report, 26% of respondents said that 4K is something they would consider paying for in future.

“We often talk about there being a deep, complementary relationship between 4K and OTT,” Hardiman said. “So is OTT the place for 4K? Commercially, yes it is right now.

It’s fair to say that 4K viewing numbers are still relatively small, certainly compared to all the content that’s out there.

So are you going to go out there right now and obtain a big chunk of that linear spectrum and wait for your audience to grow? Probably not.

Instead, you’re going to take advantage of OTT with that more on-demand approach to bandwidth utilisation.”

“OTT isn’t without its challenges for 4K distribution or even any distribution,” he concluded.

“Longer term, there is a cost consideration but as we’ve all talked about in different sessions, connectivity in the home is still something of a challenge.”

Social media to make the most of mobile YOUTUBE and other major social-media platforms like Facebook could lose youthful digital-native audiences because mobile is not at the centre of their service, implied speakers during Why Engaged Communities Matter More Than Ever In A Mobile First World?. This is because mobile-first platforms allow fans to communicate directly and this appeals to some of the world’s most popular creators.

The panelists explained how creators used Victorious, the mobile-first app network, to build more effective communities among their fans.

Diagonal View’s Matt Heiman: “a different type of conversation”

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“We recently picked up that mobile enables a different type of conversation with our users,” said Matt Heiman, founder of UK-based online and YouTube multichannel network (MCN) Diagonal View.

Ivor Crotty, head of social media at international news network Russia Today, said most of the traffic coming to its coverage of the journalists shot dead in Virginia while broadcasting on live TV came via mobile. And Virginie Maire, chief operating officer at French MCN Finder Studios, noted that it is easier for fans to share content via mobile.

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Legacy of a visionary chief lives on in Toei’s line-up

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OEI Animation returns to MIPCOM with the relaunch of international animation brand Dragon Ball in Dragon Ball Super (12 x 30 mins) and the ongoing pirate series One Piece (600+ x 26 mins).

“We are particularly excited about the new Dragon Ball series following Goku and friends confronting Beerus, the God of Destruction,” said Ryuji Kochi, Toei Animation Europe’s vice-president.

“We are in current negotiations with targeted European territories — namely France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK. As we established our subsidiary headquarters outside Japan over a decade ago — in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Paris — we already have strong connections across the internation-

Ryuji Kochi

The late Hiroyuki Kinoshita

Check out the MIPCOM Highlights • The deals • The stars • The conferences • The photos • The videos Available from Tuesday 20 October 2015

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al market; I think this gives us an advantage over our competitors.”

Kochi said the recent tragic loss of a visionary leader, Hiroyuki Kinoshita, Toei Animation’s executive director and president of all overseas operations, was a continuing challenge. “Hiroyuki Kinoshita had a pivotal role and precisely the right skills to ensure Toei Animation continues to expand globally, a wish of our president for 2015,” Kochi said.

“He had a wealth of knowledge about production and also its financial side — it’s extremely hard to replace a man like him so we continue to feel the impact.”

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NEWS

In the development of 4K Users need help to navigate factual will be ‘important’ growing OTT content maze

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Saint Thomas’ Bertrand Loyer

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ACTUAL output will be key to the development of the 4K production sector, according to Chris Forrester, the industry consultant who moderates MIPCOM’s 4K event stream.

Speaking during the 4K Ultra HD And Factual Output Session in the Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre he said: “Sport will lead the sector’s development, but factual will be very important.”

Forrester was joined on the 4K factual panel by Bertrand Loyer, president/producer of Saint Thomas Productions, who explained how his company focuses on “using 4K cameras in the most impossible places. We have used them to film hurricanes, to go underwater, in choppers, everywhere.”

Loyer was one of the first factual

E D N E SDAY ’s OTT And Global Channel Strategy Sum m it h ighlighted how enhancing user experience is a key issue for the development of successful content distribution.

Marcel Fenez of sponsor PwC said: “The future will be more of everything until people say they want less of everything.

There will be consolidation down the track and consumers will drive it.”

Hans van Rijn of Discovery Networks International added: “We have spoilt users in terms of the sheer volume of content available — anywhere-anytime access is great, but it’s also tiring.”

“Consumers are burdened by having to continuously navigate and make choices. We now need to find a way to bring a human touch to algorithmic recommendations — to better serve and curate our content.”

Discovery Communications has an average of 10 channels across more than 220 markets and van Rijn said a one-size-fits-all approach would inevitably fail.

“We tend to all look at the world in digital as ‘one’ — however, when you look at individual markets, it is clear that they are very different in terms of maturity,” he said.

Blue Ant Media’s Vanessa Case

producers to get into 4K production back in 2009. He said, “it is important because we want our programming to be evergreen. The good news is that 4K shooting is now almost the same price as HD.” The session also featured Torsten Hoffmann, CEO of 3D Content Hub, based in Australia, and Vanessa Case, executive vicepresident of content at Blue Ant Media.

Commenting on Blue Ant’s activities in 4K, Case said: “We are very committed to this space.

We made a commitment to produce 300 hours of 4K content and so far have delivered 150 hours across a range of subjects.

Another 120 hours is in various stages of production so we are well on our way to meeting our overall target.”

Opening the door on Russian film REED MIDEM and Russia’s Cinema Fund have extended their agreement to work together to promote Russian content in the international marketplace throughout 2016-18.

The deal will see the Cinema Fund co-ordinate the united Russian Cinema/Russian Animation stand and bring more companies to events, including MIPTV, MIPCOM, MIPJunior, MIPCancun and the Asia TV Forum.

Signing the deal, Reed MIDEM’s director of TV, Laurine Garaude, said: “We are honoured and delighted to sign this convention.

Russian films are of high quality, and we are proud to work together to continue to pro-

mote to the world the high creativity of Russian production at our events.”

Anton Malyshev, head of the Cinema Fund, added: “The Cinema Fund works to promote Russian cinema internationally and we are delighted that Reed MIDEM, one of the most authoritative organisers of global content markets, is joining our efforts. Together with Alexandra Modestova, the head of the Russian Cinema stand, we hope to help more people see and enjoy Russian cinema.”

The Cinema Fund, supported by the Russian Ministry of Culture, has organised the Russian Cinema stand since 2014.

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“We have a three-fold approach: in certain territories, we continue to work with our long-standing affiliate partners, growing together on their digital platforms, or we create specific platforms authenticated by our affiliates — we have done this most recently in Latin America with Discovery Kids. Also we do dip our toes in direct-to-consumer products.”

Discovery Networks’ Hans van Rijn

Laurine Garaude of Reed MIDEM and Anton Malyshev, head of the Russian Cinema Fund

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NEWS IN BRIEF • SPI International has signed a non-exclusive agreement with New Films International (NFI) that will bring the latter’s library to SPI’s worldwide channels. The NFI catalogue features Hollywood’s most celebrated movie stars and SPI now has non-exclusive TV and VOD rights to NFI content for a wide range of territories including CEE, CIS, Africa, Asia and Australia.

• Keshet International’s (KI) romantic comedy The Baker And The Beauty has been sold in a license deal which will see it adapted for Russian audiences and aired on broadcaster CTC. The local version is planned to air in 2016 and will be produced by Yellow, Black and White.

• Warner Bros. International Television Production has licensed the primetime factual entertainment format Life On Duty for audiences in Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands. The format was originally created by Gil Formats for Channel 10 (Israel).

• Studio 100 Media has sold two of its new properties to Finland.

Nelonen Media, part of Sanoma Media Finland, has acquired the rejuvenated series Nils Holgersson (52 x 13 mins) and the new CGI adventure comedy series The Wild Adventures Of Blinky Bill (52 x 11 mins).

Chris Evans plans to steer Top Gear in a brand new direction

Chris Evans (left) and The Stig in Cannes

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HE NEW host of the BBC’s Top Gear has described taking over the hit motoring show as a “formidable” challenge, adding that the team plans to “do things differently” when it returns to television.

Chris Evans, who was appointed after former hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May left earlier this year, is in Cannes to showcase the latest series. He said the new Top Gear would not follow the same structure as before, and would mainly be presented solo by him, although he did not rule out guest hosts.

Speaking to reporters in Cannes, Evans said: “Because they were brilliant at it, I’m not going to do that. So, one thing is for sure, there’s not going to be me and one guy there, and one

The QYOU is going global THE QYOU celebrates its first year on air with the announcement that it has secured distribution agreements in more than 30 countries across three continents, with new territories to be revealed soon.

Introduced at MIPCOM last year, The QYOU is a global 24/7 pay-TV service of curated, made-for-web video content for SVOD services. The company has signed carriage deals with pay-TV distributors Deutsche Telekom in Germany, StarTimes in sub-Saharan Africa, My-HD in the Middle East and North Africa, Skylink in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, TV Vlaanderen Digitaal in Belgium, CanalDigitaal and Online.nl in the Netherlands, and Eesti Telekom in Estonia.

The QYOU is now available in almost five million homes, with that number set to grow rapidly in 2016.

The QYOU’s on-air presenters are known as Q-rators

The global expansion has been fuelled by the extension of its service to a complete TV-everywhere ecosystem, including 24/7 ad-free linear channels, mobile and TV apps, and

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guy there, that’s not going to happen.

“We are going to keep some things that I like, and my kids like, and my friends like, and that I liked anyway, but we are not going to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

One of the show’s most distinctive features, the appearance of a racing driver who always wears a helmet to hide his identity, will be kept on in the new series. Known only as The Stig – attracting much speculation as to whether he is a famous racing driver – he appeared in Cannes alongside Evans yesterday.

Evans, who has enjoyed a long-running and successful career on UK television and radio, has signed a three-year contract with the BBC. The first series featuring Evans as host will run over eight episodes and is understood to be airing in the second quarter next year. localised programming for specific regional markets.

On the content supply side, The QYOU has closed numerous deals with major multichannel networks — including Fullscreen and Collective Digital Studio. The company has also just completed a new round of equity financing for C$10.4m ($8m) and is poised to further expand its distribution and content activities into new territories.

The QYOU co-founder and CEO, Scott Ehrlich, said: “There’s been a seismic shift in the global entertainment landscape over the last decade. Online video has brought us some of the most captivating, inspiring, hilarious, and fascinating stories ever to be told and shared.

And bringing the best of those stories into a subscription-worthy experience for the payTV environment allows providers to offer a complete mix of entertainment to their subscribers — one that’s carefully curated and packaged for a premium experience.”

IN PICTURES Stars in Cannes Once again MIPCOM was where the stars converge for premieres, panel sessions, photo calls and programme launches. We caught up with some of them in the Cannes sunshine

Actors Stephen Rea and Tuppence Middleton feature in the latest version of Tolstoy’s epic War & Peace. Rea plays Vassily and Middleton plays his daughter Helene

Ben Fogle is the presenter of upcoming series The Big Catch. The series sees eight passionate enthusiasts compete in an epic fishing contest as they set out on an adventure that takes them to the most dramatic and challenging fishing destinations around the world

Canadian celebrity chef Ricardo Larrivee was in Cannes promoting new series Chef In Your Ear

Aaron Ashmore and Hannah John-Kamen from new series Killjoys took part in a MIPCOM panel titled The Allure Of Escapism: Engaging Millennials

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Star of new Canadian series Blue Moon Karine Vanasse poses for photographers at a photo call

Actor Patrick Fugit and executive producer David Alpert at the photo call for exorcism drama Outcast, a new series from Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead

A radiant Tracey Ullman is about to launch a new series of The Tracey Ullman Show which will feature high-profile impersonations including German chancellor Angela Merkel

Michael Palin is to narrate the new version of the legendary series The Clangers, his first ever venture into children’s animation

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Opportunities to join Palmcakes and Skizz Family on YouTube

C Versailles

CANAL+, Capa Drama, Zodiak

Fiction and Incendo have announced that a second season of the drama Versailles is going into production. The 10 x 52 mins series is a Canal+ original drama. The first season of Versailles will debut in November on Canal+ in France, on Super Channel and Bell Media in Canada, and on Movistar in Spain. The drama will be broadcast in the UK on BBC2 in early 2016, and will be rolled out by a string of other channels worldwide.

BANDEIRANTES Radio and

TV of Brazil has signed a deal with Federal International Distribution of Argentina to distribute 10 fiction series, a total of 180 hours of content, alongside 10 documentary shows. The content was produced with the support of the Operational Plan for the Promotion and Development of Digital Audiovisual Content co-ordinated by INCAA (National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts ) and the Ministry of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services of Argentina.

ABSOLUTELY Cuckoo has been commissioned by UK broadcaster Channel 5’s Milkshake! kids block to produce the animated comedy series, Dave’s Dinosaurs. The CGI series comprises 52 x 7 mins episodes, and is aimed at four- to six-year-olds.

ALIFORNIAMoreover, Victorious enables based Victorithe creators to own the resultous, the startup ing digital data, which they multimedia apps can use to monetise the content platform, is in and engage more effectively Cannes to demonstrate that with their fans.

YouTube celebrities are su“For each creator, we build perstars everywhere, not just an app as a single place for all on the video-sharing website. their multimedia content; it And Paris-based YouTube is their own micro social netmu lt i- cha n nel net work work,” Zameczkowski added.

(MCN) Finder Studios, “They control everything, inwhose talent includes online cluding the data.” entertainers Skizz Family Victorious’ Tony Zameczkowski Currently, 48 online creators, and Palmcakes, has come to celebrities, traditional media MIPCOM with Victorious to host a meet-and- companies and YouTube multi-channel netgreet event for fans. works from various parts of the world have “They don’t see themselves as YouTube stars, Victorious-powered apps. only as stars,” said Tony Zameczkowski, Vic- They include London-based Xtreme Video, an torious’ Singapore-based vice-president and extreme sports-dedicated app that launched at managing director, international.

MIPCOM. It features exclusive videos, phoVictorious, which is this year’s sponsor of tos and competitions by creators and extreme MIPCOM’s Press Club, uses its technology athletes Jokke Sommer, Sam Pilgrim and to develop apps that function as centralised Masters of Dirt that fans can access daily. hubs for its members of online creators.

Victorious also just formed a partnership with Whether it originated on YouTube, Dailymo- 2btube, the Spanish-language MCN. tion or their personal websites, the multime- Victorious is sponsoring today’s panel Why dia content can be accessed by fans in one Engaged Communities Matter More Than single place. Fans can also interact with and Ever In A Mobile First World, where Finder contribute to the content.

Studios’ COO Virginie Maire is speaking.

Scripps and TVN unveil roster US PRODUCER and distributor Scripps Networks Interactive and Polish network TVN marked their first joint appearance at an international event with the unveiling of a raft of original online productions.

TVN laid out a strategy of capitalising on the growing popularity of OTT content in Poland and unveiled a slate of online programming ahead of the speculated launch of Netflix in the country. It is the first time the companies have appeared side-by-side since Scripps’ acquisition of a majority stake in the broadcaster earlier this year.

TVN president and CEO Markus Tellenbach said: “In Poland we see non-linear content and OTT rapidly gaining momentum. It’s not easy building a digital-first platform in a market like this; it is at a very early stage, and there is a lot of planning, but it’s a very valuable market place. We want to give Netflix a warm welcome.”

TVN said that its online content — which is available on its own OTT platform, Player.pl — was being developed “specifically for to-

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TVN’s Markus Tellenbach (left); Scripps Networks Interactive’s Jim Samples; TVN’s Christian Anting; and Scripps Networks Interactive’s Joe NeCastro

day’s younger media consumer” and designed to “accommodate mobile devices”.

Among the shows unveiled yesterday were a Polish version of Lip Sync Battle, a docureality series called My Love Story, and second seasons of spin-off shows Kitchen Revolutions Returns and Hollywood Housewives.

Scripps Networks Interactive president of international Jim Samples said: “This is the first time we’ve been together at a big event like this, but we have seen for a long time how TVN has built up a strong broadcasting base and that’s very much what we’re all about.”

THURSDAY 8 OCTOBER OFFICIAL CONFERENCE & SCREENINGS Best Practices for Driving Real-Time Engagement and Audience Participation with Facebook’s New Media Solutions Tools 9.30-12.00 | Matchmaking Lounge By Monica Austin

In this workshop, Facebook’s Head of Media Solutions will demo a new set of engagement tools and give an update on Facebook video, Instagram and other key products available to drive participation around TV programming. Insights and data re: the TV community on Facebook and Best Practices for engaging with your audience will also be shared.

Kelly Michelena

Speakers Monica Austin, Movies & TV Lead, Entertainment Partnerships, Facebook, USA Kelly Michelena, Media Partnerships, Facebook, USA Bob Morgan, Director, Media Solutions, Facebook, USA

Bob Morgan

The Best of 4K ULTRA HD 10.00-14.00 | Sony 4K Ultra HD Theatre The Best of 4K Ultra HD in a continuous screening session, with a stunning ‘sizzle reel’ compilation of the best footage screened at MIPCOM this week. Just turn-up, sit down and be amazed at how good television can be.

Trending Topics 14.00-15.00 | Matchmaking Lounge The most buzz-worthy trends of the market are discussed and analysed by a panel of industry experts.

Speakers Ali May, Presenter, Mayhart, UK @alimaytv Kim Moses, Producer, Sander / Moses Productions, USA @kimmoses1 J.A. Steel, Producer/Director, Warrior Entertainment, USA @jasteel Catherine Warren, Founder and President, FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, Canada @FanTrust

Moderator James Martin, Head of Social Media, MIP Markets, France @jamesmart_in

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mipcom

Daniel Wu foresees good sales for AMC Networks’ Badlands

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MC NETWORKS is preparing for the US premiere of its latest orginal content show, a modern twist on the martial arts genre, and is seeking opportunities for worldwide distribution.

The show, Badlands, is set in a futuristic post-apocalyptic America where a feudal society governed by barons and militias has taken hold. The show’s main star, Daniel Wu, plays the fearsome enforcer of one of these overlords.

Wu, who is also executive producer for the show, said it was a break from the traditional “melodrama of the martial arts genre”.

“There’s a lot more interest in the characters in this show, and lots of different plots; there’s a character for everybody. I think this will also have a lot of interest for European and Asian audiences, partly because Mixed Martial Arts has brought a lot of people into martial arts.”

Season one, produced by AMC Studios, is set to air on AMC in November, with work on season two due to begin in February next year. Entertainment One has exclusive worldwide rights to distribute the show and is in Cannes to meet broadcasters from the international markets.

Direction of season one was split between David Dobkin of Shanghai Knights and The Judge fame, and Guy Ferland, director of The Walking Dead and Prison Break.

Daniel Wu at the AMC party

Deal gives Marcella global reach BUCCANEER Media and Cineflix Rights have

announced a global distribution agreement for Marcella, a new multi-stranded crime drama cocreated by Hans Rosenfeldt and Nicola Larder, which is showcasing at MIPCOM. Marcella is Nordic Noir set on the streets of London and is Rosenfeldt’s first drama created for an Englishspeaking audience following his global success with The Bridge.

The (8 x 60 mins) series is told in Rosenfeldt’s unflinchingly clear Nordic style and features

Buccaneer Media’s Tony Wood

an unpredictable narrative maze, with suspicion falling on nearly all of the characters right up until its final moments. ITV has commissioned the series in the UK. The agreement sees Cineflix Rights acquire the distribution rights for the rest of the world outside the UK. Marcella is executive-produced by Tony Wood at the London-headquartered Buccaneer Media.

“I’m very pleased to be launching Marcella internationally,” he said. “Buccaneer was set up to create drama for the international stage. Our partnership with Cineflix Rights is a platform to bring creatives of different cultures together to forge top-quality drama for the global market.”

Chris Bonney, CEO rights, Cineflix Media added: “In Marcella, Tony has assembled a really exciting project made by an exceptionally talented creative team. We’re delighted to be distributing a show which feels bang upto-the-minute and is exactly the type of strong character and narrative driven drama to fit into Cineflix Rights’ strategy for scripted content.”

The director of Marcella is Charles Martin (New Worlds, Skins, The Returned) and Andrew Woodhead (Fortitude, Spooks, The Fixer) is producer. Production begins in London in November.

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GRB DEALS WITH LIFE AND DEATH LA-BASED GRB Entertainment has sold four seasons of Untold Stories Of The ER to SET Networks Africa. The show, now in its ninth season and on air in 126 countries, tells real-life stories of life and death in hospital emergency rooms.

“Untold Stories Of The ER has a proven track record around the world,” said Mike Lolato, GRB’s senior vice-president of international distribution. “The stories are shocking, relatable but most of all entertaining.”

Untold Stories Of The ER (GRB Entertainment)

NEWS Love It Or List It hosts bring property battle to Cannes

B Rachel Hunter

BEAUTIFUL DEALS FOR HUNTER ZODIAK Rights has closed several deals for Rachel Hunter’s Tour Of Beauty across Asia, Latin America and Europe. In the US, Ovation TV has acquired US premiere rights to the show.

A pan-Asia deal has been struck with Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, which will see the show broadcast to over 20 countries across the region.

The show has also been picked up by Australian broadcaster Foxtel and in Europe it has been sold to AMC Networks International for Spain, and Sky Italia has taken the rights for its channel Sky Uno. In Latin America, Globosat has acquired the rights in Brazil, with further deals in the region expected soon.

“This series is a tour de force that brings together the best elements of cultural tourism with an insightful investigation of the standards of beauty and the quest to achieve a complete sense of well being,” Lori Hall, vice-president of programme planning, scheduling and acquisitions, Ovation TV, said. “Rachel’s approachable style and inquisitiveness make her the perfect host to bring viewers along for an educational and entertaining journey.”

RITISH property gurus Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp go head to head in their new show, Love It Or List It UK (6 x 60 mins), as they compete to help couples dissatisfied with their current house to transform it and stay — or sell up and leave.

Each episode follows Allsopp helping the couple design and carry out a rebuild, while Spencer takes them to see other properties they might buy instead. After 60 minutes, the family reveals which course it will take — often to the complete amazement of the hosts.

“This show felt timely and relevant,” said Spencer. “The cost of moving is very high and it’s a very emotional process too.”

The same is true of refurbs. And as in another Allsopp and Spencer show Location, Location, Location, these two hosts specialise in

gently getting to the heart of the emotional issues that property decisions reveal.

“I’m fascinated by the inefficient use of space in some houses,” said Allsopp. “People tell us they absolutely must have another room, and have to move. But when we use a camera to monitor how they use their existing space, we’re often able to show that they can get what they need by doing things differently at far less cost.”

With season one c om ple t e, a n d season two about to start filming, Allsopp can still be shocked by the decisions people make. “Some people aren’t very numerate,” she said.

“And others make designer-led rather

than value-led decisions. A designer handbag is one thing, but I don’t get wanting a Louis Vuitton light switch.”

Love It Or List It is a Canadian format created by Big Coat Productions. The format and the completed Canadian and UK series are available from Beyond Distribution.

At MIPCOM, the UK version of the show has been sold to TVNZ New Zealand and Foxtel’s LifeStyle Channel.

Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp

Bomanbridge’s recipe for success SINGAPORE-based producer and distributor Bomanbridge Media has secured exclusive rights to distribute hit cooking format Chef In Your Ear to the Asian markets.

Bomanbridge is in Cannes to celebrate its first Asian signing for the show, with Mongol TV, and showcase the Chef In Your Ear format to international buyers. The show has been a hit in Canada, where it airs on Food Network Canada in English and Radio Canada in French.

The format sees novice cooks prepare restaurant-quality dishes with the instruction of professional chefs speaking to them through earpieces. The chefs have no physical contact with the contestants until the dishes are fully prepared and ready to taste.

It has already been picked up by Mongol TV, which brought the Got Talent format to the country, and will debut Chef In Your Ear later this year.

Speaking to MIPCOM News,

Mongol TV chief executive Nomin Chinbat said “We don’t have any formats like this; we think Mongolian audiences don’t want a normal cooking show they want something with a twist. We think it will work really well in Mongolia and in the rest of Asia.

“Asians are very into their food and everybody thinks that they

are the best chef so having someone telling them what to do will really turn things around.”

The show is the original creation of The Format People (TFP)’s Justin Scroggie and Michel Rodrigue, and has been developed by Ricardo Larrivee, who hosts it in its French-language form. Distribution rights outside Asia have been acquired by Warner Bros.

Mongol TV’s Nomin Chinbat (left), TFP’s Michel Rodrigue, host Ricardo Larrivee, Warner Bros.’ Andrew Zein, TFP’s Justin Scroggie and Bomanbridge’s Sonia Fleck

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mipcom

Tony Jordan comes to Cannes with a Dickens of a tale to sell

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ARK ET trader t u r ne d awa rdwin n ing wr iter, Tony Jordan, is at MIPCOM with his company Red Planet Pictures to sell Dickensian, his new (20 x 30 mins) series for BBC One. The ambitious reimagining of the world of Dickens is filmed on a purpose-built set in west London.

“I love that people just can’t get their heads around this project,” Jordan said. “What it is absolutely not is another adaptation. I’ve written an original drama inspired by Charles Dickens that features some of his most iconic characters.

“It’s a mash-up: I’ve extracted the likes of Scrooge, Fagin and Miss Havisham and deposited them in the same precinct — in Victorian London in the mid 1800s. I’ve also fleshed out the characters at a point in their

Red Planet Pictures’ Tony Jordan: “I have an irreverence for the material”

lives that really interests me.

So Miss Havisham is young: I wanted to discover why she eventually goes mad, living in a ruined mansion wearing a veil — and there were five lines of exposition in Great Expectations that set me on the trail.”

Jordan believes it will entice a new generation to the works of Dickens but will also be popular with Dickens enthusiasts.

“I’m perfect for this project as I have an irreverence for the material — I’m not a Dickens scholar, I don’t feel I have to stick faithfully to every story.

However, I don’t change any of the characters, I only work to understand them better. I think this is why so many people in the Dickens community are blown away by the script.”

Dickensian’s stellar cast includes Bafta award-winning actor Stephen Rea (The Honourable Women, Utopia), Pau l i ne Collins (Upstairs Downstairs, Bleak House), Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly, Life Of Riley) and Peter Firth (Spooks, Mayday). BBC Worldwide is the international distributor.

Zodiak spotlights Rebellion stars ACTORS Brian Gleeson and Ruth Bradley are in Cannes to

promote Rebellion, the historical drama series (5 x 60 mins) from Zodiak Rights that marks the centenary of the Irish Easter Rising, an armed insurrection

by Irish Republicans to end British rule.

Gleeson and Bradley play fictional characters Jimmy and Frances. The series features three female leads – a factor that drew Gleeson to the production.

“That really set it apart. Also, it’s very respectful of all the sides in it and it gave me a lot of food for thought when I read it.

I kind of dug what my character was about. He was a social-

ist guy called James Connelly, one of the leaders of the uprising, who was executed. We shot a lot of it in Kilmainham Jail in Dublin Castle where these events actually took place and you could feel the weight of history there.”

Bradley says she was aware of the uprising from learning about the subject in school.

“You learn history and you learn one side’s perspective so it’s interesting to look at it from all these different characters’ perspectives, which I hadn’t known much about,” she said.

“It was nice because we were playing fictional characters so it was up to us to decide what we wanted to do with it.”

Ruth Bradley and Brian Gleeson, stars of Rebellion

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NEWS Russian Cinema Fund animated over prospects for Londongrad

T TVP ABC’s Malgorzata Mierzejewska-Wawrykow

JUNIOR PANELS ‘INSPIRING’ FOR KIDS’ EXEC MALGORZATA Mierzejewska-Wawrykow, head of new Polish kids’ channel TVP ABC, had an expectedly productive MIPJunior — partly thanks to the flood.

On Saturday, she acquired three seasons of Thomas And Friends, three of Fireman Sam, and animated feature Barbie Rock Princess from Mattel, and several seasons of My Little Pony and The Littlest Pet Shop from Hasbro.

And on Sunday, her enforced exile from the screening rooms caused by the flood allowed her to attend the MIPJunior conference programme.

“The panels were very inspiring, especially those on YouTube and social media generally,” said Mierzejewska-Wawrykow.

“At TVP ABC we’re already using social media to grow our audience, and it’s helped us become the leading kids’ channel in the country in almost all categories after only 18 months. But what I’ve learnt in conference sessions is really going to help us take things forward. I’d like to see Junior become a three-day event so I have time to attend the conference as well as screen everything I have to see.”

HE RUSSIAN Cinema Fund reports huge interest in Londongrad (16 x 48 mins), a comedy drama series set in London about Misha, a Russian maths prodigy who runs an accidentprone agency that specialises in “solving problems” for wealthy Russian expats without recourse to the police or courts.

The first Russian comedy drama to be set and shot in London, the series was produced for Russian commercial broadcaster CTC Media by Alex Kessel.

“Londongrad is an ironic look at the clash of cultures, at our stereotypes about the British and about ourselves, at the British stereotypes about us,” Kessel

said. “We’ve tried to Londongrad (Russian Cinema Fund) take a fresh look [at ourselves], to produce a film that hasn’t been made before, to tell the story of special, but recognisable heroes.”

The Russian Cinema Fund has also made a raft of deals for animated series.

Mirsand has agreed a global co-operation deal with Spain’s Imira Entertainment for Italy, Asia Pacific and EMEA. Alisa Knows What To Do! (24 x Mirsand will retain international 26 mins), an animated series from distribution rights in Central and Bazelevs Productions. Imira will Eastern Europe. represent the show and handle Animated series Masha And The licensing and merchandising in Bear (26 x 7 mins) has also been Latin America, Spain, Portugal, sold to Televisa (Mexico).

AUSTRIAN public broadcaster ORF has revealed that its crime series Janus is being developed for the US market. The ABC network has ordered a pilot script from EuropaCorp TV Studios USA, which controls the scripted format rights to the show.

Kevin O’Hare, who has written pilots for ABC and SyFy, is adapting the format and writing the pilot. Thor Freudenthal, who has directed episodes of Arrow, The Flash, Quantico and Supergirl, is attached to direct and co-executive produce the pilot. The original show was written by the Jacob Groll and Sarah Wassermair. It aired for seven episodes in 2013.

Yoko ticks all the boxes for Jetpack RUSSIAN animation studio Wizart and Spanish companies Somuga and Dibulitoon are in Cannes with their animation series Yoko. The show is being presented at the Russian Cinema stand, which is organised by the Cinema Fund of Russia.

Targeting kids aged four to six, Yoko has just aired successfully on two Russian national TV channels. International sales are now being handled by Jetpack Distribution, which is looking after the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australasia; and Wizart Distribution, which is focusing on Russia, CIS and Asia.

Dominic Gardiner, CEO of Jetpack Distribution, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed as distributor for Yoko. The show ticks all the boxes for broadcasters and is sure to strike a chord with kids all over the world. We look forward to meeting partners

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at MIPCOM as we take the show to market for the first time.”

Yoko (52 x 12 mins) is available in English, Spanish and Russian and has been developed as an international property focused on outdoor play patterns, with a social curriculum that mixes friendship, nature and imagination.

It tells the story of three friends, Otto, Mai and Vik, who meet in the park every day to play in the fresh air. Magical Yoko, who lives in the park, appears at the beginning of each episode and turns the kids’ everyday games into magical adventures.

mipcom

NEWS

Cris Morena and Mundoloco partner with Discovery Kids

The French version of the Hopster app

FRENCH FIRST FOR HOPSTER HOPSTER, the app that helps kids learn, is launching a localised French-language app that features its strongest content line-up ever, with over 500 French episodes including Peppa Pig from eOne, and Les Musiques de Mouk from Millimages.

Hopster has also signed a multi-territory deal with DHX Media for eight titles on its English app, including Teletubbies, In The Night Garden, Arthur, and The Adventures Of Paddington Bear.

Nick Walters, founder and CEO of Hopster, said the app “provides an ad-free and safe environment for kids in France”.

BABUSHKA TO OPEN IN UK ARMOZA Formats’ primetime studio game show Babushka has been acquired in the UK by STV Productions. The 60 mins format sees contestants presented with 10 huge “babushka” Russian dolls.

They must open eight of them for the chance to win up to $500,000.

Gary Chippington, head of entertainment at STV Productions, said: “It’s a simple, addictive and eccentric format that feels like nothing else on television.”

The show has also gone to Italy, Spain and Portugal.

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ATIN American payTV network Discovery Kids is partnering with Cris Morena Group and Mundoloco CGI to develop three kids animated series – Floribella, Underdogs and Baby Rockers – to air exclusively on Discovery Kids across Latin America.

Commenting on the deal, sealed at MIPCOM, Carolina Lightcap, EVP and chief content officer of Discovery Latin America/US Hispanic and global lead for Discovery Kids and Family, said: “We’re very excited to be working with top creative talent Cris Morena and Juan Jose Campanella [co-founder of Mundoloco CGI]. This partnership reiterates Discovery Kids’ commitment to expand its pipeline of original content.”

Morena added that working with Discovery Kids to develop animated series Floribella, based on the live-action series Floricienta, had kept “all the mystical essence of the original story,

Discovery Latin America’s Carolina Lightcap (left); Mundoloco’s Juan Jose Campanella; Cris Morena Group’s Cris Morena; and Mundoloco’s Gaston Gorali

while transporting audiences to an animated world filled with music and magic”.

Mundoloco CGI is one of the largest 3D animation studios in Latin America and the creator and producer of the movie Underdogs ( Met egol), t he largest animated feature film

to come out of the region to date.

Campanella said he is developing the animation series to bring back the “beloved” Underdog characters, “as well as introducing new characters in a brandnew setting, all exclusively created at Mundoloco”.

Mega’s giant leap with Telemundo TELEMUNDO Internacional has signed a major deal with Chilean TV channel Mega Chile to sell its content exclusively worldwide.

The deal, sealed at MIPCOM, sees the company enter into a long-term agreement with the channel to distribute its fictional programming internationally, which Mega Chile CEO Patricio Hernandez described as a “giant leap for Mega in the company’s goal to internationalise its content and presence in the world”.

Telemundo Internacional president Marcos Santana said: “This agreement will add to our catalogue of excellent quality content with creative and innovative stories, in line with the standards that characterise our brand.”

Among the productions being showcased jointly at MIPCOM this year is the hugely popular drama Fancy Girl Without Money (Pituca Sin Lucas), which achieved an average audience share of 50% when it aired in Chile last year.

Telemundo Internacional, a division of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, is the international distribution arm of the US-based Telemundo and NBC Universo networks.

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Telemundo’s Marcos Santana (left) and Mega Chile’s Patricio Hernandez

mipcom

NEWS

Chance encounter inspires a magical journey to Thingdom

T Majid’s Mohamad Yehya

MAJID EXTENDS BACKING OF MIPJUNIOR PITCH FOLLOWING the announcement that the MIPJunior International Pitch was won

by The Boy Who Switched Off The Sun — produced by British company Fourth Wall Creative — the sponsor of the international pitch, Majid Entertainment, has committed to sponsoring the initiative for the foreseeable future.

“We’re going to keep supporting this international pitch because strategically it’s something we want to do for the next three to five years,” said Mohamad Yehya, general manager of Majid Entertainment. “This will help us to discover new talents and new projects that we can co-produce and support. It will also be good content for our screens.”

Yehya said selecting the winner was a formidable task as the standard was extremely high. “We are so happy with the amount of proposals we received — more than 130 unique ideas. If it was up to us really we wanted all 130 up on stage. It was a tough decision to select the winner but in the end there is only one. We’re looking for the new concept, looking for new ideas. We’re trying to support talented producers for their unique projects.

That’s why our main target this year was to sponsor this year’s edition.”

HE MAGIC of MIPCOM is well known: a chance meeting in the depths of the Palais leads, years later, to a hit series or a major deal. In the case of Thingdom, a full-length animated feature film from award-winning Mexican director Rene Castillo of Cascarita Films, that magic worked quickly and the film is due to hit the screen within 18 months of the first meeting.

The story began at last year’s MIPCOM when Castillo (Hasta Los Huesos/Down To The Bone, 2001) fell in love with a 30cmhigh model ostrich on the stand of Zhejiang Versatile Media.

The ostrich came from their film Axel, The Biggest Little Hero, and its director, Leo Lee, persuaded Castillo to make his next film — Thingdom — in 3D, in China, with a view to it going into theatres in 2016.

“This is a story about a child’s self-belief,” Lee said. “Lucas is a little boy who discovers Thingdom, a magical world where rubbish comes to life as funny

Magical meeting: Corazon Films’ Eckehardt von Damm (left), with Zhejiang Versatile Media’s Leo Lee and Cascarita Films’ Rene Castillo

characters. Here, together with his new friends, he battles the terrible King, who hates kids, and learns to trust in himself and the power of his imagination.”

Beneath the laughs and the adventure, there’s also an environmental message: value things, even though they’re not new.

And there’s a message for the animation business too. Chinese studios are quick.

“This is an adventure for me since I have never been to China,” Castillo said. “Mr Lee and I will go together on a journey into this magical world, and I am very excited to be working with his incredibly talented team.”

Development funding was sourced in Mexico by Eckehardt von Damm, CEO of Corazon Films, and production is financed

by Zhejiang Versatile Media.

Rooftop deals have scientific proof ROOFTOP Content Group, the Amsterdam-headquartered international distribution and production company, said a recent deal with UK-based Scorpion TV demonstrates why MIPCOM is vital to its global ambitions.

Rooftop completed its acquisition of two popular-science titles from documentary distributor Scorpion TV in Cannes.

The titles are Ever Wondered, a 20 x 30 mins science series that covers a wide variety of themes from outer space to green energy and genetics. The Brain Fitness Programme is a five-part onehour series that looks at the latest developments in brain development and neuroscience.

The transaction, which follows a

specific request by an unidentified client, exemplifies the type of deals Rooftop has been in Cannes for, said joint managing partner Jordi van Even.

“MIPCOM is probably the most important market in the year for us,” van Even said. “We come to cement existing relationships such as the one with Scorpion and to acquire new titles.”

Rooftop has also been seeking theatrical titles in the Benelux region at the market, plus the usual factual and fiction content for TV channels and video-on-demand portals, van Even added.

Rooftop, launched in 2014 by van Eden and his business partner Marcel van Berkel, has also started a production division for

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Scorpion TV’s David Cornwall and Rooftop’s Jordi van Even

fiction content only.

It is part of the overall ambition to be an umbrella company involved in all aspects of entertainment production, from intellectual property development to content exploitation, van Even stated.

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