The Animation Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum 2024 has selected 15 projects from 15 countries: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain, South Africa, Thailand.
The members of the selection committee are available on the Project Selection 2024 page.
The selection consists of 5 Feature Films, 9 TV Series, and 1 TV Special. Among the animated features, LITTLE PRINCE OF SHANGRI-LA is the new project for the whole family by Italian director Alessandro Rak, produced by Mad Entertainment (Italy): a journey into fantasy through which two children and an old monk try to bring light back to Shangri-La, after the spiritual energies of mortals are stolen through screens and used to revive an army. AYA IN THE DESERT (France, Latvia, Spain) by Spanish directors Julia Horrillo and Verónica Adell, a French and Latvian co-production by Les Films du Lezard, Rija Films and Alhena Production dedicated to the story of Aya, a 13-year-old Ivorian girl who reached the coast of Cadiz by boat pretending to be a boy, passing through the legends of her country. The collective project BING BANG PARADE (Belgium, Poland), an episodic film produced by Lunanime and directed by the talented and promising directors, already well-known in the auteur animation circuit, Nienke Deutz, Sine & Imge Özbilge, Karolien Raeymaekers, Hermien Verstraeten, Britt Raes and Martyna Koleniec. Stories revolving around two children who open a secret treasure chest and discover that inside it are marbles containing small worlds inhabited by surprising and colourful creatures. TWISTED is the new project by Mediawan Kids & Family and Palomar Animation, curated and directed by Lino DiSalvo (Italy, France), who worked for over fifteen years at Disney and was Head of Animation for Frozen and many other successes of the company. Written by Kissy Dugan, it is the story set in Italy of a friendship between a teenager and a creature who face a curse. A production by multi-award-winning French company Logical Pictures and The Jokers Lab is GAINSBOURG: RUE DE VERNEUIL (France) dedicated to the life of iconic singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, written and directed by Gilles Cayatte, Daniela De Felice and Cyril Houplain based on a seven-hour interview of the artist with Les Inrockuptibles.
The TV Special selected for this edition is WITH YOU (Italy), a family project dealing with the theme of memory loss and the importance of knowledge, which sees the entry into the world of animation of Pepito Produzioni artistically flanked by the Emilian studio Panebarco.
Creativity in television series is represented through the 9 selected projects, which present a wide range of target audiences. MOLES (Germany, Ireland, Spain) is the new serial project of Buzzin Bus Media directed by Salvador Simó, director of Buñuel – In the Labyrinth of the Turtles and written by David Muñoz, screenwriter of Guillermo Del Toro’s The Devil’s Thorn, who bring to life a story of teenage moles in search of treasure. Directed by Jim Miller and Alexander Chernogorov and produced by Rymanco Films, CAFÉ AUTOMATICA (Canada, Cyprus) tells of a bar run by a human teenager and his alien peer on a small planet. From Brazil comes CLEO AND FRIDA’S UNDAD TALES , produced by Barry Company and directed by Gustavo Amaral and Thiago Fogaça, who imagine a dystopian world where a virus turns teenagers into zombies. MANTRA WARRIOR (Thailand) by Sornperes Subsermsri instead takes us into a futuristic universe through the legends of the Ramayana saga, a series based on the successful IP already produced for Netflix by RiFF Studio, Mantra Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moons. A young adult target audience is HAPPILY NEVER AFTER (Czech Republic, Germany), a series dedicated to a young documentary film crew wanting to capture fairy tale creatures, directed by Jon Rowe, Monika Dembinska, Dominik Grittner, Jakub Votýpka and Cecile Paysant for Helium Film and Reynard Films. Presented as a cross between Akira and Stranger Things, HARMONY (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg) is the series that weaves adventure and mystery with the transition to adulthood, produced by Fabrique d’Images, Freaks Factory and Fantabulous and directed by Federico Milella. From South Africa, instead, JAY FLY by Rob van den Bragt for Chocolate Tribe is a comedy for adults, with dark and quirky overtones starring a boy who becomes a fly. TALES OF THE COSMO (Italy) by Ubaldo Giusti and Costanza Bongiorni for Keep Digging Production is an animated anthology series that transforms complex astronomical concepts into magical stories that are fun for children and adults alike. PARTS OF A BIGGER STORY (Canada), produced and directed by Chrystelle Maechler, crosses the everyday and the extraordinary against adversity is an anthology of forced displacements woven into the fabric of modern history.
ANIMATION CO-PRODUCTION MARKET & PITCHING FORUM | OFFICIAL SELECTION 2024
AYA IN THE DESERT (France / Latvia / Spain)
Produced by Les Films du Lezard / Rija Films / Alhena Production
BIG BANG PARADE (Belgium / Poland)
Produced by Annemie Degryse / Lunanime
CAFÉ AUTOMATICA (Canada / Cyprus)
Produced by Rymanco Films
CLEO AND FRIDA’S UNDAD TALES (Brazil)
Produced by Barry Company
GAINSBOURG: RUE DE VERNEUIL (France)
Produced by The Jokers Lab
HAPPILY NEVER AFTER (Czech Republic / Germany)
Produced by Helium Film / Reynard Films
HARMONY (Belgium / France / Italy / Luxembourg)
Produced by Fabrique d’Images / Freaks Factory / Fantabulous
JAY FLY (South Africa)
Produced by Chocolate Tribe
THE LITTLE PRINCE OF SHANGRI-LA / IL PICCOLO PRINCIPE DI SHANGRI-LA (Italy)
Produced by Mad Entertainment
MANTRA WARRIOR (Thailand)
Produced by RiFF Studio
MOLES (Germany / Ireland / Spain)
Produced by Buzzin Bus Media / Piranha Bar / Armenteira Producciones / Big Bang Box
PARTS OF A BIGGER STORY (Canada)
Produced by Chrystelle Maechler Productions Inc. / Daniela Mujica
TALES OF THE COSMO / L’UNIVERSO IN FAVOLA (Italy)
Produced by Keep Digging SRL
TWISTED (France / Italy)
Produced by Mediawan Kids & Family / Palomar Animation
WITH YOU / CON TE (Italy)
Produced by Pepito Produzioni
For more information on the Animation Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum projects, register for MIA 2024 to have access to the MIA Digital platform.
