The Cannes Autumn TV Festival 2017 (MIPCOM) was officially unveiled on October 16, French time. The world's highest level TV feast was attended by over 13,000 people from 1,900 companies in over 100 countries. During the event, many Chinese and foreign top film and television, animation game production companies gathered together. As more enterprises were involved, more Chinese film and television works also appeared in Cannes. They discussed new contents and directions of cooperation for future development.
This time, Megamedia organized Zhejiang companies, including China International Cartoon & Animation Festival, Zhejiang Satellite TV, Zoland Animation, TThunder Animation, Huanyu TV, Steamworks, Versatile Media, IX Media, Wawayu Cartoon, Dragon Palace Culture, to join in exhibitions of MIPCOM. They had a lot of “surprising” harvests on the spot. Hangzhou local companies and their works had good performances. “Created by China” was once again favored by the international community!
In the four days of the event, China International Cartoon & Animation Festival, Zhejiang Provincial Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film and Television, Zhejiang Satellite TV, Zhejiang Documentary Society and Megamedia had business talks with 103 international companies, which came from 24 countries and regions, including France, the United States, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and the Middle East. The also included countries along the Belt and Road, such as Russia, Poland, Iran and Egypt.
China International Cartoon & Animation Festival
Zhuo Chao, deputy director of the CPC Hangzhou Municipal Committee Publicity Department, and secretary general of China International Cartoon & Animation Festival Executive Committee, held a talk with Cannes TV Festival organizer Reed Exhibition Group entertainment president Jerome on settling MIPCHINA in Hangzhou. They also reached an agreement for further closer cooperation.
Zhuo Chao, on behalf of China International Cartoon & Animation Festival, exchanged gifts with MIPCOM organizers, expressing the wish that the two parties could keep long-term cooperation and carry out more activities in the future.
Delegations from Russia and Malaysia established cooperation relationship with China International Cartoon & Animation Festival during the event. They would arrange a series of activities in the future. The Russian and Malaysian delegations also confirmed intentions to participate in CICAF.
A total of 29 companies from 11 countries, including SPPA from Poland, and the Israeli government export agency, consulted in the field details on relevant activities of China International Cartoon & Animation Festival, showing passion of participation. Six enterprises said they would like to join in the form of business booths, in order to explore the Chinese market for future development.
Megamedia
Megamedia held talks with MNC, the largest media group in Indonesia, on the spot. The Indonesian business showed strong interest in the Megamedia platform, hoping to purchase animation products through the MEGAMEDIA film and television trading platform, especially animations for boys. Adventure and action style works were favored. Movies and TV dramas on modern urban love and family ethics were also on the list of future plans. Meanwhile, MNC GROUP expressed the hope to get deeply involved in CICAF and MIPCHINA.
In addition to MNC, HIRU TV from Sri Lanka, MMPE from Jordan, MEDIAPLEX from Thailand, AYAT MEDIA from Turkey, KIDS1TV from South Korea, KIDSTREAM from the United States released their future specific procurement requirements to MEGAMEDIA.
The MIPCOM “Chinese Party”, co-sponsored by Megamedia, was an activity for all the Chinese participating in the MIPCOM. It attracted the attention of considerable industry insiders. The lights and wine constituted a characteristic night scene. This year, the Chinese Party was not only attended by a large number of Chinese business representatives, but also attracted a considerable amount of overseas visitors who came to meet Chinese enterprises, expand their communication circles in a relaxed atmosphere, and find potential partners.
This trip to Cannes was fruitful. The site negotiations involved content copyright trading, production development, and derivatives. The exhibitors conducted in-depth exchanges at the scene, established good relationship, laying a potential foundation for future cooperation!
Local animation Rainbow Chicks sets new era of overseas distribution
On October 17 French time, TThunder Animation, along with its overseas distribution agent Millimages, which was also among the top 3 of European animation distribution companies, signed an agreement with Discovery Communications on the purchase of Rainbow Chicks video. It will be premiered in the Middle East Discovery channel in the future.
Rainbow Chicks, with its innovative ink painting images and exquisite craftsmanship, showed the world the charm of traditional Chinese culture, and the spirit of originality of contemporary Chinese animation artists. It was highly recognized by exhibitors in various countries. The purchase agreement signed by TThunder Animation and Discovery created a new era in the overseas distribution of Rainbow Chicks. In the future, Rainbow Chicks, an outstanding original animation work of China, will spread the “Created in China” miracle in more TV media platform across the world.
Wow Dadi cements co-production of Cloudbabies Season Two with Hoho Entertainment
At 2 p.m. October 16 French time, British Hoho Entertainment and Wow Dadi (a wholly owned subsidiary of Wow Pictures), signed a cooperation agreement at MIPCOM to distribute Cloudbabies, an animated film of Hoho Entertainment on Chinese mainland.
Helen Howells, a co-founder of Hoho Entertainment, was invited to participate in China International Cartoon & Animation Festival iABC this year, and kept contact with many Chinese animation companies. During iABC, Hoho Entertainment and Wow Dadi reached a preliminary cooperation intention, and had further understanding and communication after the event. Recently, they finalized the cooperation agreement, and officially signed it taking advantage of the MIPCOM sound environment.
Zoland Animation and M.E.I. Group jointly build ZOKAST KIDS.TV
During the MIPCOM period, Zoland Animation announced that its video on demand subscription platform ZOKAST KIDS.TV will be officially launched. At the same time, it announced that its strategic partner was M.E.I. Group from France. In win-win cooperation, the two groups would build children China’s first OTT platform, ZOKAST KIDS.TV. It is a SVOD-based digital platform for the children market.
The service will be presented in a variety of languages, lasting up to 1,000 hours in program contents. The English and Chinese language services will be available first in Southeast Asia. Then, it will land in North America and other regions of the world, also in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch languages. The platform can be used in a variety of devices, particularly the fast growing mobile terminals and the Internet TV market.
Many Chinese companies showed up in Cannes this time. On the spot, they displayed the charms of Chinese animation with their excellent works, and also reflected the development trend and potential strength of Chinese animation over the years. Their communication with foreign enterprises and participants laid a solid foundation for subsequent business contacts. It was also a good time to expand the overseas market. Let’s feel the warmth in the grand occasion!
While the Zhejiang Pavilion made great gains, the Cannes TV Festival also attracted a lot of attention from overseas enterprises because of the presence of China elements. Many films and television works and images won unanimous praise. Now, let’s walk together into the Chinese time.
China’ presence in Cannes TV Festival
China International Television Corp, Huanyu TV, Dazzling Star Animation, TThunder Animation, Tencent Video, and Wow Dadi were present in Cannes with their works, and had a good harvest in the field!
Among them, Huanyu TV founder Yu Zheng, and CEO Yang Le arrived upon the scene with the three works Yanxi Strategy, Zhao Ge and Phoenix Prisoner. Yanxi Strategy got a good response in the scene with distinctive Chinese features.
Peking Opera Cat, showcased at iABC in April, also came to Cannes with the Radio and TV Booth, giving a comprehensive display of the original IP quality content. This was the first time for Dazzling Star Animation to set up a booth in Cannes.
Tecent Video was unusually brilliant with its solid content matrix: the super IP “The Adventures of Three Tomb Raiders” series blossomed extraordinary splendour. The self-made animations Full Time Master, Douluo Continent, The Founder of Magic made impressive appearance on the scene. Its variety shows revealed new model and strength, not to be underestimated. Two excellent documentary films, The Flavor of the World, Flavor Origin · Chaoshan, also came to Cannes to demonstrate show the “Chinese strength” of Tencent in an all-round way and multiple angles.
Go global with original works, look to the future
The 2017 Cannes TV Festival was spectacular. In addition to animation works, Chinese films and television works also began to rise in the overseas market winning constant praise. The future is worth looking forward to.
Landing films, television and animation works in the overseas market conforms to the current trend of facilitating culture products to go global. It’s a good start for domestic original contents to go abroad, and try new models and business contents. To date, China has started to have films and TV series sharing similar broadcasting forms with their American counterparts, made new breakthroughs in content, length, and number of episodes. It has broken the traditional mode of broadcast. In the next step, it will be a new tide for more original contents to march to the overseas areas!