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A look at the 2017 Mipcom

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- The new edition of the international entertainment content market is expecting 14,000 delegates, amongst which there will be 70 new exhibitors

A look at the 2017 Mipcom

(© S D'Halloy/Image & Co)

“We are looking forward to a fantastic Mipcom! We are expecting a very big edition with around 14,000 delegates, amongst which there will be 70 new exhibitors, including the WME talent agency, 10 Cents from China, the Nigerian Pavilion and many others. Plus a big focus on Russia called Russian Content Revolution to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution”. 

With these words Laurine Gauraude, director of the TV Division of Reed Midem, announces the new edition of Mipcom, the world entertainment market that will take place in Cannes from 16 to 19 October, preceded by the two days of MipJunior (14 and 15).

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The theme chosen for this year is “The Global Race for Creative Connections”. “In the competitive world of today there is a demand for extremely high quality which the industry is delivering, but to do it well we see an increasing need for partnerships in all forms, not only co-productions. Very strong partnerships bridging the digital and more traditional world, different countries, talents… This will be reflected throughout Mipcom where we will look at the union between companies that have shared complementary strengths”, reveals Garaude.

It is no coincidence that this year Mipcom will be honouring David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Communications and personality of the year: “Discovery is currently establishing many interesting partnerships, one with Facebook, and it is working a lot with VR, another important section at Mipcom: a field which is growing in importance particularly with regard to the production of creative content. Netflix has just commissioned a drama series entitled Safe in tandem with Canal+. Britannia, the world-premiere screening of which will open Mipcom, is a co-production between Sky Vision and Amazon. Nick Bell, Vice President of Content at Snap Inc. and Sean Mills, Senior Director of Content Programming are giving a keynote on how Snapchat is very much focusing on content and doing content deals with many TV players.”

Another form of partnership concerns talents which are increasingly visible at Mipcom. Like the award-winning chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsey, one of the keynote speakers who, says Garaude, “represents a genre in himself” or Catherine Zeta Jones, the guest of honour at the Women in Global Entertainment Lunch which will also be the occasion for launching her new movie with Lifetime. 

“We will be hosting the world premiere of Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai’s Daughter, a very important Japanese production starring Aoi Miyazaki, one of Japan’s most popular actress who will be a guest at Mipcom,” she adds.

There will be an increase in the number of screenings which, this year, will total 16. In addition to the products cited above Garaude mentions: Counterpart presented by Sony, La Zona, distributed by Beta and produced by Spain’s Movistar Plus+, Telefónica’s pay-tv operation that is revolutionizing the Spanish audiovisual market (Domingo Corral, head of original programming, will hold a keynote in which he will illustrate the production of series and features – read interview), and many Russian dramas (The Road to Calvary, Gogol, Trovsky). “The Russians have made a huge leap forward in terms of the production of quality and international content; the focus will mostly regard drama and animation at Mipjunior,” she continues.

The growing importance of screenings is a logical evolution of these entertainment markets (also at Miptv that started the Drama Screenings two years ago), and will culminate in the first edition of Cannes Series to take place alongside the next edition of Miptv in April 2018.

“We are delighted to have this partnership with the Cannes Series team and their press conference will be held at Mipcom on the Monday morning. Our aim is to create the biggest week in TV by combining our big international market (Miptv) with the glamour of a world class festival and a new industry event which will focus not only on co-productions but on all forms of development, bringing together creative communities (writers, show runners, producers) to create programs that have real meaning and helping to develop them. 

There will be three parts: Public Screenings, separate from Miptv, held in movie theatres in Cannes, from 4 to 11 April; the Cannes Series International competition with 10 selected new programs (7-11 April, with a Gala Ceremony which will be televised by Canal+), screened at lunchtime and in the evening, open to the public and to Miptv participants; and the co-development market where professionals will gather together on 10 and 11 April at the Gare Maritime.

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