18/05/2016 - CANNES NEXT: Wallimage Creative's Domenico La Porta presented the Belgian fund and brought out some of the creators who have benefited from its support for their projects

The panel at the Wallimage-focused session at NEXT

In the final stretch of the NEXT week, Belgium came back to the fore – and more specifically, the Wallonia region, represented by its transmedia-orientated fund Wallimage.

Wallimage head of Transmedia (and Cineuropa’s editor-in-chief) Domenico La Porta held an afternoon panel aimed at showcasing some of the most successful works backed by the company, as well as providing a quick guide on how to get cross-platform projects funded by Walloons.

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Created in 2001, the fund initially consisted of two branches: Wallimage Co-production, co-producing films by directors who spent money in Wallonia, and Wallimage Entreprises, specially dedicated to supporting companies. 2011 saw the establishment of the first-ever cross-media scheme (together with France's Pictanovo), which then generated today’s Wallimage Creative, which boasts a budget of €1 million every year to be spent on interactive projects. This branch is split into a permanent, project-based fund called Creative Kiosk (€350,000 available per year) and a Matching Fund run together with the CMF (Canada Media Fund), with a total annual budget of CAD $600,000, aimed at promoting co-productions between Wallonia and Canada.

Last but not least, Wallimage Crossmedia has been the main financier of multi-platform projects since 2011. With two annual sessions allocating €50,000 each, this section has so far supported more than 40 cross-media films since 2011, including Ernest and Célestine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benjamin Renner, Vincent Pa…
film profile] by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner, and Mood Indigo [+see also:
trailer
making of
interview: Michel Gondry
film profile] by Michel Gondry.

"Have you thought about your audience?" asked La Porta. "You might want to, if you wish to compete for our €100,000 Wallimage Creative Award. Tracking a potential audience is key in order to measure a project's potential, and that's what we want to reward with this prize. Too many good, inventive projects are launched without being audience-orientated, and it's time to change that."

A presentation of the main Wallimage-powered projects followed La Porta's keynote speech. Guests included Alain Gallez of 3D Stereo Media, an international 3D summit for technology, arts and business held in Liège, Belgium, every December; Kamal Messaoudi of Sunday Pistols, a “geeky” production and post-production company focused on gamification; Gilles Bazelaire of Dogstudio, specialised in community management on social media and in building immersive websites; Julien Lemaire-Piotrowski of Clap!, a renowned company focusing on augmented reality and VR; and Nicolas Monnoyer of 3D advertisement company Big Bad Wolf.