Sub-headed “A Hybrid Experience”, the 2022 edition of the m:brane youth and children’s media financing forum will play out from 15-17 March online as well as, and especially, physically – as usual in Malmö, Sweden, where this creative and lively platform was launched in 2007. Approximately 250 participants from 30 countries will be in attendance, and a selection of almost 40 projects in development – together worth a total of €50 million – will be presented in numerous ways during the industry events, workshops and pitching sessions.

Several new initiatives are being launched this year, including Script Pitch and m:brane Learning – The Non Didactic Universe (see the interview with the event’s managing director, Lennart Ström). The Script Pitch presentation will be handled by Swedish writer-director Goran Kapetanovic, Danish script consultant Kirsten Bonnén Rask and Swedish writer Johan Bogaeus. In front of these three experts, selected participants from the educational programme will pitch their film ideas. The Learning – The Non Didactic Universe project is a continuation of the successful sessions on science and storytelling held at the forum in 2021, aiming to connect storytellers with scientists in order to communicate scientific research to a wider target audience. Among the present inspirational speakers are festival director at CineGlobe, Switzerland, Neal Hartman, who in his keynote speech will accentuate the broader aims for the initiative; augmented-reality experts Tania de Montaigne and Pierre-Alain Giraud, of Novaya, France; and US producer-director Kimberly Reed, who will talk about the new scientific frontiers of understanding gender – and how to make it attractive to a young audience.

The 2022 country in focus is France. The theme Focus: France will thus be integrated into the whole forum programme, and among the related events is one at which French production company Calista Films will join a panel about green productions, while filmmaker Alexandre Brachet, of Upian, will present his Snapchat project FAQ. A member of the team behind the interactive documentary Made to Measure, filmmaker and producer Cosima Terrasse, will share some insights from the documentary together with her colleague Moritz Riesewieck.

The fully loaded programme promises brilliant speakers, exquisite producers, inspiring moderators, a solid line-up of partners, 400 matches set up for one-to-one encounters, dinners, cocktails and networking lunches. The two days of pitching sessions will be observed by a jury, who will decide on the best pitch, and a group of selected youth experts will be present and highly vocal during the REALYOUNG and Open Resource workshops.

More information can be found here.