CANNES: The world’s kids programming screenings and conference MIPJunior is slated to commence today 15 October at the prestigious Hotel Martinez in Cannes. The little French Riviera village was under heavy black cloud cover the whole of 14 October and a constant drizzle through the day forced everyone to bring out their brollies and their rain jackets.
But that won’t be necessary today and the next three to four days. Reason: the weatherman has forecast that the weekend is going to be mostly sunny through to Monday.
The sunny weather is expected to encourage some brisk meetings, conferences, workshops, keynotes, panel discussions, networking through the day at the famed Hotel. And of course champagne, wine is expected to overflow through the day at the lunches and in the restaurants as the world’s top animation and kids content executives huddle together to figure out what the world and their distribution platforms are going to look like in the coming few months.
One session that is being watched with increasing curiosity is in the MIPJunior Lab at 17:15 pm on 16 October Titled Passage to India: Working in this dynamic space, it is being moderated by Animationxpress.com and Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari.
India’s top animation studio heads – Rajiv Chilaka of Chhota Bheem and Green Gold Fame, Anish Mehta of Motu Patlu and Cosmos Maya renown, Munjal Shroff of Graphiti Multimedia – and India’s only kids OTT platform Voot CEO Gaurav Gandhi – will be throwing light on how why it makes sense to look at the growing Indian kids market, and how international studios can make head room for themselves in India in the area of co-productions.
“Indian animation is just waiting to explode on to the world stage,” says Wanvari - who also represents Reed Midem’s MipCom, MipTV, MIPJunior, MipCancun, and Mipim events for India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. “We have the talent, the right stories, and even now the focus to make in India for the world with the Narendra Modi government laying an emphasis on it. An animation requires many partnerships for it to achieve global success. Through this workshop we want to demystify many notions or perceptions that the world community has about Indian studios and the kids content marketplace. Reed Midem and MIPJunior have been very supportive of India’s efforts to build a global IP in kids’ animation. If we succeed in enabling even one partnership or co-production or spark one such opportunity, we will have been successful.”
Shall we say amen to that?
