The event’s opening has led to a great schedule of activities, in which the pitching sessions are the true heart of Conecta Fiction & Entertainment.
The eighth edition of Conecta Fiction & Entertainment opened its doors in Toledo with a meeting that brings together the audiovisual sector from around the world and an opening day that invites the analysis of the economic impact of audiovisual productions in filming locations and, at the same time, highlighting the potential of Castilla-La Mancha to host audiovisual productions.
The opening ceremony, which was attended by 300 participants and media, was chaired by the Minister of Economy, Business and Employment of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, Patricia Franco, and the director of the event, Géraldine Gonard.
In his welcome speech, Franco acknowledged that Castilla-La Mancha concentrates on the national and international spotlights of the audiovisual entertainment industry this week of Conecta. Francó spoke “about the need to analyze the economic impact of audiovisual productions in filming locations and to expose all the potential that Castilla-La Mancha has to host audiovisual productions in the region.”
For his part, Gonard reiterated once again his gratitude to Castilla-La Mancha, which he defined as “a magnificent setting for any event, a region of hospitable and welcoming people, in a spectacular environment that anyone would dream of as a location for their next shoot.”
The opening of the event has given way to the start of a great schedule of activities. The pitching sessions are the true heart of Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, as they allow creators, authors, and producers to present their projects to commissioners and investors. The sessions offer a high-value visibility platform.
International Pitching Sessions
Of the 356 proposals received this year, only 31 have passed the cut of the exhaustive editorial committees, composed of television industry experts from around the world, and will participate in the international pitch sessions: Copro Series (for fiction series), High-End Series (high-budget series), Music Series (fiction series where music has a special relevance), Docu-drama (documentary series with elements of fiction) and Feelgood Formats (for television program formats with elements of humor).
In addition to these, 6 projects will participate in the Pitch Fundación SGAE after having been selected in the Foundation’s XI Laboratory for the Creation of Television Series.
All of them will compete for one of the 19 awards that the event will present this year, including the Council of Europe Award for the Development of Series Co-production, which is valued at €50,000 in cash for the chosen project.
Getting to know the Focus Countries 2024: Brazil and Portugal
Throughout six “Panorama” sessions with the participation of around twenty executives from each delegation, the opportunities and challenges of these two key markets will be presented: the booming Lusophone audiovisual sector led by Brazil and Portugal has generated great expectations in recent years, and these conferences will delve into the sector, the content and the Portuguese and Brazilian talent from a dual cultural and commercial perspective of the industry.
Conecta Digital
Conecta Digital is a new parallel section within the official programming of Conecta 2024, developed with the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. It brings together a set of activities designed to promote the creation and dissemination of digital content in the audiovisual industry: through a series of round tables, conferences, workshops, and networking spaces, the place of the audiovisual work in the digital sphere will be analyzed along its entire value chain, from its creation to its consumption by the viewer.
At the Awards Gala on Thursday, the 20th, the five winning projects of the Conecta Digital Award will be announced. Those that best incorporate elements of digital creation among all participants in the pitching sessions will receive a program of individual mentoring sessions and on-site accreditation for the Conecta Digital event to be held in November in Madrid.
Commissioners Pitching
One of the main new features of this 8th edition of Conecta is the Commissioners Pitching sessions, in which the main programming managers of leading channels and platforms from America, Europe, and Spain will take the stage individually to explain the keys to their programming strategies, their content needs, what they produce and acquire, and the best way to contact them.
Some of the companies that have confirmed their participation are Amazon Prime Video (Spain), Globo (Brazil), Max (Iberia and Italy), The Walt Disney Company (LatAm), YLE (Finland), Movistar Plus+ (Spain), RAI (Italy), Disney+ (Spain), ZDF (Germany), RTVE (Spain), Universal International Studios (USA), Atresmedia (Spain) or Rakuten (Spain).
Up-close conversations with global streamers
Spokespeople from four platforms with the largest global footprint and reach will appear in Conecta 2024 keynotes. They will share their knowledge of global consumer trends, innovative strategies to reach their audience, and the importance of their original production.
They are Javiera Balmaceda, head of local originals LatAm, Canada & Australia at Amazon Studios; Kai Finke, chief content officer at SkyShowtime; Phillipe Carrasco, head of film and TV content partnerships at YouTube (Brazil); and Mariano Cesar, senior VP of general entertainment content & programming strategy LatAm & US Hispanics at Warner Bros. Discovery – Max (Argentina).
Shooting in Spain
Thanks to ICEX-Invest’s participation in Spain, the growing relevance that Spain is acquiring as a destination for international film, series, programs, documentaries, and advertising shoots will be highlighted.
Through its Shooting in Spain brand, ICEX-Invest in Spain is organizing its “ICEX-Invest in Spain Networking Breakfast” on Wednesday, a matchmaking breakfast that will bring together international production companies interested in shooting in Spain and local service companies specialized in providing support to foreign productions.
This will be followed by the round table “Deciphering the Spanish tax incentive,” in which the law firm Ecija and the Mallorcan service production company Palma Pictures will address crucial issues for audiovisual productions, such as tax incentives and tax breaks.
The Walt Disney Company returns to Conecta 2024
The company will exclusively present two of its upcoming fiction series: the Disney LatAm team will offer the premiere of the first two episodes of Vidas Bandidas, a new Brazilian action-drama series from Star Original Productions that will be coming to Disney+ very soon.
Disney+ Spain will present its new original fiction Ayla & los Mirror, a musical series aimed at young audiences.
In addition to repeating as sponsors of the event by offering the valuable prize of a development contract for the best project of the pitch sessions, RTVE will star in a panel on Thursday afternoon that will review the fiction and factual titles that will see the light soon on its channels and digital platforms.
The historical crime series Asuntos Internos, the international thriller Cicatriz, the docuseries Megamix Brutal, and the multi-award winning European co-production Esto no es Suecia. Later that afternoon, the network will offer the first images of Weiss & Morales, the new Spanish-German co-production it produces with German public broadcaster ZDF.
At the forefront of trends
Always at the forefront of global content trends, Conecta will once again count on the participation of María Rúa Aguete from the British firm Omdia, who will open the conference program by offering a detailed analysis of the opportunities and challenges for the audiovisual industry hidden in the latest data collected by the consultancy.
On the same Wednesday, the masterclass, Mastering the Art of Content Marketing, offered in collaboration with G.E.M.A. (The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences), will take place, and expert Isabelle Hen-Wollmarker will review good and bad practices in entertainment marketing using inspiring examples.
