A new day of great dynamics in terms of meetings, important announcements, crowded screenings and attractive activities have managed to maintain the pace -and the more than positive feelings- at Mipcom Cannes 2024.

*By Luis Cabrera and Ana Paula Carreira, from Cannes, France

The announcements, the screenings and the stars; everything seems bigger in Cannes. Mipcom 2024 has brought a smile back to an industry that is still going through difficult times, thanks to a great dynamic of meetings – with full tables and overflowing pavilions – screenings with packed auditoriums and multiple activities by companies competing for the attention of buyers.

In this sense, bringing talent from the main series has been a successful formula for Turkish companies. What we saw yesterday from Madd and Calinos was brought back to life today thanks to Kanal D International, which brought to Cannes six actors from its main series, including the four leads from Secret of Pearls and the main couple from its new title, My Mother’s Tale. KDI held a brief activation at its stand and then, at the Le Majestic hotel, a spectacular cocktail party.

Inter Medya also brought talent, in this case, behind the scenes, in the form of producers Timur Savcı and Burak Sağyaşar, the founders of TIMS&B, with whom the Can Okan distributor has a long and successful relationship, which it hopes to expand with the title Valley of Hearts.

Mistco, meanwhile, has also had enormous commercial activity in Cannes, thanks to a catalogue of proven hits, such as The Town Doctor, Come What May or Melek, A Mother’ Struggle: “We are very excited to be at Mipcom for another year, bringing our content highlights,” shared María Espino, Sales Director for Latin America and Iberia at Mistco.

Behind this type of content are companies such as the Italian Publispei, which has found results with the adaptation of international hits and has set its sights on Korean and Turkish dramas: “We want to adapt Turkish and Korean series in Italy, because we find that they are very successful in the market and it is something that is missing within the Italian television offer,” said Antonio Adinolfi, Head of Business & Commercial Affairs at Publispei.

Beyond Turkey, European distributors have expressed their satisfaction with the pace of Mipcom 2024. Distributors such as SIC have arrived with enormous anticipation given the quality of their titles: “At Mipcom we are presenting two original SIC titles. One is La Promesa (Broken Promise), based on a Turkish format. It is a 100% Portuguese production, with Portuguese actors. The other is La señora del mar, a story about a fighting woman that takes place in spectacular landscapes and although it is a love story, it is different,” said Carlota Vieira, Content Sales Deputy Director at SIC.

As a Country of Honor, Spain is enjoying a fantastic event and its pavilion does not find an empty table, something that is repeated in other countries such as Italy, China or Canada.

After being protagonists of Iberseries with the Atresmedia Day, the Spanish company is back in action thanks to its upcoming premiere, El gran salto: “I think it has been a long time since a biopic of a sports character was made, one that had a story behind it that was as powerful as that of Gervasio Deferr. Where the important thing is not how he got to the top, but how he did not know how to stay there and how he had to be reborn,” said Miguel García, Head of International Sales at Atresmedia TV International Sales.

In a similar vein, Mediaset España (Mediterráneo) is present with titles such as La Favorita 1922 and El Marqués: “We have come to present our Spanish productions. We have brought few productions, because we are adjusting the production and adapting it to what is our cinema strategy: fewer, better chosen, and with the best production,” shared Ghislain Barrois, director of Cinema Sales and Acquisitions, Mediaset España.

Meanwhile, during this Mipcom, Onza Distribution revealed the sale of several outstanding titles from its catalogue to Portugal, Romania, Croatia, Latvia and Mozambique. Among the most relevant productions are telenovelas such as Cacao and Para Siempre, and recent hits such as Perverso, Flores sobre el infierno, Atasco and Los mil días de Allende.

Towards the end of the day, Mediacrest held a special cocktail to announce the launch of Mediacrest Global Production & Services, a new business unit that will be led by Denis Pedregosa, Director of Services, and Mónica Guerrero, Production executive. «Mediacrest has had an international focus from the beginning, doing projects with international partners, going abroad and bringing projects to Spain as well», said Monica Guerrero. «And this launch is a bit of a way to grow in this sense. Bringing more projects to Spain.»

GLOBO TO THE WORLD

From Latin America, Globo has had a spectacular Mipcom, with multiple announcements, including new local adaptations for its formats, a path that they began two years ago in another edition of Mipcom: «Two years ago, at Mipcom, we decided to start talking to the market about formats. And it’s really amazing to see that there’s an opportunity for our formats. Because all over the world, producers and channels need ideas, they need stories with good track records, with proven success,” explained Angela Colla, Head of International Business and Co-Productions at Globo. In this edition, the effort resulted in new adaptations of Justice and The Others, for Greece and also The Others for German-speaking territories.

In addition, the executive highlighted the co-production agreement with Beta Film, a “very important” one for Globo: “We want to be more present in Europe. We will produce a very Brazilian series, but with greater capacity to travel. Beta is very good at that. They will give it the international touch, so that it is a high-quality series like Globo does, with an international touch for European markets.”

From the US, meanwhile, Amazon MGM Studios is very optimistic about its new original for MGM+ (only in the US), Earth Abides: “It has six episodes and is set in a post-apocalyptic future, but in a near future and something that feels real. We don’t have zombies or fancy sci-fi. It’s based on a classic work, a book by George R. Stewart. And it’s real. It feels real after Covid. It’s a virus that’s killing off most of the population,” said Chris Ottinger, Head of Worldwide Distribution and Acquisition at Amazon MGM Studios.

In terms of unscripted content, Keshet did a nice activation around its docuseries Earthbound, sharing the trailer for it and donating 8 euros for each individual viewing to the initiative that seeks to transform plastic waste into building material: “We were looking for an environmental story that could reach a broad and global audience. Many environmental documentaries are very sad. And we were very specific in finding an optimistic, joyful and solution-oriented story,” said Farhoud Meybodi, founder of Keshet Broadcasting, and director of Earthbound.

The second day of Mipcom also served as the backdrop for a variety of announcements by the companies present, highlighting the launch of the second edition of Banijay Launch; a new adaptation for the Japanese drama Mother, by Nippon TV; the arrival of Nightsleeper, by Fremantle, to almost 150 territories; or the presentation of the new format by Talpa Studios and Acun Medya, Muscles & Brains.

The day closed with a significant number of cocktails, in addition to the one mentioned by KDI, offered by companies such as Global Agency, Acunmedya or the one organised by WAWA, among others.