The complete programme of the event was presented this morning at a press conference with the participation of Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha and the collaborating institutions ICEX-Invest in Spain and Fundación SGAE.
Conecta Fiction & Entertainment presented the highlights of the programme for its eighth edition this morning at the Castilla-La Mancha Tourism Promotion Office in Madrid. The forum for professionals from the audiovisual sector, with Brazil and Portugal as this year’s focus countries, will be held from 18 to 21 June at the Palacio de Congresos El Greco in Toledo.
The press conference was attended by the Regional Minister of Economy, Business and Employment of Castilla-La Mancha, Patricia Franco, who after opening the meeting with media and partner institutions of Conecta, stressed how the relevance of the audiovisual sector for the economy of Castilla-La Mancha has evolved very favourably since Conecta was first held in Toledo in 2022: “between January and May 2024, our film commission has managed 40 productions in the region and has processed more than 700 filming permits”.
Afterwards, the director of the event, Géraldine Gonard, thanked this year’s collaborating organisations for their attendance and support, giving the floor to the spokespersons of two of them, who took the opportunity to give some details of the initiatives that will underpin their participation in the forum: Javier Yraola, project management director of ICEX-Invest in Spain, whose objectives are to boost the attraction of international filming to Spain and to promote the Spain Audiovisual Bureau, a one-stop shop for all enquiries about the Spanish audiovisual industry. Silvia Pérez de Pablos, institutional director of audiovisuals at Fundación SGAE, highlighted the holding of yet another year of the specific mentoring and pitching programme, a unique showcase for the authors of the six winning projects of the 11th Laboratory for the Creation of Television Series promoted by Fundación SGAE.
Gonard then gave a summary of the contents of the programme, highlighting that “in total we will offer 71 activities with 175 speakers, 49.1% of whom will be women”. The delegations from the focus countries will be made up of 50 Portuguese and 30 Brazilian participants; both countries together represent “a market of more than 217 million potential viewers and a long history of content production”. In addition to the now famous pitching sessions, which this year have the added attraction of the Council of Europe, home of Eurimages, Series Co-production Development Award, valued at €50,000 in cash prize, the conference agenda will analyse the wealth generated by the audiovisual industry in adjacent sectors such as tourism and services; the numerous advantages that, together with one of the most competitive tax incentives in Europe, position Spain as a preferential destination for international filming; the innovative Commissioners Pitching sessions, in which spokespersons for the world’s major entertainment brands will detail their content needs; premieres and exclusive presentations of scripted titles that will soon be hitting screens all over the world; as well as numerous networking moments in the form of breakfasts and after-work cocktails that will put the finishing touch to the three intense days of work.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2024 PROGRAM
RTVE and its soon-to-be released titles
The Spanish public broadcaster, which repeats as one of the sponsors of the event by offering the coveted prize of a development contract for the best project of the pitch sessions, will star on the afternoon of Thursday 20th with two panels where it will review the scripted and factual titles that will soon be released on its channels and digital platforms: the historical crime series Internal affairs produced by Mediacrest; the international thriller Scar by Plano a Plano; the docuseries Megamix Brutal by Producciones del Barrio; and the multi-award winning co-production This is not Sweden.
The Awards Gala of Conecta Fiction & Entertainment (to be held on the same day at 5:45pm in the Auditorium of the Palacio de Congresos El Greco) will be preceded by the preview of the first insights of Weiss & Morales, the new Spanish-German co-production of RTVE with its counterpart ZDF, a procedural series filmed in the Canary Islands starring Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Katia Fellin. The presentation will be attended by representatives of both public broadcasters, as well as the production companies Portocabo and Nadcon Film.
Exclusive presentations of new Disney+ series
The Walt Disney Company will once again make a significant contribution to Conecta 2024 in two ways, as it will exclusively present two of its upcoming scripted series: the Disney LatAm team will lead the premiere of Vidas bandidas, a new Brazilian action and drama series from Star Original Productions slated to premiere on Disney+ soon. The screening of its first two episodes on Wednesday 19th at 7pm in the Auditorium of the Palacio de Congresos El Greco, will be open to the public of the capital of La Mancha, who will be able to learn first-hand the story of Serginho (Rodrigo Simas) and Raimundo (Thomás Aquino), partners in crime who work for the gang of Bruna (Juliana Paes), robbing tourists in Rio de Janeiro.
The Disney premieres will continue with the exclusive presentation of Ayla & the Mirrors, a new original scripted YA series from Disney+ España where music plays a fundamental role. On Friday 21st from 12pm, representatives from Disney, Federation Spain (producer) and Plus Music (music supervisor) will share in the panel Ayla & the Mirrors: 360º management of an IP the challenges involved in creating from scratch an IP aimed at young audiences with the aim of turning it into a successful franchise.
New Conecta Digital forum in November 2024
AI, immersive experiences, metaverse, extended reality… these are just some of the concepts that will shape Conecta Digital, a new parallel section within the official programme that will offer round tables, keynotes, workshops, networking spaces and project pitching sessions to analyse and demonstrate how these resources can take audiovisual production to still unimaginable limits.
In addition, at the Awards Gala on Thursday 20th, the Conecta Digital Award will be presented to the five projects that best integrate the digital creation tools, consisting of a programme of individual mentoring sessions and an in-person accreditation for the event of the same name, which will take place in November in Madrid.
