From 14-15^th October, LoveLove Films headed to MIPJunior – The World’s Showcase for Kids Programming in Cannes, France with our new animated preschool series in development; Bottle Island.

MIP Junior is the leading showcase for kids programming, uniting the world’s most influential buyers, sellers, broadcasters and producers the weekend before the global market for entertainment content across all platforms, MIPCOM. MIPCOM is owned and organised by Reed MIDEM, a subsidiary of Reed Exhibitions who are one of LoveLove’s clients.

Over two days, key TV and digital players, publishers and licensing executives, present, discover and screen the very latest content. LoveLove Films appeared at the event with our project Bottle Island, a fun and fast paced 2D/3D/mixed-media edutainment preschool adventure series that encourages young children to care for their planet by reinforcing themes such as conservation, preservation and the issues surrounding plastic pollution.

LoveLove MD Georgina Hurcombe and Scriptwriter Oliver Selby attended the event in beautiful Cannes, South of France, where the majority of the event took place in the Hotel JW Marriott Cannes. There, we met with fellow Bournemouth based writer Danny Stack, who has written on shows such as PJ Masks, Octonauts and Thunderbirds.

This year, not only MIPJunior were celebrating their 25^th birthday but so were television channel Cartoon Network, making it a very special weekend for both that resulted in the largest MIPJunior attendance since its inception.

Over the course of the weekend, there were numerous conferences, speakers, screenings and keynotes. Here are a few of our highlights:

Cartoon Network: 25 Years of Drawing on Creativity

25 years ago, the way we enjoyed cartoons changed forever when Cartoon Network launched as the very first 24-hour network dedicated to animation. We heard from two executives at the helm of Cartoon Network – Chief Content Officer, Rob Sorcher and Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Ouweleen – as they shared a unique insight behind some of the best creative moments in the history of the channel.

MIPJunior International Pitch

MIPJunior’s International Pitch is a unique competition to discover new, promising kids TV projects. This year saw 5 projects pitch to a panel of industry experts from the BBC, RAI Ragazzi, SUPER RTL, France Télévisions and Nickelodeon. The Australian live-action series Boxwars was named winner. Boxwars involves teams of skilled artists, engineers and designers working with the general public to create objects out of cardboard that are then used to compete in a mock battle. The Boxwars team gave a fun filled pitch and we loved the idea of upcycling, which is very close to our hearts. The LoveLove team are thinking of having a go at building our own Boxwars in the studio!

World Premiere TV Screening – Thomas & Friends™: Big World! Big Adventures!

LoveLove Films attended Mattel’s World Premiere TV Screening of the new series Thomas & Friends™: Big World! Big Adventures! which is due to launch in 2018. The premiere marked the grand unveiling of a huge transformation in content for the world-famous children’s show. The series sees the iconic train engine Thomas traveling farther than ever before, taking kids on a journey of wonder and curiosity as he adventures around the world to experience new countries and cultures. New characters include Nia, an orange train from Africa and Japanese engine Hiro received a rapturous applause. Georgina and Oliver then attended the Thomas & Friends premiere party and chatted with Ian Mccue, Senior Director of Content Creative for Mattel, who gave us some great insight into the production of the series. Afterwards, Georgina and Oliver met and posed with the famous train.

Breakfast & Screen Featuring Pingu

We also attended a breakfast screening of the new Pingu, croissants and coffee in hand. We were eager to see the Pingu’s first transition into 3-D computer animation and it did not disappoint – Pingu hadn’t aged a day. Pingu in the City screened to a packed crowd at MIP Junior – and our MD Georgina was also fortunate enough to meet the mischievous little penguin (well, not so little…)

MIPJunior Keynote – Andy Yeatman, Head of Global Kids Content, Netflix 

We found this Keynote with Netflix’s Andy Yeatman particularly interesting, in which he talked about Netflix’s kids’ strategy, with a speech followed by a sit-down interview with World Screen group editorial director Anna Carugati-Guise. “Our goal is to be the service that kids all over the world can’t do without, and parents trust,” he said. Yeatman talked about Netflix’s ambitions in commissioning original children’s shows and even getting involved in licensing and merchandising.

We had a great time at MIPJunior – we attended workshops, screenings and talks, and had some very positive meetings regarding our series! It was also great to meet likeminded producers and content creators like ourselves – we look forward to visiting sunny Cannes again next year for MIPJunior 2018!

We have a busy schedule of events coming up including The Children’s Media Conference’s Manimation event in Manchester in November, and then Georgina is off to Miami for Kidscreen in February 2018.

To find out more about MIPJunior, visit:

http://www.mipjunior.com/