By Fabricio Ferrara
During the almost two years that Covid-19 prevented a return to physical markets, Prensario Kids & Teens has participated at twice as many venues compared to pre-pandemic times. Virtuality allowed it to be present not only at the three traditional ones, Kidscreen, Quirino Awards, and MIP Junior, but also add KingstOOn (April), Annecy (June), and Pixelatl (September) to its calendar, as well as Animation! / Ventana Sur (December).
One thing has been clear at all of them: animation is more active than ever. And has been, without doubt, the genre that has best adapted itself to the crisis. Its own nature favors remote work; technologies applied to its development and production have improved; tax support has been reinforced; and, places of origin have strongly diversified: Africa, MENA, Latin America, among other regions, are now producing it.
While the industry is no stranger to economy blows, the impact of this particular one has been hardly noticeable in operational and creative terms. On the contrary, the animation world closes a good 2021 with more projects; new technology has been implemented; existing drives have surged again with more force, as is the case of Stop Motion; topic and origin diversity have improved, all resulting in great prospects for the years to come.
This special MIPJunior issue features a bit of all of this: special reports on the industry as well as on videogames, the other great driver that is pushing volume figures up. In addition, there are key reports on linear and non-linear players in China, Latin America, Europe and the USA.
This is a must-see edition, underscoring that animation faces only a way for the future: to keep growing.
