Mipcom 2021 comes to an end today within an enthusiasm climax: RX France speaks about 4600 participants, including 1200 buyers, 145 booths from 38 countries and 14 national pavilions. PRENSARIO interviewed a dozen of distributors and they’ve had about 100 meetings each, both real and online. ‘Reactivation is here’, it was said. But above all, everybody stresses Mipcom role of showing in advance the post pandemic market. Mike Beale, head of development at ITV Studios (UK) commented at the FRAPA panel: ‘‘I have learned more about what is going on in the industry in the last 48 hours, than I have by reading reports in the last 6 months’.

Is the picture so strong? It is usual that during the market everything is better than when you are back home. But it is also true that Mipcom is the first traditional market to be real, with many people together intending to reactive projects that were stopped almost two years. The business back inertia looks very fresh and touchable.

Lucy Smith, director of MIP events at RX France, added to the global figures, that the more relaxed Palais helped people to reconnect each other and to make relationships deeper. RX developed the plan it had for MIPTV 2020, of concentrating exhibitors in just two halls -Riviera 7 and 8- with most of the booths having (small) similar sizes. The result was an ‘intimate but very healthy market, with lower costs’, interviewed distributors agreed. Most of their online meetings were made through outside the platform, but hybrid business took place in Cannes.

New genre trends? Tomorrow we will make a more complete wrap up, but after the Fresh TV and other conferences, it is easy to conclude that ‘empowered women’ are the big theme of the moment, pushing against unfair men or system situations. In most of the genres -from fiction to factual and kids- with see the same wave. ‘Women share, they don’t keep the power for themselves, and that’s how we will all benefit’, it was highlighted at the ‘@Mediaclubelles Mentoring & networking’ event, held yesterday in Cannes.

What do they buyers want in Cannes? PRENSARIO onsite check: Geraldine Easter, Director of Programming & Acquisition, UK & Europe, Nine Network (Australia): ‘Big shinny-floor entertainment formats and global dramas’. Yoshinori Meguro, general manager, BS12 (Japan): ‘Suspense and detective European dramas with focus on German, French and British titles’. Laurent Witz, founder and producer, Zeilt Productions (Luxembourg): ‘Kids projects to coproduce, especially with Asian partners’.

Nicolás Smirnoff, Fabricio Ferrara, Alberto Buitron and Marie Roche

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