In the past five years, I’ve seen the animation, video games and comics event, Festival Pixelatl, develop into a serious contender by connecting, building and promoting the Mexican entertainment industry and its local content creators with international key players.
The organization responsible for this wonderful event is called Pixelatl, which translates as “a water spring of pixels.” It is focused strictly on promoting the creation and broadcasting of content and multimedia narrative, enhancing and demonstrating to the world what Mexico’s creative community has to offer.
Guided by its Director, Jose Iñesta, along with Pixelatl’s superb team of support staff and volunteers, the Festival was held in Cuernavaca, Mexico from September 6-11, 2016.
Festival Pixelatl this year counted 1,871 attendees, primarily from Canada, Mexico and the United States. Thirty Mexican animation studios participated in over 432 business meetings with studios from outside Mexico, and over 200 recruiting sessions took place between Mexican professionals and international studios.
Top level executives from prominent organizations who attended included: BBC, Disney Worldwide, Disney Junior, Cartoon Network LatAm, Discovery Kids LatAm, Nickelodeon, Televisa, TVE, Sony Animation, Reel Fx, Bento Box Entertainment, Reel FX, Citizen Skull, 10 ave. and several production companies.
More than 60 national and international guests were invited to participate in over 50 lectures and workshops. A few of the notable names: Kim Jung Gi, Shannon Tindle, Megan Brain, Bruce Zick, Mariel Kinuko Cartwright, Ana Ramirez, Tony Sandoval, Aya Suzuki, LeSean Thomas, Steve Emerson, Karen Kirkland, Rick Mischel, James Williams, Samantha Price and Chuck Peil, among others.
La Feria, or the expo side of Festival Pixelatl, greeted attendees into its Comic Alley with an impressive display titled “Esculturas Fantasmas” created by the team of filmmakers, animators and puppet masters at Cinema Fantasma. The display showcased characters and props built for commissioned short promotional segments for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon as well as the characters created for their award winning stop motion animated short film, Revoltoso.
One of the most impressive segments at the event was the Pitch Panels, where participants that had signed up in advanced were able to pitch their projects and receive feedback from industry veterans such as Rick Mischel from Sony, Chuck Peil from Reel FX and Karen Miller from Disney.
This year was my first time attending Festival Pixelatl and I assure you that I will be back. It’s a “can’t be missed” event, with much heart, soul and passion for the digital industry from the very best of Mexico’s creative community.
Mark your dates and begin making plans to attend Pixelatl’s El Festival to be held in Cuernavaca, Mexico, September 5 -10, 2017.
Event competition winners:
Category: Ideatoon 2016
First Place: “Viking Tales” by Ivanobich Verduzco Valdéz, Luispa Salmón and Claudio Jiménez
Second Place (Special Mention): “The Adventures of Aero-Girl” by Axur Eneas and Dewayne Feenstra
Third Place (Special Mention): “Coco y Yoko” by Raúl “Robin” Morales
Category: Ideatoon Movies 2016
Winner: “El báculo de las nubes” by Sant Arellano
Category: SecuenciArte 2016
First Place: “Aleatorio Vol. 1” by Edkkar
Second Place: “La irrelevante pero necesaria muerte de Lobaberta Sullivana” by Sergio Neri
Third Place: “Emmy” by Raven Bazán
Fourth Place: “Jonás y la ballena” by Verde Agua
Category: Animated Short “Eso que nos Une” (“That Which Unites Us”)
Winner National Category: “Taller de corazones” by León Fernández
Winner International Category: “Symphony of Two Minds” by Valere Amirault
Cartoon Network “Pitch me Anything”
Winner: “Perrita del Espacio” by Gabriel Frugone
Discovery Kids, La Amistad nos Vuelve Nosotros
Winner: “Amistad” by Steve Granados
The organizers of Festival Pixelalt would like to send a special thank you to:
Dos Equis and Strongbow, key players on the success and production of the event. For its sponsorship and beautiful facilities, Hotel Las Mañanitas. Cartoon Network and Discovery Kids for the partnership in the sponsored contests. SAE Institute, Touch Markers and Distribuidora Rodin. And last but not least, Quebec Export and Acción Cultural Española for bringing their country delegations to explore and potentially create long term partnerships with the wonderful people of Mexico.
Diego Rojas is an entrepreneur and entertainment consultant with nearly 20 years experience in business development, digital artist management and conference production for the animation, video game and visual effects Industries.
