The 2024 International Animation Film Market (MIFA) has announced its official program running June 11-14 alongside the Annecy Festival. This year, the Market opens its doors to video gaming and gives an additional boost to immersive content with a new dedicated space. Le Campus Mifa program will also be beefed up thanks to Regina Pessoa, its new patron, while the Ankama studio will be celebrated with the Mifa Animation Industry Award.
Headed by Véronique Encrenaz, MIFA 2024 will take place over an area of more than 11,000 m². More than 160 events are planned, plus 190 stands in the Exhibition Area and the brand new XR&Games Area. This new space will foster synergies between animation, immersive content and video gaming, opening up to new technological, artistic and narrative horizons and maximizing crossovers between projects and audiences. The WIP XR, previously held in the Salle Pierre Lamy, will move to the new area.
Located in the Imperial Palace’s Convention Centre, MIFA’s Industry Content section will host different event formats to cater to all industry professionals:
22 Pitch sessions:
- Six MIFA Pitch sessions – The number of projects sent in for the MIFA Pitches continues to grow, with a record 760 projects received from 82 different countries. Forty-one projects were selected for the different categories: Short Films (one session, 11 projects), Feature Films (two sessions, 12 projects), TV Series & Specials (two sessions, 12 projects), Digital Experiences (one session, six projects). Of these, 21 were directed by women, and these include 16 stand-alone French productions or co-productions with France.
- Sixteen Partners Pitch sessions – As part of the Partners Pitch sessions, 80 projects from every continent (six from Asia, four from Europe, three from the Americas and three from Africa) will be presented, with more and more countries vying to participate. The Indian and Taiwanese Partners Pitches are the fruit of the International MIFA Campus workshops recently held in those countries with support from Netflix.
Twelve MIFA Conferences in Four Categories:
- Creation:
- Is Motion Design Animation?
- How Do You Create an Iconic Animation Character?
- The Art of Miniatures and Puppets in Animation Film
- Tech:
- AI: Between Fantasy and Reality
- What Are the Crossovers between Research and Animation?
- The Hybrid Image and Its Democratization
- Business:
- FAST and Furious: Direct to Consumers Content Distribution
- Navigating the Metaverse for Fun and Profit
- The Hybrid Image and Its Democratization
- XR:
- Held in the new XR&Games area (see below)
Press Conferences
- Including France Télévisions, Groupe M6, AnimFrance, le SPI, Mediawan, CANAL+, Kasagi Labo
Demo Sessions
- Including Pixar’s RenderMan, Foundry, Mikros Animation, SideFX, Lenovo, Autodesk, Paramount Animation, TVPaint, Procreate
Studio Focus
- Disney Television Animation, Fortiche, Warner Bros., DNEG Animation, Adult Swim, DreamWorks, Blue Spirit, Bobbypills
Industry Panels
- Women in Animation World Summit, Variety, Telefilm Canada, Epic Games, Focus on Portugal, Unifrance, Next Lab Generation, Ibermedia Next, Story Critters
Share With
- The Market will host talks with major players of the audiovisual world, presenting their latest and greatest: Disney Branded Television, Hulu, Warner Bros., Amazon, The New York Times, Akili Network, Crunchyroll, BBC, ARTE France, Super RTL, Groupe M6, Ketnet
Meet the…
- Six sessions of targeted meet-ups to help composers, publishers, festival programmers, producers (Gap Financing), sellers and buyers with their scheduled appointments throughout the week.
Short Film Forums
- The “short film” line-up of three different companies
- What’s so special about a TV special: halfway between short film and audiovisual work organized by France in Shorts
MIFA Animation Industry Award
- Winner: Ankama. The prize will be awarded Monday, June 10. On Friday, June 14, company founder Anthony Roux will teach a masterclass at the XR&Games Area.
For its second year in its new location, Le Campus MIFA welcomes its patron: multiple award-winning Portuguese animation artist and creator of the 2024 Festival poster: Regina Pessoa. She is following in the footsteps of Guillermo del Toro, Richard Williams, Nora Twomey, Marguerite Abouet, Masaaki Yuasa and Jorge R. Gutierrez.
On the Talent Content agenda:
Recruitment
Along with the Recruiters Talk event covering Studio Hari, DNEG Animation, nWave Studios, Illumination Studio Paris and LAIKA, as well as more than 35 Recruitment Sessions already scheduled, there will be close to 25 studios on hand detailing new career openings. Among them: Warner Bros. and Netflix (U.S.A.), Walt Disney EMEA (U.K.), Lighthouse Studios and Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), DogHead Animation (Italy), Tomavision (Spain), Melusine/Studio 352 (Luxembourg) as well as many French studios, including Blue Spirit, Ankama, Tchak, Watch Next Media and Gaumont.
Talent Panels
Specifically designed for attendance by students and young creatives, this programming will include nearly 20 Talent Panels over the four days of the Campus, with many famed guests and studios:
- Regina Pessoa
- ArtStation
- Walt Disney Studios
- Cartoon Saloon
- Mo Sutton
- Nicolas Deveaux
- Gobelins and its program for talent training in Benin
- the Première Page system
- the team of the Annecy 2023 Cristal for a Graduation Film La notte (Martina Generali, Simone Pratola and Francesca Sofia Rosso)
- documentary series She Creates Change presented by Nexus Studios
- Mark Flanagan (Animal Logic/Netflix) and Mark Simon Hewis (Aardman Academy) for a debate on newcomers to the industry
- Silas Hickey (Custom Nuts) and Tony Izumi (Kasagi Labo) discussing Japanese animation and anime
- an introduction to PANEURAMA, the pan-European alliance for innovation in animation
- Music Day (Friday, June 14) in partnership with the Sacem
Located not far from the Imperial Palace and Campus MIFA, the Chambre de Métiers will house the new XR&Games Area: 1,000 m², 10 rooms on four floors, a 200-seat conference hall, an XR viewing area, a video gaming spot and a bar & lounge to boot — the Coffee Corner.
A plethora of exchanges on video games are planned, with close-up looks at Spain and the African continent, participation of major studios such as Lex & Otis, TeamTO, DIGIC Pictures, Passion Pictures, Crunchyroll, as well as a masterclass by Ankama. An award for best video game cinematic will be unveiled at the XR&Games Area’s opening cocktail on the evening of Tuesday, June 11.
The Video Game Cinematic Works & Game Trailers Competition had more than 60 projects submitted. A few of the names on the 2024 roster: DIGIC Pictures, Passion Pictures, Psyop, Axis Studio, Platige Image, The Line.
WIP XR Presentations:
- Ito Meikyu by Boris Labbé (Sacrebleu Productions, Les Films Fauves, Parangon)
- Pagnol le magicien by Nicolas Cabos (What The Prod, Small Creative)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom by Kenichi Suzuki (Bandai Namco Filmworks, Atlas V)
- Garden Alchemy by Michelle and Uri Kranot (Khora Contemporary, The Animation Workshop/VIA University College, TinDrum Production)
- Laissez-nous raconter notre lien au territoire, aux rêves et aux astres by Karine Lanoie Brien, Kim Picard and Élodie Pollet (Terre Innue)
Digital Experience Pitches:
- Six XR projects in development will be presented on Tuesday, June 11 at 2 pm.
XR Conferences:
- Animation, Dance and Interactivity
- “Wallace & Gromit” : Will IP Save XR?
- XR Tests the Documentary Format
Gaming Conferences:
- Video Game Cinematics Masterpieces
- IPs Expending Beyond Original Mediums
- Special Focus on Spanish Video Games
There will also be a new and enlarged area for almost 190 stands and pavilions, including 25 new technologies’ stands and 20 schools.
Accreditation is now open for MIFA 2024 in Annecy, France (June 11-14). Visit annecyfestival.com for full programming details and to purchase passes.
