ANNECY, France — “Mom Hurries Home,” “Selfish” and “The Tales of the Hedgehog” feature among eight projects at an Annecy MIFA TV Pitches session which looks to have grown in importance and quality over recent years.
This year, 136 projects were submitted for a maximum of eight slots, said MIFA projects head Geraldine Baché, adding that among all the Mifa Pitches’ categories, the TV Special & Series has grown the most in these last few years.
“Due to the quantity of projects we receive, I can honestly confirm that quality has also much improved,” Bache added, saying that MIFA received projects from all over the world with a personal identity and a strong personality. “Most are innovative but definitely try to match market demand, which is quiet new in fact!”
Fielding different demands from broadcasters, MIFA has consciously created a session, taking place June 15, with a notable diversity in projects’ geographical origin, genre and primary target.
A 2D pre-school TV-web series, Ukraine’s “Mom Hurries Home” melds quaint warm colors, a fanciful plot with fairy tale, poetic and magical elements such as dwarves, dragons and a family enhancing theme of two parents battling to get home from work in the big city in order to spend more time with their young son, who has befriended a baby dragon. “Mom Hurries Home” is created by Ukraine-based Glowberry, an upscale multimedia producer whose execs have experience in animation and children’s book authorship. It shows.
French 2D project for young adults/adults, the one-minute episodes of social satire series “Selfish” riff in a humorous fashion on the impact of technology on people and their relationships. Fish, or at least humans with fish heads who are clumsy. grumpy, self-regarding, sometimes gentle and fragile. popular a contempt world. Boldly drawn, “Selfish” is created by a young team of Nicolas Trotignon and Mathieu Vernerie and inspired by the social burlesque of Jacques Tati, though the satire looks far more aggressive.
The exquisite “The Tales of the Hedgehog,” a half-hour film from Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, Academy Award nominated for feature “A Cat in Paris,” mixes their hallmark painterly backgrounds, children’s thriller storyline and gains in social point in the story of a plucky young daughter who tries to help out when dad is laid off at the local factory.
MIFA received a lot of projects sporting dinosaurs as main characters, Baché. Two made the 2017 cut.
“Dino Meets Robo” weighs in as a children’s edutainment series about the world’s last dinosaur – who befriends a robot as both explore the world around them. Targeting 4-5s, and combining stop motion, 2D digital animation and a 3D built set, the series is directed by Basel Nasr, based out of Palestine’s Maṣna‘ al Rusūm al Mutaḥarrikah, and Germany-Jordan-based writer-director-art director Ahmad Saleh, whose “Ayny – My Second Eye” won an Academy Award for best student film in the foreign animation category.
Created by Canada’s Mathias Richard Horhager, series director for Jim Henson’s “Dot,” and Bogota-based animator Juan M. Urbina, “Distinguished Dinosaurs” channels U.S. pop culture into the tale of bunch of dinosaurs, domesticated by a millionaire, who travel the world. Billed as “‘Jurassic Park’ meets ‘Indiana Jones’ meets ‘Around the World in 80 Days,’” “Distinguished Dinosaurs’” goal is to being back the classic Spielberg-like family adventure, the series’ creators promise.
Three further series round up the 2017 MIFA TV Series & Specials selection. Two more, as “Distinguished Dinosaurs,” hark back to ‘80s Spielberg.
A 20-minute French sci-fi comedy for 6-12s, “20,000 Years After” sees Nanoko, the eight-year-old daughter of a world-famous astrophysicist mum, whom she hardly sees, accidentally transports her whole family 20,000 years into the future. Inspired by ‘60s cartoons, such as Ozamu Tezuka’s, mixing broadly-drawn 2D characters and 3D backgrounds, “20,000 Years Later” is a “mix of ‘Malcolm,’ ‘Jurassic Park’ and H.G. Wells’ ’The Time Machine,’” its creators say.
A comedic sci-fi adventure series aimed at “discerning” 6-11s, according to a presentation, “Karyn Splitter: Alien Sitter” turns on human girl living in a small Texan town who babysits aliens’ offspring, attempting not to endanger the future of the world. The 2D computer TV series is created and written by Jon Dalgaard, co-creator of ABC pilot “Bedhead.” “Take the wondrous charm of ‘80s Spielberg, push it through a “Gumball” humor-grinder, and wrap it in “Regular Show’s” simple-yet-effective storytelling,” and you have “Karyn Splitter: Alien Sitter,” Dalgaard suggests.
Directed by Hefang Wei, based out of France’s Valence, one of France’s major animation hubs, and written by Patricia Mortagne, “Viva Mexico” is to be made in dainty 2D. Waving the flag for cultural diversity, it narrates the adventures of a little French girl in Mexico.
