Laurine Garaude Previews MIPCOM Highlights

NEW YORK/PARIS: Laurine Garaude, the director of the television division at Reed MIDEM, tells World Screen that more than 14,000 delegates are expected at MIPCOM this year, including a record number of buyers, with close to 5,000 anticipated on site.

Attendees this year include some 70 new exhibitors, Garaude notes, among them brand-new pavilions from New Zealand, the Philippines, Chile and Russia.

The conference and market, which kicks off October 17, will also see a record number of product launches, Garaude reveals. “In terms of market screenings we will have 15, including five World Premiere Screenings,” Garaude says. “We’ve never had such huge demand for screenings.”

The screenings begin on the eve of the market’s opening with a double billing on Sunday: The Halcyon from Sony Pictures Television and Mata Hari from Red Arrow International. On Monday night delegates can watch Beta Film’s The Same Sky, marking the first time a German production has landed the coveted World Premiere Screening slot. On Tuesday, attendees will be treated to a screening of a Shonda Rhimes series, presented by Disney Media Distribution, followed at 10 p.m. by The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again debut presented by Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution. The screening schedule also includes AwesomenessTV’s Freakish, Newen Distribution’s OURO, all3media International’s The Missing season two, Beta Film’s Maximilian and Marie de Bourgogne, NBCUniversal International’s Jamestown, Global Screen’s Charité and Fangar-Prisoners, and the Chinese drama The Legendary Tycoon about Sir Run Run Shaw, plus BBC Worldwide’s Planet Earth II and Fox Networks Group Content Distribution’s MARS.

For Garaude, the wealth of new products being launched at MIPCOM fit in perfectly with the over-arching theme of the entire conference schedule—“The New Television”—reflecting the diversity of styles and storytellers and the input of new technologies, including VR, on the market today.

The theme of “The New Television” is also reflected in MIPCOM’s keynote speaker lineup. On the agenda are MIPCOM Personality of the Year honoree Shonda Rhimes and Disney/ABC’s Ben Sherwood, both of whom will be interviewed in the Grand Auditorium by World Screen’s Anna Carugati. Other highlights include Designated Survivor star Kiefer Sutherland and YouTube’s Susanne Daniels. In addition, the Media Mastermind Keynote series kicks off Monday with Sony Corporation’s Kazuo Hirai. His address will be part of a wealth of sessions celebrating MIPCOM Country of Honour Japan.

“Japan is the sixth-largest delegation at MIPTV and MIPCOM and has been a very active part of MIP since very early on,” Garaude says, noting a 30-percent-plus increase in delegates from Japan. Sessions will explore Japanese formats, drama, documentaries and anime. Japan will also take center stage at the opening party at the Martinez, which will feature food prepped by more than ten chefs being flown in from Japan and entertainment courtesy of Ken Ishii, DJ Calm, Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, and Hifana. There will also be screenings of NHK Enterprises’ Moribito II: Guardian of the Spirit and WOWOW’s Cold Case Japan.

Another key strand at MIPCOM this year is the Carriage Deal Forum, now in its third year, with some 350 channel buyers in attendance. MIPCOM will also feature six sessions over three days focused on emerging opportunities in VR.

Brand-new to MIPCOM this year is the Diversity Summit, with A+E Networks, plus Afrostream and Sonar Entertainment. Set for the Tuesday, it will focus on developing solutions to address the issue of under-represented groups in television. Reed MIDEM is also working with A+E Networks on the returning Women in Global Entertainment power lunch.