MIP CANCUN’s Maria Pérez-Bellière on What to Expect at the 2025 Edition

Now in its 12th edition, MIP CANCUN returns to the Moon Palace from Tuesday, November 18, to Friday, November 21, with a greater number of countries represented and more distributors in attendance than last year.

As part of its partnership with TV Latina, the event will feature the session Detrás del guion: una conversación con Leonardo Padrón y José Ignacio Valenzuela, to be held on Wednesday, November 19, at 5 p.m. at the Cancun Theater. Both creators will have the opportunity to discuss their processes and experiences with different platforms, their sources of inspiration and the evolution of the creator’s role.

Just days before the start of the 2025 edition, Maria Pérez-Bellière, director of MIP CANCUN, discusses what’s new this year, the themes driving the conference program and how the event continues to attract new players, among other topics.

WS: What is the focus of MIP CANCUN this year? What’s new for the 2025 edition?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: We are laser-focused this year on helping bridge the gap between mainstream and creator economies, making opportunities happen and hearing from those at the heart of the industry’s transformation.

In short, that’s about exploring new models and new partners that can generate fresh revenue streams for our industry, helping foster more organic collaborations between traditional players and those in the branded entertainment space or behind the emerging platforms that are redefining how content is produced, distributed and monetized. So, in addition to the signature MIP CANCUN elements (such as the content and co-production markets and our unique, structured 1-2-1 meeting program), you’ll see expanded existing popular initiatives like our FAST and AVOD summit and new elements, including a Brand Funded Programming track and a full-day invitation-only Leadership Summit.

WS: What are the key themes driving the conference program?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: Everything is centered around helping companies find those new partnerships in the traditional sales and co-production space as well as across digital-first, brand-funded programming or emerging areas such as micro-dramas.
Take the opening keynote from the head of media companies for YouTube in Spanish Latin America, Juan Pablo Robert, titled Winds of Change: The Forces Driving Video’s Next Chapter, which explores the different ways in which the traditional industry can work with Google’s platform. This follows on from MIPCOM, where YouTube was present for the first time and hosted one of the market’s biggest keynote sessions focused on how content is best discovered, monetized on the platform and what shared success can look like. Similarly, the new branded content strand aims to connect brands, agencies, producers and distributors across the region. It’s that same approach […] thought-leadership, insight, practical know-how and connectivity that you’ll see run through everything at MIP CANCUN.

WS: How have you continued to innovate each year?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: Simply by listening to the MIP CANCUN community as to what they need, mirroring where the industry is and where it’s heading.  Then, ensuring that the foundations and returning elements that people expect from a MIP CANCUN market are as strong and relevant as ever and adding to these by bringing in those new areas that reflect the multifaceted nature of the content industry today.

WS: How are you attracting new distributors and producers who will be participating in the event for the first time?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: We’re thrilled to have such a strong and diverse uptake this year with many debuting producers, countries and distributors—drawn to the program, ongoing health of and respect for the Latin American creative sector and reflecting the new areas and specialities being covered.

So, the likes of LEGO, Roku, TCL and YouTube are among those coming for the first time; there will be 47 countries represented this year in Cancun, up from 40 last year and including debuting delegations from Japan, South Korea, Italy and Thailand, and in all 120 distributors are confirmed to attend (up from 115 last year).

WS: What is the role of new industry players such as FAST channels and micro-dramas at MIP CANCUN this year?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: Both are areas shaping the future of how content is being produced, packaged and enjoyed, and both will feature prominently in the market, in the case of micro-dramas, [there will be] a main stage session with Shawn Wu of COL Group’s FlareFlow, Can Okan of Inter Medya and JC Acosta, head of The Mediapro Studio U.S. & Canada. We’ve also evolved and expanded the popular FAST & AVOD Summit staged in recent years to create the Beyond Streaming Summit. This again mirrors where the sector is at now, exploring strategies, content curation and the role of free ad-supported platforms in an increasingly digital-first ecosystem—with speakers confirmed including Janaina Tadeu from LG Electronics, Abril Frayre de la Torre from YouTube, Catalina Ramos from OTTera, Fernando Muñiz from América Multimedia and Ignacio Martín Galliano from Telecom Argentina.

WS: What is the Leadership Summit about? What is its proposal?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: The Leadership Summit is another new event evolved from an existing one. In this case, we’ve taken the leadership strand out of co-production and expanded it to be a stand-alone around the broader challenges and opportunities that transformation presents. We’ve added analysis (courtesy of Ampere), roundtables and an invitation-only networking lunch event. We’ve been hugely encouraged by the uptake, which will see even more senior decision makers coming to Cancun.

WS: What are your expectations for attendance?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: Attendance is looking really positive. In addition to the rise in distributors and countries I mentioned, we also have more buyers and commissioners (6 percent) year-on-year attending. It’s a really strong and diverse showing all around.

WS: During the years you have led MIP CANCUN, what have been the main challenges and achievements?
PÉREZ-BELLIÈRE: The one piece of feedback I get most often is that MIP CANCUN is “special,” followed by… “don’t mess it up.” There you have our achievement and our ongoing challenge in a nutshell! It’s an honor to stage it, and we strive to meet that mark every year for the community and can’t wait for what promises to be an insightful, prescient and productive market later this month.