Laurine Garaude Talks MIPCOM Highlights, Canneseries

More than 14,000 executives are expected to descend on Cannes for MIPCOM this year, including 4,800-plus buyers, Reed MIDEM’s Laurine Garaude tells World Screen.

“We’re heading for a superb MIPCOM,” says Garaude, the director of the television division at Reed MIDEM. “We have many, many launches in all genres, heavy hitter speakers, lots of talent, and some 16-plus screenings, not including the showcases. So it’s again a record MIPCOM in many ways.”

There are more than 70 new exhibitors this MIPCOM, Garaude adds, as well as a VR Zone and a series of 8K screenings.

The conference sessions fall under the banner of “The Global Race for Creative Connections.” Garaude says the theme speaks to the level of competition in the content industry at present and the need to stand out, driving “global players to have multiple local strategies and local players to go for global reach. Partnerships in all this are absolutely key, whether they are with talent between different countries or between digital platforms and the more ‘traditional’ players.”

Garaude references as an example Brittania, which is a co-production between Sky Atlantic and Amazon. Being launched at the market by Sky Vision, Britannia is one of the World Premiere Screenings this year. Several cast members, including David Morrissey, and creator Jez Butterworth, will be on hand in Cannes for the premiere. Other world premieres include Sony Pictures Television’s Counterpart, in the presence of star J.K. Simmons, and NHK’s Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai’s Daughter, lead actress Aoi Miyazaki also coming to Cannes.

Other key premiere screenings this MIPCOM include STUDIOCANAL’s The Lawyer, all3media international’s The Miniaturist and BBC Worldwide’s Blue Planet II.

Garaude also points to a strong keynote schedule, led by Discovery Communications’ David Zaslav, this year’s Personality of the Year. Other highlights include HBO’s Richard Plepler, Gordon Ramsay, National Geographic’s Courteney Monroe, Snap’s Nick Bell and Sean Mills, and Facebook’s Ricky Van Veen and Daniel Danker.

Another overarching theme, Garaude adds, is a focus on Russia. One hundred years since the Russian Revolution, MIPCOM’s “Russian Content Revolution” strand will explore the new wave of high-end content coming out of the market. New shows being screened at MIPCOM include the Tuesday evening World Premiere Screening from Channel One, Trotsky, and NTV Broadcasting’s The Road to Calvary. There will also be a number of events “to foster exchange with Russian companies and talent and to accelerate business with Russia,” Garaude explains.

Looking ahead to MIPTV, meanwhile, Garaude shares with World Screen some details on how Canneseries will run alongside the market. The new festival for international drama series “is totally an organic evolution,” following the rising importance of drama premieres at MIPTV and MIPCOM, Garaude explains.

“We launched the MIPDrama screenings two years ago and it’s been highly successful, bringing international drama to the forefront in a very visible way. That has been extremely important for our clients. And now we’re taking it to the next level with Canneseries at MIPTV. Together, Canneseries and MIPTV will be the biggest week in TV entertainment. It’s a fantastic combination of the established market along with what’s going to be a gold-standard festival and international competition, and a new forum for projects in development.”

There are three parts to Canneseries at MIPTV, Garaude explains. The first is the public screenings that will take place across theaters in the city from April 4 to 11. “They are organized by Canneseries, which is an independent organization founded by David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes,” Garaude explains. The organization is lead by a team that includes Fleur Pellerin, former French culture minister, as president; Benoit Louvet as managing director and the recently appointed artistic director, Albin Lewi. “We work very closely with them, but in terms of editorial choices [for the screenings], they are totally independent.”

The second part is an international competition, during MIPTV, with the official selection of new programs being screened in the Grand Auditorium from Sunday to Tuesday, capped off by a gala awards ceremony. Taking a page from the Cannes Film Festival, these screenings are intended to be red-carpet affairs, open to both the general public and professionals. “It will be quite glamorous,” Garaude says.

The third element is an international forum for projects in development. A collaboration between Canneseries and MIPTV, the two-day event aims to “bring writers, showrunners and executive producers together with other producers, commissioners and investors to pitch, to connect and greenlight projects.”

MIPDrama, meanwhile, will continue in a slightly different form, focusing purely on works in progress.