Le Rendez-Vous Bi@rritz Unveils Super Highlights & Project Pitches

The 27th edition of Le Rendez-Vous Bi@rritz, set to be held online from September 6 to 8, will feature 14 Super Highlights and 16 project pitches.

The Super Highlights and the project pitches are divided between fiction (September 6), documentaries (September 7) and animation (September 8), each followed by a question-and-answer session between buyers, commissioning editors and distributors. These will remain accessible on the platform on replay until September 30.

Presenters of the Super Highlights, distributors, producers, authors, actors and directors will dialogue with journalist Marjorie Paillon on the set in the studio Guelma. The 15-minute exchanges about each program will show buyers the advantages of these major recent French creations to attract audiences around the world.

The 14 programs selected include four documentaries: When Big Tech Takes Over Our Health (ARTE, Artline Films); Green Heroes (Only Distrib, TV Only); Children of Chaos (Terranoa, Elephant); and Raising Notre-Dame (ZED, ZED). The five fiction titles are Uncoupling (Studio Canal, Ezcazal Films); #Boomer (Balanga, Mesdames Productions); Save Lisa (Film & Picture, Incognita); Algiers Confidential (About Premium Content, Watch Next Media/Eikon); A French Case (Federation Entertainment, Cheyenne Federation). The animation highlights include Little Furry (Mediatoon, Ellipsanime); Mystery Lane (Hari International, Hari Productions); Zouk (Festivaal Distribution, Normaal/Bayard Animation); The Galactic Agency (APC Kids, Studio 11); and Simon Super Rabbit (GO-N, GO-N Productions).

Le Rendez-Vous Bi@rritz is renewing the project pitch sessions and opening them up to genres other than documentaries. Four projects for new animated series and 12 documentaries will be presented in three -minute videos to all the buyers and commissioning Editors registered for the event.

The 12 doc pitches are The Gospel of Wealth—A Story of Capitalism (ARTE, La Générale de Production); The New Deal—A Man Who Changed (Balanga, Les Films d’Ici); Beyond the Far Side—Exploring China’s Lunar Project (CLPB Rights, Camera Lucida Productions); The Sect (Federation Entertainment, What’s Up Films); Earth, A Living Body (France tv distribution, Mona Lisa Productions); Antartica : The Cold Hard Truth (Kwanza, Backstory) Pharaos of the 2 Lands (Lucky You, TSVP/Le Musée du Louvre); Tutankhamun, from Treasure to Curse (Lukarn, Factual Factory/Ah! Production); Grunge: A Story of Music and Rage (Mediawan Rights, Mediawan Digital Studio); Four Seasons with the Pandas (Taxi Rights, La Compagnie des Taxi Brousse/CICC/China Aviation Pictures); Jim Carrey—America Unmasked (Terranoa, Bellota Films); and Justice of Terror (ZED, ZED).

Among the four animation pitches are SamSam (Mediatoon Distribution, Folivari/Bayard Animation); Electric Zombie (Play Big, Something Big/Horizon Ent.); Bobby and the Bottle Brigade (Play Big, Something Big/Toonbox/Plumus); and Melvin (Studio Woutipoup, Studio Woutipoup/author and singer OhPonyBoy.

The new structure of TV France International, which has become UniFrance, is working with the support of PublicisLive on Le Rendez-Vous Bi@rritz.

Hervé Michel, VP of UniFrance, and Sarah Hemar, former executive director of TV France continuing this role within the new UniFrance structure, said: “An enriched program, remarkable content diversity and a new set to welcome our members and guests for the filming of this 27th edition of Le Rendez-Vous Biarritz. Circumstances once again mean that we have to hold our flagship event a long way from Biarritz, our home port, but the high level of engagement that everyone has once again shown is very heartwarming. Sixty member companies, which have deposited 520 programs in the event’s screening room in Screenopsis, and more than 220 buyers from 55 countries have so far signed up.”