MIP Cancun Formats Pitch Winner Unveiled

Reed MIDEM, in association with all3media international, has revealed the winner of this year’s MIP Cancun Formats Pitch.

Building Battles, from Brazil’s Elo Company, was this year’s winner. The culinary competition series features people going up against others living in the same building. It also celebrates how cooking can bring people together.

Among the five finalists were Mexico’s Max Planner, a competition for competitive party planners; Spain’s Celeb Diaries, which offered the chance to delve into celebrity’s childhoods through extracts from their diaries; Trix & Trax from Venezuela, a reality competition challenge set in schools for the TikTok generation; and Vertical Maze, a studio game show hailed from Indonesia.

The winner and finalists were selected by a panel chaired by Janel Downing, (VP, Latin America, all3media international) and including Felix Wessler (COO, Filmpool), Michela Giorelli (VP, production and development, Discovery Networks in Latin America and the U.S), Carolina Iacia (senior acquisitions manager, Globo) and Juan Vicente (director of content and international business, Mega).

The MIP Cancun Formats Pitch, held entirely online in its second year, offered producers the chance to enter their format ideas into a dynamic pitch environment featuring advice and engagement from experienced producers and broadcasters at every stage. The $5,000 prize awarded is to enable them to develop their idea to the next pitch stage, alongside a tailored support package.

Janel Downing, VP, Latin America and chair of judges said ‘Building Battles was a fantastic new take on a cooking format. The show’s essence of finding connection and bringing people together felt very timely given what we are going through at the moment with Covid, whilst also offering an entertaining and heartwarming show, filled with vibrant characters and delicious cooking!’

Paula Garcia, executive producer on Building Battles, said: “We are very happy with the win. We believe this is a strong project that can travel and hopefully, with everything that will come from this prize, we’ll be able to see it in different countries.”

Executive producer André Antunes added: “We are thrilled to know we are the winners at MIP Cancun pitching formats. It is a great privilege to meet incredible professionals and have All3Media involved in Building Battles development.”