The busiest season for TV trade events is almost upon us. VideoAge takes a panoramic look at the events on the horizon for the rest of the year in which we’ll be participating.
The Venice Film Festival will finish out the summer. Beginning August 31 and lasting until August 10, the 68-year old event will feature a host of screenings in the Sala Grande theater. The roster of films shown will be announced at a press conference later this week. Expect an increased number of film buyers for VoD channels.
Things really begin to take off for international television in September, starting with Le Rendez-Vous, held September 5-9 in Biarritz, France. TV France International plays host to this market focused on presenting French programming to international buyers. Last year, Le Rendez-Vous saw participation from 200 foreign buyers and 60 French companies presenting some of 1,250 programs.
Overlapping Le Rendez-Vous is DISCOP Nairobi, the market catering to Sub-Saharan Africa, which lasts September 7-9. The Hilton Hotel in Kenya is this year’s venue. Last year this recent addition to the DISCOP market family saw 439 attendees, including 162 buyers from 99 networks around Africa.
The Prix Italia comes right on the heels of Le Rendez-Vous and DISCOP Nairobi, kicking off September 18-23 in Turin. Sponsored by Italian broadcaster RAI, the Prix honors excellence in radio, television and Web programming.
While in Italy, some TV execs will be taking a high-speed train from Turin to Rome for the 5th annual Rome Fiction Fest. The event was moved from its traditional July date after losing its main sponsors. Now with a reduced budget of three million euro (U.S.$4.26 million) it will be held September 25-30 at the Auditorium Concilazione, Auditorium Parco della Musica and New Cinema Aquila. The end of September also means Jornadas Internacionales, the TV fest held in Beunos Aires, Argentina on the 28th, 29th and 30th.
Naturally, the arrival of October means MIPCOM, held this year October 3-6. Dedicated kids’ programming conference MIPJr will take its traditional spot the previous weekend. MIPJr will be held at the Martinez Hotel, while MIPCOM will take place at its usual Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.
Just after MIPCOM, sports TV execs will travel west to Monte Carlo for Sportel Monaco held October 10-13 at the Grimaldi Forum. Later that month, the spotlight will once again be on Rome, where the Rome Cinema Festival will be taking place. The sixth edition will be held from October 27 to November 4, 2011, at Rome’s Auditorium Parco della Musica, and will include, in addition to film-related festivities, a Business Street for buyers and sellers.
In November, executives will head to sunny Santa Monica for the American Film Market (AFM), which stretches from the 2nd through the 9th. The event is sponsored by the Independent Film and Television Alliance and connects indie buyers and sellers, in addition to a full conference program.
After the AFM it’s the turn of the DISCOP sponsored Remakes Market, described as the only international adaptation rights market. Scheduled for November 14-16 it will be held at the Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood, CA.
In addition to September’s Jornadas, the Latins have a November event to look forward to as well. Almost concurrent with the AFM the World Summit of the Telenovelas and Fiction Industry will take place in Miami, Florida November 2, 3 and 4. Organized by TVMAS Magazine, the summit aims to promote novelas worldwide, rotating host countries on a yearly basis. This year, the central topic of discussion will be “The Telenovelas and Series in Free, Pay-TV and New Platforms.”
Finally, the year wraps up with the Asia TV Forum December 7-9. This year the Singapore-based market will be stationed at a new venue, the Sands Expo Conventions center at the Marina Bay Sands.
