The 7th edition of Spain’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, the Europe-Latin America TV and networking forum, will dedicate this year its countries focus to Poland and Mexico.
For the first time ever, the event will also host a Spanish Content Showcase, integrating a series of activities to highlight the freshest and most attractive contents and formats from top Spanish distributors.
Conecta Fiction unspools June 26-29 for the second year running at the El Greco Palace of Congress in Toledo, the capital of Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha, just south of Madrid.
The 4th RTVE Showcase will run parallel to Conecta Fiction over June 27-28, bringing buyers from 30 countries and sparking synergies such as a showcase of RTVE’s ongoing international co-productions at a Conecta Fiction panel.
“We will offer an in-depth analysis of Mexico and Poland as focus countries; workshops to optimise budgets and develop new funding models; keynotes in which trends such as eSports, Gen Z or audio series will be discussed and panels dedicated to the so-called warrior platforms,” Conecta Fiction director Geraldine Gonard announced Wednesday June 7 at a press conference in Madrid’s headquarters of the Cultural Institute of Mexico.
The presentation of Conecta 2023 edition was attended by representatives of the institutions and entities collaborating in the event, from Castilla-La Mancha’s Department of Economy to ICEX-Invest in Spain, Spain Film Commission, Fundación SGAE and right society DAMA.
Taking place June 28-29 at El Greco Congress Palace, Spain Content Showcase will reunite leading Spanish distributors such as Atresmedia TV, Filmax, Movistar Plus+ International, onza Distribution and The Mediapro Studio, showcasing their latest content to a select delegation of top-level buyers and programmers from Europe and the Americas.
The new meeting will be completed with several exclusive networking activities that will encourage dialogue and interaction between Spanish sales agents and international delegates.
As in Conecta Fiction’s past editions, this year’s Focus Country program highlights two countries, one from Europe (Poland) and one from the Americas (Mexico), analyze their industry, present their potential as co-producers of audiovisual contents, and their local creative talent.
The two-parts panel Focus Poland: Overview of the TV Broadcasters, scheduled for Tuesday June 27, will be moderated by Pola Hempowicz, senior director, CEO at Content Monarchy, and be attended by further top executives from key Polish companies such as Marek Solon-Lipinski, director of international relations at TVP; Anna Borys, director, content acquisitions & sales at TVN; Polsat’s TV Rights Acquisition Director Agata Borowiecka, and Canal+ Polska’s Director of Original Production and Co-Production, Beata Ryczkowska.
On the same day, the Focus Mexico: Broadcaster & Platforms panel, directed by Alejandro Palma at Mexico’s MestizoLab, will count on Guillermo Quezada, an international advisor on contents and screenwriter at Televisa.
Ángel Inzunza, development executive originals at Amazon Studios in Mexico and Vanessa Rosas, Televisa Univisión VP streaming partnerships and business operations talk at the panel’s second part.
Also, a Polish-Mexican workshop, dubbed Vodka meet Tequila!, moderated by Rolando Loewenstein, owner and director of Mallorca-based Filmco, will bring together creator and scriptwriter Agata Koschmieder, Wiktor Piatkowski, managing director, screenwriter, showrunner & creative producer at Bahama Films, both from Poland, along with Mexico’s Diego Martínez-Ulanosky, CEO, director, writer & producer at Caponeto and Raúl Prieto, CEO, creative director & scriptwriter in Punta Fina de Contenidos.
Further Conecta Fiction 2023 highlights take in RTVE: Co-Productions Onboard, where Sergio Gándara, CEO and executive producer at Chile’s Parox, will present his Spain-Chile-Argentina mini-series co-production “Allende, the Thousand Days.” Also, Jarmo Lampela, head of drama at Finish public broadcaster YLE will pitch European co-production “This is Not Sweden,” a partnership with Nanouk Films, Funicular Films, Anagram Sweden and broadcasters RTVE, TV3, SVT and NDR.
RTVE’s executives José Pastor, Film and Fiction director, and Alberto Fernández Torres, head of platform RTVE Play, will moderate the round table.
The Toledo-set industry event will also premiere “Time Zone,” an original format created by Banijay’s Madrid-based company Zeppelin and Endemol Shine Nederland, to be launched on HBO Max this summer. Zeppelin managing director Miguel Martín and Miguel Salvat, VP Original Programming and Commissioning Editor at HBO Max Iberia, will discuss the aspects of the new show, which boast avideo game aesthetic.
For the first time ever at Conecta, music and entertainment company Warner Music Spain will recognise a project from the Pitch Music, Copro or High-End sidebars with a prize consisting of three days of Dolby Atmos sound studio usage at its creative hub The Music Station in Madrid, to contribute to the creation of promotional materials -teaser, trailer, music over end credits- for the winning project.
Furthering its commitment to sustainability, Conecta Fiction has created two new prizes to recognize the most sustainable project at the five pitching sessions. Sponsored by the Bosque del Cine and the Santander Film Festival, and award will consist of an endowment €1,000 in cash and the planting of 25 trees in the Cantabria Film Forest to offset the carbon footprint generated by audiovisual productions. The other, K is for Knowledge, will recognize a sustainability strategy consultancy with carbon footprint measurement.
For the upcoming 2023 edition, Conecta has also launched its Youth Jury, made up of three master’s degree students from The Core School. These students will be present at all sessions and award a prize for best pitch.
