Tag: Miptv 2017

The MIPTV, from 3 to 6 April 2017 at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes attracted a plethora of international TV stars on the Croisette who were promoting the series they star in.

MIPTV, the largest annual event market for audiovisual program, created in 1964, was held on April 3-6, 2017 at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, one month before the famous Film Festival. Many international stars have made the trip to the Croisette to promote their series and walk the Red Carpet of the opening night at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez.

Preceded by MIPDoc

The MIPDoc, which took place on April 1 to 2 at the Marriott Hotel, is an international documentary and report tradeshow that takes place each year in Cannes, the weekend preceding MIPTV. The MIPDoc offers an unrivaled platform for presenting documentaries and reports to producers and distributors with 30,000 screening seen by 400 buyers from 53 countries. This year, we attended the world premiere of the a 4K splash in Big Pacific, where the stars are the animals that inhabit the world’s largest ocean.

Cannes Series, International Series Festival

The International Program Market, which brings together more than 11,000 participants and 4,000 buyers on 20,650 m2 of exhibition, played the world première with the British series Riviera, shot on the French Riviera. We were seduced by the historic blast of Knightfall, the glory and decline of the Templars by A + E Network. Call My Agent on France 2 shows the tragical-comical vicissitudes of artistic agents. Babylon Berlin takes us to the places of perdition in Germany during the rise of Nazism and Communism at the end of the Roaring Twenties, on the sound of charleston. Finally, we welcome the birth of Cannes Series, the International Series Festival that Cannes is organizing next year in parallel with MIPTV, launched by Mayor of Cannes David Lisnard, its President Fleur Pellerin and Reed Midem CEO Paul Zilk.

Red Carpet at Hôtel Martinez

The opening night was held at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez. After signing many autographs to the crowd of fans massed behind the barriers, the stars took the pose in front of the “branding board” of the MIPTV where the flashes of the photographers of big agencies were waiting for them to immortalize this parade of actresses and cctors acting in television series from around the world.

www.miptv.com

Stars at MIPTV on La Croisette

Click on pictures to enlarge – ©YesICannes.com – All rights reserved

The first International Cannes Series Festival will be held in April 2018. David Lisnard, Mayor of Cannes, unveiled the program at MIPTV 2017.

Cannes Series, the International Series Festival – supported by MIPTV and its organizer Reed MIDEM – will be “different and original”, David Lisnard said, during his presentation on the stage of the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes in front of a gathering of international personnalities including the President of the new festival, former Minister of Culture Fleur Pellerin and Paul Zilk, CEO of Reed MIDEM.

A prestigious and demanding event

The polemic surrounding Cannes Series – since Ministry of Culture Audrey Azoulay‘s announcement of the project of another international festival of series in Lille – leaves its instigator David Lisnard optimistic and serene: “I was not yet Mayor of Cannes that I was already talking about it!” The Mayor of Cannes has the ambition to establish on the territory of Cannes an ecosystem around the creative industries and the formation of talents. For the very dynamic mayor of the Capital of Festivals, the stakes are not only cultural but “economic, social, event-driven and identifying”.
President Fleur Pellerin outbid the qualifiers to present the new international festival in Cannes: “An increased festival, a prestigious, demanding but public, glamorous and intergenerational event”.
On the stage, after Mr Lisnard and Mrs Pellerin, Paul Zilk, Maxime Saada, Managing Director of the Canal+ Group, and Benoît Louvet, General Manager of the festival, clarified and detailed the future program of the festival of series.

A wealth-channeling event

TV series are no longer merely an innovative genre of the audiovisual industry: with the multiplication of broadcast platforms and the enthusiasm of the public, the “scripted” series of fiction went from being a minor production to a major work.
The International Festival Cannes Series will therefore offer an international competition highlighting ten unpublished series among the selection. Around jury of at least five members, chaired by a world-renowned personality, are forecast public screenings – more than 200 free screenings are announced throughout the city – debates, master classes, parties…
The International Cannes Series Festival will last one week in April 2018, along with MIPTV, the international market for audiovisual programs in Cannes.

Promoting creativity

Creativity will be honored, including residences for professionals (ten projects selected) and the opening of a campus where a university training in the creation of digital series will be taught.
David Lisnard emphasized this part of the project by mentioning a “wealth-channeling event, with artists and commercial”, and by announcing that a city of companies and places intended for production and post-production would be created.

Festivals in competition

Hopefully, Cannes Series, presented as “a federative and creative festival to bring together artists, professionals and the general public”, will get its chance in the sun, in a saturated and confused world of series festivals in which Lille intends to impose itself along with Paris which stands its ground (without mentioning La Rochelle, Fontainebleau, Monte Carlo).
“Creativity is such that there will be room for several festivals,” prophesied Fleur Pellerin, before adding: “We are in the era of cooperation, not competition, and it is not excluded, in the future, that we have exchanges with other teams to get along intelligently.” Dont acte…

Caught in the spiral

After the press conference to launch Cannes Series, the personalities posed on the Croisette with the stars of the small screen from Engrenages, the French series created by Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin for Canal +, which – after seducing Switzerland and the United Kingdom – sets off to conquer the United States on Netflix, under the title of Spiral.

www.cannes.com

Big Pacific, the documentary series shot in 4K HD and produced by ZDF Enterprises, was presented as a world premiere at MIPDoc 2017 in Cannes.

Big Pacific, the documentary series screened as a world premiere at MIPDoc at the JW Marriott Hotel in Cannes, is produced by New Zealand’s NHNZ channel in international co-production with German public channel ZDF and American, European, Asian partners Including PBS, CCTV, Discovery International, Channel 9 and ARTE. With an exceptional budget, the four one-hour episodes and the making-of of Big Pacific were shot in 4K HD.

Walking on Mars or exploring the oceans?

The Mankind dreams of going to Mars, but what do we know about our own planet? What do we know about the largest and deepest ocean on Earth? Big Pacific will highlight the fascinating beauties and mysteries of underwater fauna inhabiting very little explored funds. “We are very pleased to present this outstanding documentary series with NHNZ and our co-production partners!” said Alexander Coridass, President and CEO of ZDF Enterprises. Big Pacific will include 4 episodes showing four faces of the world’s largest ocean: passionate, voracious, mysterious and violent, as well as the Making Of of the series.

A mysterious and fascinating underwater world

The Pacific is half the amount of water on our planet. It extends from one pole to the other, covering 75% of the volcanoes of planet Earth. In this vast world, unimaginable creatures have found refuge. Big Pacific, the new New Zealand documentary series explores the countless riches of the planet’s largest but also deepest ocean. In this extraordinary deep-water dive in the world’s largest ocean, the world’s best filmmakers and researchers break through the best-kept secrets of the Pacific Ocean to share them with the spectators. The Big Pacific series highlights fascinating and mysterious creatures, some of which are still unknown.

About MIPDoc

MIPDoc is the international documentary and reportage tradeshow. The event takes place every year in Cannes, the weekend that precedes the MIPTV. MIPDoc offers an unrivaled platform for presenting documentaries and documentaries to producers and distributors with 30,000 projections by 400 buyers from 53 countries. The conference program and the MIPDoc meetings offer an exceptional opportunity to discover new production and new possibilities for co-production. Together with MIPFormats, it is the place of presentation of non-scripted content of all formats.

www.zdf-enterprises.de

Riviera, the British thriller series in the sunshine of the Côte d’Azur, was screened as world premiere at MIPTV at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.

“The French Riviera sublimates everything it touches” the information screens in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes are displaying ! That’s what Paul McGuinness must have thought, former manager of the band U2 and co-author with John Banville (The Sea) – winner of the Booker Prize – of the first two episodes of Riviera, the new 10-part saga that takes place in the exquisite setting of the French Riviera, in the (not so) refined world of the billionaires.

World premiere at MIPTV

The world premiere screening of Riviera in the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes opened the MIPTV. The screening took place in the presence of American actress Julia Stiles (Jason Bourne, Blue), Swedish actress Lena Olin (Casanova, The Reader) and British actor Adrian Lester (Undercover), as well as Dimitri Leonidas (Monuments Men), Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones), Amr Waked and Roxane Duran (White Ribbon). The cast of the series was completed by executive producers Liza Marshall and Paul McGuinness and producer Foz Allen.

Luxury along with secrets

The American art curator Georgina (Julia Stiles) found love with Constantin Clios (Anthony LaPaglia), a billionaire businessman and a philanthropist, who became her husband. She joined him and his three children born on a first marriage on the Côte d’Azur. Georgina discovers the fashionable universe of the jet set, where money and luxury often conceals secrets and deceits, an intertwined world with its private jets, its yachts, its refinement of fine arts and extravagant festivals but also weird characters.
Georgina’s life is literally blown to pieces with the disappearance of Constantine during the mysterious explosion of the yacht of a powerful Russian arms trafficker off Monaco.

Investigation in the world of art

To the strange circumstances surrounding the supposed death of her husband is added the appearance of the flamboyant ex-wife Irina (Lena Olin), who sees her not only as the woman who stole Constantine’s affection but also that of their children Adam (Iwan Rheon), Christos (Dimitri Leonidas) and Adriana (Roxane Duran). In a thrilling plot dexterously mixing family saga and high-octane action, Georgina embarks on the dangerous path of discovering the truth about her husband and the world in which he was evolving.

Worldwide distribution

Intended to be broadcast worldwide, Riviera is the result of a partnership between Sky Vision, in charge of production and distribution, and the international telecommunications and media Group Altice. Produced by Archery Pictures and Primo Productions, the 10-episode series will be broadcast exclusively on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria in 2017.

The main actors and the Riviera team walked the Red Carpet during the MIPTV 2017 Opening Night at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hotel Martinez.

www.sky.com/skyvision

The actors of Riviera at MIPTV in images

Click on pictures to enlarge – ©YesICannes.com – All rights reserved

Presented as a world premiere, Babylon Berlin, a detective series adapted from a novel by German author Volker Kutscher, set out to conquer Europe at MIPTV.

Babylon Berlin, the new German series shot in 16 episodes is an adaptation of a detective novel by Volker Kutscher. The series is directed by Tom Tykwer, the beloved child of German cinema (Run Lola Run, The Scent, Drei, Cloud Atlas), Henk Handloegten and Achim von Borries. Written with six hands, Babylon Berlin tells the story of blackmail and harassment in the community of business banks in Frankfurt in the late 1920s.

Inspired by a bestseller

Since the Generation War in 2013 and Deutschland 83, German productions have found a new international acclaim and legitimacy among buyers and viewers worldwide. The German wave arrives with a new baby: the crime series Babylon Berlin. Inspired by a bestseller by the German writer Volker Kutscher, the series is a historical thriller against a background of decadence, luxury and perdition. The series produced by X Filme Creative Pool, ARD Degeto, Sky and Beta Film will be broadcast from October 2017 by Sky Germany and ARD (Germany).

A pharaonic production

Set out to conquer Europe, Babylon Berlin required three years of writing, 180 days of filming for a total cost of 40 million euros. It is expected to be broadcast in 2018 on the networks Sky UK and Sky Italy, on the MovieStar / Telefonica platform in Spain, Telenet in Belgium, SVT in Sweden, NRK in Norway, DR in Denmark, Yle in Finland and on RUV (Iceland). Other channels in the US and Europe are expected to soon acquire the rights to this most expensive and most pharaonic TV series ever produced across the Rhine, supposedly competing with Game of Thrones (HBO) or House of Cards (Netflix).

Roaring Twenties and rise of Nazism

The plot tells the story of a young police investigator, Gedeon Rath, who is incarnated by Volker Bruch (Confession of a Child of the Century) in the Berlin of 1929. This young police commissioner navigates between drug and arms trafficking in the Roaring Twenties. The rich and colorful scenario takes place against the backdrop of political and social agitation of the Weimar Republic, the rise of Nazism and communism.
Christine Strobl, the highly influential director of Degeto Filmpublique ARD and daughter of the current finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, points out that Babylon Berlin’s script was written in an American style: “The three authors worked in a writer’s room to produce 2 seasons of 8 episodes each”.

About MIPTV

The international market for television programs (MIPTV) is the world’s largest audiovisual tradeshow. Created in 1964, it brings together in April at Cannes Palais des Festivals several thousand professionals from the television and entertainment industry. They buy and sell programs internationally, but they also negotiate productions for the new platforms: Internet, VOD, mobile, social media…

www.betafilm.com

At MIPTV 2017, FranceTV Distribution presented the second season of the Call My Agent series as a world premiere screening with a prestigious cast.

Call My Agent is a French television series created by Fanny Herrero based on an original idea by Dominique Besnehard, Michel Vereecken and Julien Messemackers and directed by Laurent Tirard (Mensonges et Trahison et plus si affinités…, Molière), Jeanne Herry (Elle l’adore) and Antoine Garceau.
The first season of this comedy, produced by France Television, was broadcast from October 2015 on France 2.

Stars play their own roles

The series, a mixture of comedy and drama, describes the life of a prestigious artistic agency after the accidental death of its founder. At each episode, a movie star plays his/her own role with some self-mockery. The six new 52-minute episodes of season 2, Call My Agent, of which one episode was presented as world screening at MIPTV 2017 in the presence of actors Thibault de Montalembert, Gregory Montel and Liliane Rovère, is already broadcast on the channel ICI ARTV in Québec since November 17, 2016. The series is also available on Netflix since December 2016 in 119 countries, under the title of Call My Agent.

Cleverly combining art and business

Every day, Andréa, Mathias, Gabriel and Arlette, four agents in the artistic agency ASK, juggle with delicate situations and defend their vision of the trade. They skillfully combine art and business and private life and professional life come to cross each other. While struggling to save their agency shaken by the sudden death of its founder, the four agents take us behind the scenes of the wild world of celebrity, where laughter, emotion, transgression and tears are constantly rubbing shoulders.

Laughter, emotion, glamor

The six 52-minute episodes of the series Dix Pour Cent season 2, plunges us behind the scenes of the Parisian artistic agency ASK (Agency Samuel Kerr). In this company, the agents are much better equipped to protect their stars than to succeed in their own lives! Produced by Mon Voisin Productions and Mother Production, Call My Agent is a colorful series that unfolds behind the scenes of the showbizz.  Laughter, emotion, glamor, a prestigious cast with Isabelle Adjani, Juliette Binoche, Christophe Lambert, Fabrice Luchini, Virginie Efira, Julien Doré, Guy Marchand, Ramzy Bedia, announced from April 19th, make this series with a prestigious cast a highlight of the MIPTV 2017.

The main actors

The agent Andréa, played by Camille Cottin, is a unpleasant woman obsessed with her job. Her lively and audacious temperament, intelligence and faith in culture, make her a passionate agent and the most cinephile of the agency ASK.
The agent Mathias, played by Thibault de Montalembert, experiences a season of disappointments: disastrous love life, difficult relations with the stars, nothing is spared to him. Yet Mathias is an ambitious agent, cold and unaffected. Ready to go very far for power and money – manipulation, lies and seduction – doesn’t care for the artistic world. He is mainly interested in the profit and notoriety that the agency brings to him.
Grégory Montel is the agent Gabriel, who makes us discover the dark side of the character and his tormented relationship with the beautiful Sophia.

Passionate about her job

Arlette, interpreted by Liliane Rovere, is the dean of agents. Due to her age, she is the memory of the agency. She has always loved artists, she has devoted her life to them and knows absolutely everyone, both in song and cinema world. Call all the stars with “tu” and represented most of them.
Icham Janowski, played by Assad Bouad, is a young finance wolf who takes over the agency ASK after the accidental death of its young impulsive boss. Upon his arrival in the agency, the four agents see their working methods turned upside down.

The actors Fanny Sidney (Camille Valentini), Stefi Sema (Sophia Leprince), Nicolas Maury (Hervé André-Jesak), Laurent Calamy (Noemy Leclerc) and the dog Jean Gabin are part of the cast of season 2 – Call My Agent.

francetvdistribution.com

Presented at MIPTV 2017, Knightfall is a new ten-episode drama series about the Knights Templar and their legend, produced by A+E Studios for History.

Knightfall tells the story of the Knights Templar, guardian of the Holy Grail and the road to Jerusalem. The Bible in one hand, the sword in the other, the Templar Knights earned a legend of invincibility and their feats and heroic battles inspired the Arthurian legends. They spread across Europe and the Middle East, founded the banking system and began the most powerful entity in the middle ages. Until King Philip Le Bel and the Catholic Church frowned over this powerful network of soldiers monks.

Protect the pilgrims and the holy sepulchre

The First Crusade saw the Christian eventually captured Jerusalem, where was the tomb from which the Risen Christ bore witness to His divinity. Some groups of pilgrims from across Western Europe then began visiting the Holy Land and the holy sepulchre. Around 1118, a French knight named Hugues de Payens founded a militia, a military order devoted to protecting these pilgrims, that were called the Poor Knights of the Temple of King Solomon and were to become later the Templar Knights, wearing white habits emblazoned with a red cross.
After the formal endorsement of the Catholic Church in 1129, at the occasion of the Council of Troyes, the Knights Templar began receiving donations from across Europe and the Templars established new chapters throughout Western Europe as new recruits joined them.

Network of commanderies and banks

Known for their austere code of conduct, the Knights Templar developed a reputation as fierce warriors during the Crusades. They founded a network of monasteries called commanderies, and this activity made of the Order a privileged financial interlocutor for the the powers of the time. The Order of Templars set up a network of banks, gaining enormous financial sway. At the height of their influence, they boasted a sizable fleet of ships, owned the island of Cyprus and served as a primary lender to European monarchs and nobles. But in the late 12th century, as the Muslim soldiers retook Saint Jean D’Acre and Jerusalem, the Templars withdrew to Cyprus, then relocated their base of operations to Paris.

Heros fall, secrets rises

King Philip IV Le Bel, having his eye on the immense wealth accumulated by the Knights Templar, brought down the order and scores of French Templars were arrested and brutally tortured until many confessed to false charges. Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Order of the Temple, sent to the stake, died on Friday the 13th, 1307 promising Philippe Le Bel: “You’ll be all accursed until the13th generation”, a legendary curse that inspired the French author Maurice Druon his series The Accursed Kings (Les Rois Maudits). Friday the 13th is known as a cursed day over 700 years later because of this event.
Most historians agree that the Knights Templar fully disbanded 700 years ago, but some people still believe the order went underground and remains in existence to this day. In the 18th century, certain organizations, most notably the Freemasons, revived some of the medieval knights’ symbols and traditions. Recently, stories about the Templars having dug up the Holy Grail while occupying the Temple Mount, or harbored a secret capable of destroying the Catholic Church, have inspired popular books and films.

Bringing a 700-year-old story to life

Knightfall was created and is executive produced by Don Handfield (Touchback, The Founder, Kill the Messenger) and Richard Rayner (L.A. Without A Map), with Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Jeremy Renner (Avengers, American Hustle, The Hurt Locker), also serving as executive producer from The Combine. Land made history and inspired legends. Sweeping and evocative, Renner transports us to the elegance and grandeur of 14th century Europe, the ruthlessness of royalty, the political scheming, and the chivalry of these brave men, bringing this 700-year-old story to life in a riveting 10-episode series.

The cast of Knightfall

Tom Cullen (Downton Abbey) is starring as Landry, a veteran warrior of the Crusades, who becomes the leader of the Templars and serves as the driving force behind their quest to retrieve Christianity’s most prized relic: The Holy Grail. Olivia Ross (War and Peace, Blowing Louder than the Wind) is Queen Joan. Bobby Schofield (Black Sea, Our World War) is Parsifal, a young man of ordinary birth who will join the Knights Templar seeking revenge, but ultimately finds a higher purpose. Sabrina Bartlett (DaVinci’s Demons, Poldark) is Princess Isabella, Queen Joan and King Philip’s daughter, her upcoming wedding stands to forge a powerful political alliance for France. Julian Ovenden (Downton Abbey, Person of Interest, The Colony) plays De Nogaret, King Philip’s Machiavellian lawyer and right hand man. Sarah-Sofie Boussnina (The Bridge, The Absent One) is Adelina, as a child she was rescued in the Holy Land by the Templar Knights, but now in her early 20s, she lives on the streets of Paris as a thief.

www.aenetworks.com