VFX Russian animation, post-production, film and TV companies head to ATF Online+ -

Russian animation, post-production, film and TV companies head to ATF Online+

The international television forum and the largest audiovisual content market in Asia, Asia TV Forum & Market Online+ (ATF) opens on 1 December, with the Russian delegation of 22 productions, distributors and post-production companies. 19 of them will be working at the joint virtual “Made in Moscow” stand. 

The “Made in Moscow” platform has been organized under a special program supported by the Moscow Export Center (MEC), subordinated to the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative Development of the City of Moscow. On 3 and 4 December, two presentations of content from Moscow-based companies will be held under the “Made in Moscow” brand on the ATF Online+ platform. The showcase dedicated to animation will highlight nine animation companies, while the second presentation will focus on the film and TV content distributors and service companies. It’s Roskino that organizes the “Made in Moscow” stand backed up by MEC at the Asia TV Forum & Market.

“Moscow Export Center supports the participation of Moscow-based companies in ATF under “Made in Moscow” program. The Moscow Government covers up to 100 per cent of the participation costs for Moscow-based exporters, arranges business meetings with international buyers, investors and producers, and promotes the joint delegation at the forum. It is important for us to support the development of the creative industry in the global market, including Asian countries. Asian audience is already familiar with the content from Moscow-based companies, with Russian animation especially popular in the region, but there is still much more to explore, with many possibilities for the exporters. Our goal is to help them boost sales to the Asian countries and build long-term partnerships with local players,” says Moscow Export Center CEO Alexey Kalachev.

“Asian market is one of the top priorities for the national creative industry. We see that Russian content is in demand in the region – and it is not only about animation, but there is also much interest in TV series and feature films across all genres, from sci-fi to comedy. At the same time, we aim to go beyond sales and acquisitions and encourage co-production with Asian partners. The “Made in Moscow” program is an excellent platform for this: the participants will present both new ready-mades and projects in development. Local buyers and producers will certainly find something they need for their audience”, says Roskino CEO Evgenia Markova.

Russia at ATF Online+

“Made in Moscow” virtual stand brings together 19 Moscow-based companies, including Sreda production company, Revolution Film, Documentary Film Center, ODIN-MEDIA, R Media. Animation will be presented by Soyuzmultfilm, Wizart Animation, brand4rent, Digital Television Russia, Parovoz studio, Agama Film, Media Foundation, Open Alliance Media and AA Studio. Post-production services will be offered by Flysound, Main Road Post, Flussonic, RuFilms and Sv-kadr.

Apart from the Made in Moscow delegation, there will be GPM ETV, Sovtelexport (the official distributor of the Russia Television and Radio content) and Riki Group presenting their projects on the market.

Credit: Parovoz Animation Studio’s Facebook page. Still from ‘Leo and Tig’

Animation

The key projects of Soyuzmultfilm at ATF are the detective animated series The Secrets of Honey Hills, the musical series Rockoons for preschoolers, series Claymotions, produced in rare stop-motion clay technique for the youngest audience, and the comedy series targeted for elder kids from nine to 12-year-old The Adventures of Peter and Wolf. The company is also looking for co-production partners for the new series Frosh and two re-boots of the well-known animation classics – Scat-Cat and Umka.

Wizart Animation will present two new animated series in a TV show format. The first show is Backpack about a three-year-old boy and his backpack, and the other one is a comedy series Tin’s Firebots about a firefighting team of robots and their adventures. Both projects are open to co-production. The company will also present the animated series The Snow Queen: Keepers of Wonders – a spin-off to the world-famous franchise, and the feature projects The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands, Sheep and Wolves: Pig Deal and Fantastic Return to Oz.

Russian licensing agency brand4rent will present the Monsikids animated series about emotional intelligence for preschoolers. The project is already available on Amazon Prime, Kidoodle.TV and Ameba in the United States, on Xiaomi and Huawei platforms in China, and will soon appear on the screens of France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Poland, Finland, Croatia and Slovenia – the company has signed an agreement with European distributors Arait Multimedia and Menart. brand4rent is looking for co-production partners for the Flora & Team project, which focuses on ecological and environmental issues.

Parovoz Animation Studio is looking for international co-production partners with four animated projects: brand-new Amazing Cafe about magic adventures of little girl Agatha, comedy Spaceport about distant future, the Tweetville sitcom and musical Boo the Cat and the Good Boy.

Digital Television Russia media holding will hold a pitching of its new project – Puppies & Kittens animated series about the relationship between heroes and the world around them. The key projects of the media holding, produced by Parovoz Animation Studio, are the animated series already well-known to the Asian audience: Be-be-bears, about the adventures of a brown bear named Bucky, a polar bear named Bjorn and their friend named Littlefox, Leo and Tig about the little leopard Leo and tiger cub Tig and their new friend monkey LiLi. The list also includes Fantasy Patrol about the exciting adventures of four young witches and Heroes of Envell about four gamer friends.

The main project of Agama Film is Fairy-Teens comedy, the adventure fantasy series for girls of six to eight years.

Media Foundation will appear on the market with the animated series Sportaniya, which introduces viewers to different sports and the basics of a healthy lifestyle, and the 3D feature film Jumper Treasure Hunting.

Open Alliance Media will present four projects from different animation studios: its original animated series JingleKids, which has already found its way to the Asia-Pacific region (previously it was sold to Indonesia, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Pakistan and Mongolia), animated series for preschoolers Tommy, the Little Dragon, as well as two projects open for international co-production: the musical My World and Dr. Dinosaurus. The focus of the company this year is South Korea, Vietnam and India – partners of Open Alliance Media are now dubbing Jinglekids into Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi and Bengali.

The main new title from AA Studio is the animated series Mistery of Haunster about overcoming the fears, negative traits and bad habits. AA Studio is interested in involving partners for co-production.

Riki Group will present well-known TV projects – The Fixies, Tina and Tony, BabyRiki and PinCode. The company is already represented in the Asian market and is currently developing a licensing program, working in partnership with Tencent and Alibaba Group. Within ATF Riki Group plans to find new partners and increase international presence in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The company will also show projects in development – Question Club, The Amazing Spoilers and Weatherville, the latter awarded at the last year’s ATF animation pitching.

Services

Five Russian companies will present their production services at the ATF.

Flysound is a sound production and post-production company for films, television, music, advertising, and promotional productions, operating out of its own studio complex premises. The company offers flexible service for the entire production cycle: sound recording on set, dialogue editing, ADR, foley, the recording and editing of ambiences, sound design, the recording and mixing of music, mixing across all formats including Dolby Atmos. Flysound plans to establish contacts with colleagues from Asia and find projects for joint production with international partners in post-production at ATF.

Main Road Post, a visual effects and computer graphics production studio, offers visual effects services for feature films, commercials, games and TV Series. The company’s portfolio encompasses more than 50 movie titles, including the most significant Russian blockbusters, such as Stalingrad, Attraction, Sputnik, as well as the international projects Wanted (USA), The Seventh Son (USA), and Warriors of Future (Hong Kong). Main Road Post is participating at ATF for the first time this year, actively working with the foreign markets and considering Asia to be one of the most important destinations.

Flussonic develops software for streaming video. Its server solutions help business clients store, capture, deliver and transcode video. Customers, such as IBM, Fox, Canal+, Al Jazeera, Lukoil, Gazprom and others, in more than 100 countries use the company’s products for IPTV, OTT, cloud services and protected in-house video surveillance systems. Within the market, Flussonic plans to find partners in the regions of Southeast Asia, China and Indonesia, where there is a high demand for video systems.

RuFilms LLC localizes audiovisual content for global markets in more than 50 language pairs. The company works with standard subtitles and subtitles for the deaf and hard hearing (SDH), voice-over and dubbing, audio description and sign language interpretation, scripts and dialogue lists, lyrics and on-screen titles, VR and 3D materials. RuFilms team also provides translation of legal, marketing and advertising materials for exported film products and promotes Russian content on world markets.

Sv-kadr localizes content for the Russian market, dubbing movies and TV series, voicing documentaries and advertisements, and localizing video games. The company also offers foley recording and editing services. 

ATF will take place at a special digital platform from 1 to 4 December, gathering more than 1000 content buyers from 60 countries annually.

VFX