Animated musical Bia and the Beats from Birdo Studio won the MIPJunior Pitch 2024. The studio’s executive and development producer Paulo Muppet was extremely elated with his victory and hoped this would now help him find broadcasters. The Brazil-based producer shared with AnimationXpress that he was glad to present his preschool show before a jury panel of influential decision-makers and buyers from all over the world.
“This was very surprising for me. I have been to pitches and was not hoping for this. This award is like a seal that we can put on our project Bia and the Beats and hope it would make it easier for us to find broadcasters,” a proud Muppet remarked after winning the award.
They hope to release this 26-episode seven-minute preschool musical as a television series. The music is composed by artists from the Brazilian outskirts who bring diverse experiences on board. Muppet believes that the rhythm has a very global tone and some of the episodes are very contemplative in nature conveying universal emotions.
At present, they are looking for co-producers and buyers. The total budget of the project is 1.7 million euros out of which 20 per cent is already financed.
Synopsis: Bia is the most excited, intense and musical five-year-old you’ll ever meet. She uses music as inspiration to do everything. Whether it’s a pop-funk tune to build up her confidence and rock out in her dance performance or a rock n’ roll hit to boost her courage and play with the older kids. But Bia’s relationship with music goes far beyond…
When she puts her favourite headphones on, Bia’s musical energy becomes so powerful that it explodes into funny little creatures: THE BEATS! Every song inspires a feeling in us, and every one of these feelings takes shape in a Beat. When Bia brings them to life, that’s usually when everything turns into the craziest music video!
The jury panel for the MIPJunior Pitch included M6 / Gulli children acquisitions director & international TV channels children programming director Maud Branly; Disney Branded Television executive director, content acquisitions and partnerships Rick Clodfelter; Grupo Globo licensed content head Luiz Filipe Figueira; FUNdamentally Children founder and CEO Amanda Gummer; and BBC children’s commissioning (zero to six) senior head Kate Morton. It was moderated by Sixth Sense Media MD Sallyann Keizer.
This year’s MIPJunior Pitch (targeting three to six years) attracted over 110 submissions from 34 countries and 98 companies. Other four finalists who pitched their projects were Beakus founder and producer Steve Smith for Monsieur Roscoe (United Kingdom), Dominion of Drama Ltd executive producer Jeff Norton Dogs Need Jobs (United Kingdom), Toon2Tango GmbH & Co.KG CCO Jo Darris for Littlest Robot (Germany), and Paper Jet writer and director Bianca Flanders for Pumpkin Finds Her Queen (South Africa).