More than 60 projects—animation, feature films, TV series, documentaries — are being presented by Russian companies at the Tiffcom international content market in Japan. Part of the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), Tiffcom is being held from 25 to 27 October 2023.
For the Russian film industry, this is the first large-scale offline participation in one of the largest Asian content markets. Thirteen companies will be represented at the Russian Content Worldwide (RCW) stand, organised by Russia’s government organisation Roskino, which represents the Russian audiovisual content. Almost a third of the projects are animated films and series.
Here’s a list of studios and their projects:
- Voronezh Animation Studio is presenting the fifth part of its Snow Queen franchise: The Snow Queen & The Princess, which was previously sold to Mongolia, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. Japanese viewers are already familiar with this animated series as the previous installments The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice and The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands were shown in Japan. The company’s new project The Steel Family: Brotherhood vs Gold is targeted at teenagers. The company is ready to negotiate on co-production for its feature film Arctic Heroes, which is in development.
- SMF Animation will present its range of content for preschool to adolescent audiences – animated film Detective Chirp & the Golden Beehive and animated series Rockoons, Monsikids, The Secrets of Honey Hills, I’ll get you! Holidays, and The Adventures of Peter and Wolf. The company noted that Russia and Japan have a long-standing relationship in the field of animation. Today, SMF Animation continues its work with Japanese companies and intends to cement promising partnerships at the Tiffcom market. Following the results of last year’s Tiffcom, SMF concluded several deals to distribute the animated series Monsikids in Malaysia and Brunei, and also sold media rights to the animated series Captain Kraken in Hong Kong and Macau. This year, deals were concluded with Vietnamese partners (animated series I’ll get you! Holidays and Rockoons) and Thailand (Monsikids).
- Platoshka Animation Studio is presenting Asian buyers the educational musical animated series Beadies for children under four, created with the participation of child development experts. The series has already entered foreign markets—Platoshka has concluded an agreement with the large Chinese media holding Uyoung. In addition, Beadies is already in Malaysia and will soon appear in Japan. Platoshka intends to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian region and enter into new partnerships for the development of its flagship project.
- CTB Film Company will present a range of content at Tiffcom 2023, including the full-length animated films Moonzy, Homecoming, The Barkers-Team, and much more
- Riki Group presents a number of animated series The Fixies, Tina and Tony, Beardy Bodo, Babyriki, and the full-length animated film Finnick.
Among the latest new releases from 2023 being presented at Tiffcom are the large-scale space drama The Challenge, part of which was filmed on the ISS; the family film Chebi: My Fluffy Friend, the record holder for Russian film distribution in 2023; the adventure film Lord of the Wind about the round-the-world hot-air balloon flight of the world-famous explorer Fyodor Konyukhov; the disaster film Three Minutes of Silence about a fishing boat caught in a storm; the series Ballet; the new season of the historical saga about Catherine the Great, Ekaterina. Favorites; the mysterious thriller about the dangers of the night city Centaur; the family fairytale The Wish of the Fairy Fish; and many others.
International distributors can also learn about promising projects planned for release in 2024. These include family content, Guest from the Future; the adventure film, Red Silk (a Russia-China co-production) and the comedy, Vasiliy (a Russia-Mexico co-production).