MIFA, the international market for animated film held in conjunction with Annecy, took place this year from June 2-6, 2003. AWN wanted to know what professionals’ feelings were on the expo? We asked why they attend, what business they do at the market and what advantages MIFA gives them over other events. We got responses from professionals across the globe, working in different areas of the animation industry, and here is what they had to say.

Naomi English, global sales manager, Cambridge Animation Systems. Photo courtesy of Naomi English.

Naomi English, global sales manager, Cambridge Animation Systems
English has worked at Cambridge Animation Systems for the past three years as global sales manager. Prior to Cambridge, she was involved with a hardware solutions company in Australia for five years.

MIFA is one of the few festivals where the business and the animation art are catered for. It brings the artists, the producers, the distributors, the buyers and the tools of the trade together under one festival. It is a wonderful place to network with the animation community and to see what is going on with the new and established filmmakers, production companies, service studios and animation manufacturers.

As we exhibit at MIFA each year, not only can we demonstrate our new products and releases, we have the ideal opportunity to meet with our reseller partners, to build on existing customer relationships and to develop new customer relationships. MIFA's role in the animation community is no longer “just” centered on the European markets. As we have seen each year, an emerging number of international studios and representatives are coming to MIFA, which gives the festival a wonderful global flavor.

MIFA is the biggest animation trade show closest to England and is tightly focused on our target market. The setting of Annecy is also a lovely advantage.

Christopher Panzner, writer/producer, TEVA. Photo courtesy of TEVA.

Christopher Panzner, writer/producer, TEVA
Panzner started his career as the technical director for the inventor of interactive television shopping, the Home Shopping Network. In 1988, Panzner moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in “multimedia” as assistant art director for the inventor of the colorization process, Color Systems Technology. He set up a subsidiary of CST, CST Interactive, in Paris, in 1991, to colorize black and white French films and was hired away later that year as a software consultant by Pixibox, then Europe’s biggest producer of television animation and the inventor of the first industrial cartoon production software, now called PEGS. In 1993, he became the managing director of the Luxembourg-based studio, Luxanima. Panzner joined TEVA in 2001, and has been instrumental in the financing and/or the making of five features there in 2002-2003, including Belleville Rendez-vous.

It's an occasion to catch up with virtually everyone in European animation (and the North American "regulars"), formally and informally. The atmosphere is much more relaxed, people make more time for you in general and the "appreciation level" is higher since it's exclusively animation. Annecy's such a beautiful place, too.

This past MIFA was incredibly fun and productive for us. The genesis for a lot of our partnerships is MIFA since there are many more creative people (who shy away from MIP-TV or MIPCOM). Normally, most producers are preparing a pilot for Cartoon Forum or MIPCOM Junior, and just starting to show their projects around, looking for partners and asking for creative input on projects that are fairly far along in development, but whose financing phase may have only just started. There are also a lot of independent artists and/or new companies looking to get their projects off the ground and MIFA is a good place to start generating interest. We are a high-quality studio/co-producer, so we make a good fit (with the financing available to French studios).

Cartoon Movie, MIP-TV and the Cannes Film Festival precede MIFA, which is the last festival before summer vacations start. So, normally, we conclude a lot of deals in Annecy and prepare for the double whammy of Cartoon Forum and MIPCOM.