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Pocoyo Scoops Award At Venice Film Festival

Pocoyo, co-produced by Zinkia and ITV Studios Global Entertainment, has scooped a Kineo Diamante al Cinema Award at the prestigious Venice Film Festival, for most successful film or TV series of the year.

Pocoyo team celebrates win.

Press Release from Zinkia

Madrid, 7 September 2010 - The CGI animated series Pocoyo (104 x 7 minutes) shot to fame in Italy following its debut in March earlier this year on state broadcaster RAI 2 and kids’ channel RAI Yoyo.

At the awards ceremony, Zinkia’s President José María Castillejo, thanked the viewers for supporting the series and said, “we’re very proud to receive this award which is clear proof that Pocoyo has captured the hearts of families throughout Italy.”  This latest award follows a long line of illustrious accolades including: Best Television Series at the 2006 Annecy Animation Festival; the 2006 BAFTA for `Best Animated Preschool Series; three Pulcinella prizes in 2006 at the Italian festival Cartoons on the Bay, and the Parent’s Choice Gold Medal from the USA.  Pocoyo is a multi-platform property enjoying strong online presence, with the virtual world www.pocoyoworld.com attracting over 4.5 million visitors, over 300million hits on YouTube, 25million downloads from the offical Pocoyo website, and over 10 million people using the ‘Pocoyize’ customizing application. In Spain alone, the brand has shifted over 2.5million toys, over 600,000 books and 1.2million DVDs.

The series has been licensed to broadcasters in over 100 territories worldwide including Televisa (Mexico), Nick Jr., Univision and WGBH (USA), Treehouse (Canada), ABC (Australia), RTP (Portugal), TVE (Spain), Discovery Kids (Latin America), Kika (Germany), Disney Pan Asia and WowWow (Japan).

Worldwide rights for Pocoyo are handled by ITV Studios Global Entertainment with the exception of Spain, Italy, Portugal and Latin America which are handled by Zinkia. Exploitation rights for China are shared by both companies. Bandai America has the master-toy licensing agreement in the USA and Canada.

About Zinkiawww.zinkia.comZinkia Entertainment, which specialises in the creation and management of entertainment brands for the international market, is primarily involved in the animation business, creating quality content for the audiovisual market as well as interactive content for multi-player console and online games.

Founded in 2001, Zinkia is headquartered in Madrid, with a commercial office in Beijing, China.  Zinkia’s TV series and associated merchandising and licensing products are distributed to over 100 territories worldwide. TV credits include the multi-award winning series Pocoyo and the successful series Shuriken School. Zinkia also created and recently launched the virtual universe PocoyoWorld.com, targeted at young children.

About ITV STUDIOS Global EntertainmentITV STUDIOS Global Entertainment is one of the world’s leading international TV distribution, home-entertainment, merchandising and licensing businesses.  ITV STUDIOS Global Entertainment proudly represents a world-class portfolio from ITV Studios, Granada and over 200 leading independent producers. Showcasing more than 35,000 hours of critically celebrated and hugely-popular original and formatted programming, including all new Hell’s Kitchen, Come Dine with Me, Dancing on Ice, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Coronation Street, Agatha Christie’s Marple and Poirot, Inspector Morse, Prime Suspect and The Prisoner.

About PocoyoThe TV series Pocoyo (104 x 7 minutes), co-produced by Zinkia Entertainment and ITV Studios Global Entertainment, is produced using 3D Softimage XSi technology and rendered with Arnold. The property, which started as a TV series, is now a multi-platform global brand, licensed to over 100 countries worldwide, with extensive publishing, merchandising, licensing and home entertainment products. In October 2009 Zinkia launched a virtual universe, Pocoyoworld.com, enabling children and carers to share a host of fun and educational activities with their favourite characters.

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Rick DeMott
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