The 15th edition of Weird Market to include 28 animation, video game, comics and board game projects
Skwigly
Image courtesy of Weird Market
The 15th edition of Weird Market has selected a total of 170 projects for its official catalogue. This International Animation, Video Games and New Media Market will include 19 feature films, 43 short films, 18 series, 37 video games, 24 web series, 6 transmedia projects, 9 comics and 14 board games, proving once again this sector’s potential, diversity, and plurality worldwide. A collection of titles of which 28 will be presented during the event, and several special sessions will be held where details, news and previews will be revealed by the authors themselves.
Animation is experiencing a brilliant moment, both industrially and financially, as well as artistically and creatively. In these 15 years, Weird Market has positioned itself as a showcase for future trends, a place to learn about the works that will be the talk of the town in the coming months and years.
-José Luis Farias (Director, Weird Market)
The Cultural Center La Beneficència will host the screening sessions where 5 feature films will be on the table, including productions of such outstanding filmmakers as Alberto Vázquez, a Galician winner of four Goya Awards and author of other feature films such as Unicorn Wars and Psychonauts: The Forgotten Children. He is now working on his new film, Decorado, which is based on one of his short films of the same name.
Other titles to be presented in Valencia include The Granny Pirate by Álex Cervantes and Anthony Christov, with screenplay by Josep Gatell (Operation Shrimp, Tadeo Jones 3) and Philip LaZebnik (Pocahontas, Mulan, The Prince of Egypt); Western Dragons by Jose Manuel Muñoz Pardo, and Pinkooland by Luis Usón, who is both a director and a top visual effects specialist, having worked on films such as Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune or Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, among others.
This section is completed by Nacho La Casa’s Like, a Spanish-Peruvian co-production. Currently, in parallel to the work he will talk about at Weird Market, he is working on the pre-production of Norberto, a 3D animation feature film in international co-production with Argentina. He is also producing Superklaus, a co-production with Canada to be released in Christmas 2023.
Image courtesy of Weird Market
TEN SHORT FILMS AND FOUR SERIES
Since its inception, the Market has paid special attention to short films. In addition to WFest, its competition festival, it reserves a special section for projects in this format with ten titles including Anaglifo by Valle Comba, The Locksmith by Mauro Luis and Juan Torres, A Clearing in the Forest by Gonzalo Rute, The Body of Christ by Bea Lema, M.E.O.W. by Álvaro León and María Ruisánchez, and the Portuguese-Italian co-production The Last Sock by Carolina Batista.
This section also includes Changelings by Goya award winner Abraham López Guerrero (Blue & Malone Impossible Cases), Cornelius by Marc Torices and Krish Cembe, Caretakers by Ecuadorian Daniela Cuenca, based in Spain, and Funnie Fantasies: “Some Like It Choo-Choo” by Pablo Río, a filmmaker who aims to make it onto the WFest list of winners with his most recent work: La gran cita de Conej.
As with the short films, there will be room for series with four productions and co-productions from countries such as Spain, Portugal, Mozambique, Ireland, and Finland. These are DIBUS by Adrián Andújar and José Antonio Vaca, The Informals by João Roxo and João Graça, Sky Plaza by José Garnelo, and Taste Buddies by Veronica Lassenius.
WEB SERIES, TRANSMEDIA AND VIDEO GAMES
The 2023 edition includes once again the presentation of web series such as Saturday Sabadete by Alex Rey, a time-travel to the Spain of the 1980s; and the transmedia project It´s There a Corpse in the House? by Miguel Medrano Malo and Lucía Sampedro.
Video games continue to shine brightly, with four submissions: Stars in the Trash by Valhalla Cats, Sushi for Robots by Ludipe and Friends, DE-EXIT: Eternal Matters by Sandbloom Studio (EMMA: Lost in Memories), and American Arcadia by Out Blue Games, a BAFTA-nominated studio for Call of the Sea.
THE PHYSICAL FORMAT STILL THRIVES
The sector respects and cares for all things related to the physical format, which is why Weird Market has decided to include projects such as comics or board games in its catalog. Proof of the strength of this area are two comics like La triste vida del alegre perro Cornelius by Marc Torices (Splash Award for Best National Comic in 2017 with Cortázar) or Hidden Heritage by Álvaro Serrano Sierra, inspired by Valencian culture and mythology, where its author seeks to raise awareness about the importance of traditions and the need to reach an environmental commitment.
Board games will be represented by El Gato va a Casa by Carlos Viforcos. A physical therapist by trade who has developed more than ten board games in the last five years, Viforcos takes advantage of his work experience in the treatment of people with functional challenges to create this game with a didactic and integrating goal: to make Spanish Sign Language (LSE) accessible.
The complete catalogue of projects is available at weirdmarket.es