15th Weird Market discusses the present and future of animation in all its formats
Skwigly
The 15th edition of Weird Market kicks off in Valencia as a focal point for animation trends in all formats. Between September 26th and October 1st, more than 400 registered attendees will meet to discuss the present and future of the sector through a multidisciplinary program that includes presentations, conferences, networking spaces, showrooms, and a recruitment day. After its arrival last year in Valencia, the event is now displaying its full potential with a greater number of proposals and venues.
Image courtesy of Weird Market
One of the initiatives that returns in this year’s edition is the showroom, where the general and professional public will be able to try out some twenty innovative experiences and video games that have not yet been released, as well as information on associations, training centers and events. The showroom will be located at IVAM – Julio González Center of the Valencian Institute of Modern Art, which has been added as a new venue, and will have morning and afternoon hours on Friday and Saturday.
Among the exhibitors are the video game developers Acariño Games, Brainwash Gang, GumiLu, ByteSize Publishing, enComplot, Dead Pixel Tales, Little Arrow Games, and Out of The Blue Games, the events Animalcoi and Prime the Animation!, the training centers ESAT and UPV Master of Animation, the associations MIA and DIBOOS, others like Pipeline Pro, Saltarinas and publishers Revista LOOP and Héroes de Papel.
The conferences will take place on the same days, but at La Beneficència Cultural Center. They include a wide range of themes and guests, with titles such as “Bastard Formats”, which brings together transgressive, peculiar, experimental, and diverse works that are difficult to classify by their format or narrative. Borja Pakrolsky, creator of Cosas de ratas (an animation series with millions of views on social media), will be in charge of leading this section, which will also feature the exclusive premiere of Alex Rey’s web series pilot: Sábado Sabadete.
Other outstanding talks are “The balance when creating video game IPs” with Anabel Sanchez, Samuel Molina and Juanma Moreno; or “B-Water, IP between animation and video games”; in the latter, Franc Vila will talk about the project that B-Water Animation Studios is carrying out with Battle Island (GALA Games) to develop the visual world of GoR, Ghost of Ruin.
SCREENINGS KICK OFF
The program kicks off with the short film festival WFest. A total of 38 works in the official section can be seen throughout the week at La Filmoteca Valenciana, located in the heart of Valencia.
Weird Market claims one more edition as “a support platform for the sector” as stated by its Director, José Luis Farias. A total of 170 projects selected for its catalog, 12 studios participating in the recruitment day, and networking spaces for more than 400 professionals are just some of the facts that illustrate its weight and relevance.
The 15th edition of Weird Market is co-organized by the Valencian Institute of Culture, attached to the First Vice-Presidency and Department of Culture and Sports of the Generalitat Valenciana. It also has the main sponsorship of the City Council of Valencia and the Provincial Council of Valencia; the participation of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the IVAM (Valencian Institute of Modern Art), Acción Cultural Española through the Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE) and the ICAA; the sponsorship of À Punt, HP, and Tenerife Film Commission; and the support from Barreira Arte + Diseño, AVEPA, Animat, Tangram Solutions, the Ibero-American Animation League, Movistar Plus+, and RTVE, among others.
More info at weirdmarket.es