Encik Kamil Othman, Vice President and Director of the Creative Multimedia Division, MDeC (left); and Kim Dalton, Director of ABC Television and Chairman of the Supervisory Board (right) at the media conference.
Kuala Lumpur – The inaugural Asian Animation Summit, organised by Malaysia’s Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in collaboration with Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and Australia’s ABC TV, showcased some of Asia’s strongest and most commercially viable animation projects. Held from December 10-11, the event was attended by leading programme buyers from renowned television networks and broadcasters from all across the world.
The two-day event featured 36 screenings and presentations of concepts from Australia, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore that are in the early stages of financing and development. Each project was presented in a moderated live pitch format, with additional time provisioned for follow-up meetings and casual networking.
Programme buyers from CBeebies, Nickelodeon International, Disney Channels Worldwide, France Televisions, Australia’s ABC TV, Malaysia’s Media Prima and Astro, and Korea’s KBS, EBS and Tooniverse were present.
Kim Dalton, Director of ABC Television and Chairman of the Supervisory Board, said, “We are pleased to be a part of the inaugural Asian Animation Summit and we look forward to the opportunity to work with animation studios in the region. Over the past few years, countries like Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea have proven themselves to be a hotbed for creative and technical talents, having co-produced, great visual effects and animation for globally renowned cartoon series and movies.”
“Recently, we are also seeing more budding animation studios and talents from the region creating their own characters and stories and owning their very own intellectual properties (IP). We believe that these stories will have a global appeal and we are excited to see how we can work to co-fund and co-produce some of these interesting new ideas,” he added.
Speaking at the inaugural event, Encik Kamil Othman, Vice President and Director of the Creative Multimedia Division, MDeC, said: “For the first time, the Asian Animation Summit gives local animators the creative edge to enhance their knowledge and skillsets by collaborating and engaging with prominent international experts. Malaysia continues to rise to prominence in the animation industry since we ventured into the industry over a decade ago. The Asian Animation Summit is a fantastic platform to further fuel this growth.”
The Asian Animation Summit features two categories of animated projects. They include:
– Fully-developed projects that have already raised at least 15% of their budgets, and are seeking further financing through broadcaster pre-sales and/or co-production, co-financing and distribution arrangements.
– Projects in development that have secured the endorsement of an Asian-region broadcaster, and are seeking co-producers and/or broadcaster and distributor support for further development and production funding.
