Leading global cross-media company, Power to the Pixel’s four-day Cross-Media Forum, 12–15 October, features a world-class line-up of speakers and industry experts. Keynotes for the first-day conference include Michel Reilhac, Executive Director of ARTE France Cinéma; Mike Monello, co-creator of The Blair Witch Project and co-founder of New York-based creative agency Campfire; film director, producer and long-time collaborator of Richard Linklater, Tommy Pallotta. The Forum is held in association with the BFI London Film Festival.

The conference is an essential guide for anyone wanting to understand the fast-changing global digital environment. It is followed by a two-day marketplace, the first of its kind to be dedicated to cross-media innovation and business. Thomas Hoegh, Managing Partner of Arts Alliance will be delivering the opening keynote to The Pixel Market.

Bringing together 18 cross-media projects from around the world, project stories extend across media platforms including film, broadcast, gaming, online, interactive, publishing.

Producer-led teams were selected from almost 100 applicants from 23 countries. Each of the participants will take part in one-to-one business meetings with potential partners and financiers from across the media industries.

Nine of the market projects will go forward to The Pixel Pitch Competition backed by French/German broadcaster ARTE to compete for the £6,000 top prize. Teams will present their projects to a jury of international commissioning executives, decision-makers and financiers in front of an audience of Power to the Pixel delegates.

The winner of the ARTE Pixel Pitch Prize will be announced at an evening awards ceremony on 14 October.

The Cross-Media Forum is the fourth edition of an event that has become an essential part of the calendar for anyone interested in creative business and digital change.

“Power to the Pixel has always been a place where cutting-edge ideas can be discussed in a unique collaborative environment,” said founder Liz Rosenthal.

“This year’s world-class speakers will once again show how filmmakers, storytellers and content creators are finding new means to engage audiences and build on the potential represented by digital technologies.

“The Pixel Market will demonstrate the interest of investors in projects which are in tune with the realities of today’s digital economy.”

The Pixel Market is supported by the Media Programme of the European Union, the BFI London Film Festival, ARTE, TorinoFilmLab, Audio Network.

Costas Daskalakis, Head of MEDIA programme unit at EACEA said: “Cross-media projects have attracted a lot of attention over the last year. MEDIA is happy to support events such as The Pixel Market so that they also attract funding. The MEDIA programme has developed an overall strategy to support cross-media projects including training, financial support for development, markets and distribution."

Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director of the BFI London Film Festival said: “We are pleased to be supporting and hosting Power to the Pixel for a fourth year, and applaud the innovation and ambition of this dynamic and ever more relevant event.”

Michel Reilhac, Executive Director of ARTE France Cinéma said: “I realise, now that it will very soon be time again for another great Power to the Pixel experience, how much being there last year and the year before has had a tremendous impact on my understanding of cross-media transformation. It is clear that in the year that has passed since the last PttP I have felt how much insight I have gained all along just from being there. Can’t wait to do it again…”

PIXEL MARKET PROJECTS including
PIXEL PITCH FINALISTS & PIXEL PITCH JURY
Selected teams are:
PIXEL PITCH FINALISTS
1. 94 Elements (UK) – online, broadcast documentary, mobile
Producers: Mike Paterson & Roz Mortimer Production Company: PFILM
Logline: 94 Elements is a collection of commissioned films from established documentary filmmakers and user-generated short films, centred around the common theme of man’s relationship to the planet’s physical resources.
2. Dr0id (UK) – multi-player social game, TV series, mobile
Producers: Kevin Moss & Emma Foster Production Company: PlayThisNext
Logline: International governments have launched future technology Dr0ids into space – unmanned, Internet connected robots – that have the capability to match the Alien arsenal. The Dr0id global defensive strategy is predicated on the ‘power of many’ as each Dr0id can be controlled by anyone with Internet access. If you are reading this on a computer, if you have a mobile phone, YOU can help save the world.
3. Granny’s Dancing on the Table (SWEDEN) – Feature film, ARG, live event, interactive, publishing
Producers: Helene Granqvist & Hanna Sköld Production Companies: Good World; Tangram Film; Ozma Game Design; Kore Productions; MEDEA

Logline: What does a girl who grows up alone in the woods have to do with an earthquake that happened 100 years ago in Messina? Does she have anything to do with you and me? What if she is connected to all of us in a way none of us could imagine?
4. Korridor (UK) – TV series, gaming, mobile, interactive web, publishing
Producer: Margery Bone Production Company: Bonafide Films

Logline: A 21 year-old young man develops incredible powers and is catapulted into a secret global war between a society of super-humanly gifted people and a sinister private organisation with unlimited authority.
5. Lion vs. Midgets (UK) – Feature film, broadcast, interactive, gaming, mobile
Producer: Raphael Warner Production Company: Joke Disco Films
Logline: A spoof documentary charting the incredible story of a how a small local land dispute in a remote region of East Asia evolved into a global phenomenon, resulting in what is now widely considered to be the most incredible flight ever staged on our planet…
6. Petrus (FRANCE) – Feature film, online series, mobile, live event, interactive, publishing, album
Producer: Emilie Blézat Production Company: Sciapode Films
Logline: Petrus is the new project from the multi-media artist Wayn Traub. It is a road movie tangled up in the Internet and steeped in an imaginative fiction, which eventually leads the audience to physical action.
7. Socks, Inc. (USA) – Broadcast, gaming, live event, interactive
Producer: Jim Babb Production Company: Awkward Hug
Logline: Employees of Socks, Inc. are beginning to disappear and as Gary is the new guy, he gets blamed! When the boss’ daughter – his new best friend – disappears, Gary’s quest for the truth reveals his world is contained within another world…
8. The Artists (BELGIUM) – TV series, gaming, live event, mobile, interactive
Producer: Peter de Maegd Production Company: Caviar Films
Logline: On the same day across Europe in five major museums in five different countries, five world renowned paintings disappear and are replaced by an enigmatic symbol: a spiral. Who did this, and why? You, the audience, are invited to investigate…
9. The Rodshire Archives Project (USA) – TV and web series, gaming, mobile, interactive, publishing
Producer: Julia Pontecorvo Production Company: Iris Media Works
Logline: “Something is rotten in the State of Rodshire.” Modelled after the famous Laura Palmer mystery of Twin Peaks, The Rodshire Archives Project seeks to expose the truth behind the mysteries of Rodshire.
ADDITIONAL MARKET PROJECTS
10. I-Dole (FRANCE) – Broadcast, mobile, web
Producer: Jérôme Barthélemy Production Company: Caïmans Productions
Logline: In today’s fictions, heroes look for love or they profile and track criminals. Others work for justice or fight disease, but they don’t look for jobs. I-Dole follows the professional and personal adventures of four young unemployed people…
11. Legends of Valhalla (ICELAND) – Animated feature film, gaming, mobile, interactive, publishing
Producer: Hilmar Sigurdsson Production Company: CAOZ
Logline: Young blacksmith, Thor, mistakenly believes he is the son of Odin. When his village is attacked and his best friend kidnapped, help arrives from the unlikeliest of places.
12. Madam Samurai (UK) – Publishing, mobile, gaming, interactive, feature film
Producer: Gael McLaughlin Production Company: Madam Samurai Properties
Logline: A broken Samurai warrior is chosen by a strange mute girl, rescued from death to tutor a child in the brutal art of killing. Her mission is to wreak revenge on her dead mother’s sadistic destroyer – her own father.

13. Moderation Town (CANADA) – Broadcast, interactive, interactive
Producers: Evan Jones & Victoria Ha Production Company: Stitch Media
Logline: A small working-class community is reborn through the Internet, moderating bad behaviour online when the town’s paper factory shuts down. But before long the town adopts the uninhibited and immature world of NSFW actions and inappropriate LOLs.
14. NetQuest (FRANCE) – Broadcast, gaming, mobile, interactive
Producers: Thibaut Chatel & Guillaume Galliot Production Company: Label Anim
Logline: It’s the mid 2020’s and Noah and his friends are among the top players of NetRun, an augmented reality street-running sport. They spend the rest of their time investigating W@RZ, an evil artificial intelligence company, which is trying to take over the Internet.
15. Sarahn_12 (USA) – Feature film, gaming, mobile, interactive
Producer: Krista Parris Production Company: Buzz Rickson
Logline: When her lover is murdered, Sarah Nilson decides to investigate, unlocking a virtual world of deceit and betrayal.
16. The Cosmonaut (SPAIN) – Feature film, web series, mobile, ARG
Producer: Nicolás Alcalá Production Company: Riot Collective Cinema
Logline: October 1975. Stan is getting ready to be the first cosmonaut on the Moon. Andrei, his best friend since childhood, is directing the mission. But two days after the launch, the spaceship loses all communication with Earth…
17. The Everyday Walk of Fame (FRANCE) – Broadcast, mobile, interactive
Producer: Marc Lustigman Production Company: Darjeeling
Logline: The Everyday Walk of Fame tells the unusual stories of everyday people, reflecting society through compelling multimedia reportage.
18. The Laughter Clinic (UK) – Feature film, mobile, live event, interactive, broadcast
Producer: Ed Blum Production Company: Tin Pan Films
Logline: In this not-so-brave-new-world in the not-so-distant-future, all comedy is outlawed. Eric Parades, head of the counter humour unit The Laughter Squad, must go undercover to infiltrate New York’s most legendary comedy resistance movement.
Confirmed international jurors:
• Nuno Bernardo, CEO & Producer BeActive Entertainment (PORTUGAL)
• Guillaume Blanchot, Director of New Media & Video Games CNC (FRANCE)
• Rosa Bosch, MD & Producer B & W Films (SPAIN/UK)
• Peter Cowley, Former Head of Digital, Endemol (UK)
• Rob Crossen, Senior Product Manager, MSN (UK)
• Mel Exon, Managing Partner, BBH Labs (UK/USA)
• Jonathan Ford, Executive Vice-President of Digital Acquisitions and Distribution ContentFilm (UK)
• Lizzie Francke, Senior Development and Production Executive UK Film Council Film Fund (UK)
• Ian Ginn, Producer Hubbub Media (NETH)
• Ben Grass, Producer and Managing Director Pure Grass Films (UK)
• Thomas Hoegh, CEO Arts Alliance (UK)
• Matt Locke, Commissioning Editor, C4 (UK)
• Ray Maguire, President UK, Ireland, Nordic Sony Computer Entertainment (UK)
• Maureen McHugh, Writer & Partner, No Mimes Media (USA)
• Rob McLaughlin, Assistant Director, Digital Content and Strategy, National Film Board of Canada (CANADA)
• Mike Monello, Co-founder, Campfire (USA)
• Brian Newman, Consultant and Former President, Tribeca Film Institute (USA)
• Tommy Pallotta, Producer (NETHERLANDS/USA)
• Michel Reilhac, Executive Director ARTE France Cinéma (FRANCE)
• Joel Ronez, Head of Internet, ARTE (FRANCE)
• Lance Weiler, MD Seize the Media (USA)
• David G. Wilson, EON
with more to be announced.

www.powertothepixel.com