WEIRD MARKET SELECTS 203 ANIMATION, VIDEO GAMES, COMICS AND BOARD GAMES PROJECTS
The 12th edition of the Weird Market confirms the selection of a total of 203 projects for its 2020 catalogue. A collection of works that is made up of 16 feature films, 39 short films, 28 animation series, 35 video games, 27 web series, 14 transmedia projects and as a novelty this year 25 comics and 19 board games. An expansion in the calls that responds to the reality of the animation, video games and new media sector. The Segovian event will be held from September 30th to October 4th and will feature online presentations adapted to the social and healthcare reality that will open the event to new audiences online; Outstanding names such as Roc Espinet, Diego Porral, David Fidalgo, Víctor Sevilla “Monigote”, Myriam Ballesteros, José María Fernández de la Vega or long-awaited proposals such as the Gylt video game from Tequila Works or the comic Sicarios, have confirmed their participation.
In the cinematographic section, the selection has more than fifty productions where we can find up to 16 feature films. The authors of four of these feature film projects will be present virtually as is the case of Roc Espinet, who will talk about Girl and Wolf, the adaptation of his own graphic novel; a work already published in four languages and which was presented in this same framework in 2016.
Two other feature film projects that will be part of the official program will be Hanna and the Monsters by Lorena Ares and Sierra Dragon by Pepe Sánchez Alonso. The first is a co-production between Spain, Ireland, Belgium and France that seeks to bring a sensitive issue such as bullying closer to children. For its part, Sánchez Alonso’s work is aimed at a teenage audience and was selected in the last edition of Cartoon Movie.
The Spanish-Portuguese profile of the call is clear with the presentation of the Portuguese The Devil’s Little Couple, by Jerónimo Rocha and João Miguel. This film is the second joint work of both directors after the award-winning short film of 2015: Macabre.
Within the 39 short films from Spain and Portugal, a total of 8 projects will be presented, including Nacer by Roberto Valle, in which a team of more than 30 people works, some winners of Goya Awards or who have participated in multi-award-winning films such as Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles or the Oscar nominee Klaus.
Three other works that will participate actively will be Interns by Marina Donderis, Nuria Poveda and Marina Cartón; He Ran Towards His Comrade by Genís Rigol and Leopoldo el del Bar by Diego Porral. The three projects participated in the last edition of the Mexican festival Pixelatl, highlighted as young Spanish talents, the result of the collaboration between ICAA, Pixelatl and Weird Market. Porral’s work was also awarded last year at the Weird Market with the Movistar + Short Film Project Award.
Like Diego Porral, the director David Fidalgo also knows the event in depth and in 2020 he will present his new short film project Sandwich Cat, also selected at Sitges Coming Soon. With his previous work, Homomaquia, he was nominated for the Goya Awards.
Three more short films complete the program: La primavera siempre vuelve by Alicia Núñez Puerto, El último muflón by Omar Razzak and Shira Ukrainitz (their second work together after the success of Confined Spaces), and Panorama 0 by Edgar Burgos (Moz & I).
The series section is made up of 28 works; Among them Trokers, Our Future Is in Their Hands, by Víctor Sevilla Galindo “Monigote” will be presented. This is his new job after the international sales success of the feature film released this 2020 Turu, the Wacky Hen.
More details about Masked Cinderella by Myriam Ballesteros, selected this year in Cartoon Forum will also be known. or Jimmy & The Magic Key by Lluís Viciana and Xavier Carmona, whose protagonist is the alter-ego of the concert artist James Rhodes.
Other novelties that will have their space in this same section are the international co-production Royals Next Door by Veronica Lassenius, the Portuguese co-production The Saskatoons by Evgenia Golubeva, and the Spanish Villa Fábula by Víctor Marín and Welcome to Fucking Rainbowland by Nacho Subirats and Nuño Benito.
A GREAT CONGLOMERATE OF VIDEO GAME PROJECTS
The selection of projects for this edition of Weird Market covers a total of 35 video games and among them, some of the most anticipated titles that are currently being produced in the Iberian Peninsula, will be presented.
Proposals as ambitious as Gylt from Tequila Works, which revealed some details at E3 last year and is scheduled to be launched for Google Stadia; Unmemory by Patrones y Escondites; Ludipe & Bitmoo with Pokey Dokey Paradise; Tessera Studios with ROOT: Rise of the Revolution; or the Portuguese Once a Bird with Outsider: After Life.
Other companies that have raised great expectations in the sector and that will not miss the appointment are Calathea Game Studio to talk about Inner Ashes, a proposal that places the player in the skin of a person with Alzheimer’s, and Tanuki Game Studio with The Library of Babel; both studies have been selected by PlayStation Talents in their last two editions.
The diversity of proposals will be evident in titles such as Oniria Crimes by cKolmos Game Studios where visual novel is mixed with graphic adventure, The Pizza Situation by 3BYTES that presents a social media simulator with surreal narrative, or the relaxed and colorful experience of Summer in Mara by Chibig.
Finally, the Galician multidisciplinary Digital Monster Collective, focused on the production of short films, animation, video games and applications, will delve into The Deepest, Greatest and Craziest Love Story Ever.
WEBSERIES AND TRANSMEDIA PROJECTS FROM AMERICA, ASIA AND EUROPE
Multiple countries from three different continents come together in the selections of web series and transmedia projects. In the first section there are 27 works that are included in the catalogue and a dozen of them (from America, Asia and Europe) will advance news during the course of the Castilian-Leon event. The Spanish Vip Pets by Álex Cervantes and Manu González, the Canadian I Was There by Arnaud Bouquet, the Mexican F#%@ My Family by Ricardo Abraham Ibarra or the more exotic AstroLOLogy by Ken Foong (Malaysia) and Celflux by Everard McBain (Trinidad and Tobago) are some examples.
France and Argentina are the two countries that will present the most webseries proposals during the event; three of them will be French: Fail in Love by Cécile Rousset, Romain Blanc-Tailleur and Adrienne Nowak; Brazen by Charlotte Cambon and Mai Nguyen, as well as Women Undercover by Aurélie Pollet. For its part, the Ibero-American country will feature two productions: E.go – Inner Problems In Outer Space by International Emmy nominee Sebastián Mignogna and Toque de quena (gente rota) by Gabriel Lucero, a viral phenomenon that unites animation and audios by WhatsApp
Regarding the 14 European transmedia projects, there will be a presentation of the Franco-Italian production Mash & Co by Katrin Ann Orbeta. Next to her, three Spanish women; Melbits by Alex Cervantes, Behind the Eyes by Belén Montero, which features part of the production team of the short film winner of the Goya Decorado, and The V.H.S. Gang by José María Fernández de Vega, a filmmaker responsible for the short Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, the seed work of the Goya and EFA-winning feature film produced by Fernández de Vega himself.
WEIRD MARKET INTRODUCES COMICS AND BOARD GAMES
One of the important novelties of this edition was the opening to new formats of animation such as comics and board games. For this reason, the call for projects for the 2020 edition had these two new sections that bring together 25 and 19 proposals respectively.
Several prominent authors will intervene during the 12th edition of the market, such as the aforementioned Roc Espinet with his comic Harpoon or Roberto Carroto who with Sicarios caught the attention of Aces Weekly, the digital magazine of cartoonist David Lloyd (V for Vendetta). There will also be Claudio Cerdán, creator of Iscariot; This versatile artist has an important international literary career (Cien años de perdón, El club de los mejores), in addition to having made several scripts and short films.
Other comics that will have a prominent space will be the Spanish Crepanquine vol. I & II by Caro Waro and Garbunka, Summer Stories by Yago de Hita and Leyre Granero, along with the Dutch Worst Case Scenario Graphic Novel by Richard Raaphorst and Eron Sheean.
Regarding board games, the Weird Market programming has confirmed a wide range of works of all kinds of genres: family games, for a teenage audience, fantasy or sport games, among others. With important creators such as the Catalan Francisco “Pak” Gallego who will bring Instacrime; Gallego is the creator of hits such as Guerra de mitos or Fanhunter Assault.
The confirmed list is completed by An Anthology of Cozy RPGs by Ludipe, DinoZombies by Pablo Alonso Lasagabaster, Kaboom Universe by Álvaro G. Echave, Kingdom’s Candy: Monsters by Zemilio and Joe Slack, Bitter Cup by José Manuel Fernández Aguilera, Pitch & Plakks by PLAKKS, Spytech, by Pedro Berenguel Nieto and Zoocracy by Simon Haas.
The 203 projects aspire to win one of the awards of this edition. The prizes to which they are competing are the Movistar + Short Film Project Award, the Interactive RTVE Award for the Most Innovative Video Game Project, the Award for the Best Young Series Project Creator (Annecy-MIFA), the Átomo Network Award, the Robot Atómico Award and the Átomo Grand Prix Award.
