PROJECTS SUBMISSION
REGISTRATION CLOSED SINCE AUGUST 11st
Weird Market is organising the 17th edition of the International Animation, Videogames and New Media Market in Valencia, Spain, from September 30th to October 5th 2025. The aim of the meeting is to create collaborations between international and national distributors, production companies, television channels, programmers, video game developers, students and animation directors.
RTVE, Movistar Plus+ and the Annecy Festival continue as collaborators, granting various recognitions such as the Movistar Plus+ Short Film Project Award; RTVE-Weird Market Talent Award for Best Animated Short Film Project, RTVE Awards for the Best Video Game Project, the Most Innovative Video Game Project and the Video Game Weird Plus; The Annecy-MIFA Award for Best Young Creator Animation Series Project.
Along the same lines, in order to promote and help the development and distribution of the IPs, a selection will be made from all the projects that apply to the call and comply with these rules, which will be published in the Weird Market catalogue. A second selection will be made from all the projects registered in the call: Projects that will be presented during the market by their creators.
During the month of September, the organization will announce the official selection that will be included in the catalog and the projects selected to be presented during Weird Market by their creators.
1. ORGANISATION AND OBJETIVES
Weird Market is organising the 17th edition of the International Animation, Videogames and New Media Market in Valencia, Spain, from September 30th to October 5th 2025. The aim of the meeting is to create collaborations between international and national distributors, production companies, television channels, programmers, video game developers, students and animation directors.
In order to focus on the value of IPs, regardless of their origin, Weird Market unifies its calls for projects into a single call for European IPs. The call is open to animation projects (feature films, short films, series, webseries and social media series), video games, transmedia, board games and comics that want to make themselves known in their different stages of production: in pre-production, in production or finished.
The main objective of this call for projects is to encourage and facilitate European co-production in order to strengthen the capacity of the audiovisual sector and to cooperate transnationally. To foster the European animation and video games market, to increase the visibility and circulation of EU projects and to help find new partners to finance, develop and create strong European IPs of transmedia projects. Find your technology partners, investors and co-producers at Weird Market 2025.
Along the same lines, in order to promote and help the development and distribution of the IPs, a selection will be made from all the projects that apply to the call and comply with these rules, which will be published in the Weird Market catalogue.
A second selection will be made from all the projects registered in the call: Projects that will be presented during the market by their creators.
The publication is distributed online and will be available on the Weird Market website. Every year it reaches more than 7,000 professionals in the sector. The aim of the publication is to showcase the excellent European production of IPs in animation, videogames and other creative sectors, and to put their creators in contact with distributors, buyers and co-producers.
2. CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION
2.1. The selection of projects (IPs) of the market is open to all types of European projects, considering those whose company and/or creator are of European nationality, in their different stages of production, understood as: pre-production, production or finalised. As an exception, for webseries and animated social media series, the call is open internationally.
2.2. All formats are accepted: short films, feature films, series, new formats, online formats, webseries, formats for social networks, webcomics, interactive experiences, videogames, VR-AR pieces of all kinds, etc.
2.3. ANIMATION AND VIDEO GAMES : All animation techniques (3D, 2D, Stop Motion…) and all types of video games are accepted in the participating projects.
2.4. COMIC – The works submitted to the competition will be original and free-themed. Both the characters and the stories must be unpublished, or characters whose exploitation rights are free to use.
2.5. BOARD GAMES – All formats are accepted: dice games, tile games, card games, role-playing games, role-playing games and board games. Prototypes with electronic circuits, solitaire or computer games are not accepted. Reprints of games that do not present a major change in the new edition will not be allowed.
2.6. TRANSMEDIA – Animation projects, games or new technology devices that can complete and enhance the transmedia experience, as well as innovative projects can be submitted. New technological devices and projects must be related to animation or video games.
2.6.1. Indicative list of accepted projects:
- Animation projects for any device
- Video game projects for any device
- Video art, works or presentations related to animation and video games
- Games and voice experiences (for voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana, etc.)
- Connected toys and connected games
- VR, AR or XR experiences, projects or tools
- Transmedia and crossmedia projects of any kind related to animation and video games
- Innovative projects of any kind related to animation and video games
- Toys and gadgets of any kind related to animation and video games.
2.7. Each project may only be registered with a single production status, which may not be repeated in the next edition of the market (except in the case of feature films).
2.8. The maximum number of participating projects per company/creator will be three titles.
2.9. There is no registration fee.
2.10. It is not necessary to be part of a company to apply.
2.11. There is a right of admission to works that offend people’s sensibilities, incite violent or discriminatory behaviour or are contrary to social customs.
2.12. The deadline for registration and submission of materials is August 11th 2025.
3. MATERIALS NEEDED FOR EACH TYPE OF PROJECT
3.1 The materials that will be required to complete the registration are detailed below.
3.1.1. For all projects, regardless of their nature and/or format, it will be necessary to send:
- A single PDF with a maximum of 12 pages. It may be less extensive but must include all the headings detailed in point 3.2.
- 2 clean high quality horizontal images (without logos or titles).
3.2. Structure of the PDF file, with a font size of at least 10 and horizontal format (landscape):
- Page 1. Cover page with the following data
- Name of the project (with operational link to web or social media if available)
- Authors and company (if available, with operational link to web or social media if available)
- Nature of the IP (animation, video game, comic, transmedia, board game, etc)
- Format/s of the IP (duration / chapters / platform)
- Target (by age)
- Pages 2 and 3. Description of IP (synopsis, characters, world, dynamics, etc. )
- Page 4. Information about the production company and creator/s, with emphasis on other notable previous projects, previous experience in the sector, brief resume (with operative link to web or rrss if it exists).
- Pages 5 to 8. Visual development of the IP (you can include everything, sketches, screenshots, links to videos, etc).
- Pages 9 and 10. Production strategy, exploitation model, financing and budget (as detailed as possible, although if there is any part that is not yet developed it can be left blank).
- Page 11. Possible expansion of IP (if the idea is to stay in a single sector or format or to expand to others, for example from videogame to animated series or from board game to videogame or from short film to feature film, etc).
- Page 12. Motivation for participating in Weird Market and what you are specifically looking for (type of partner, investment, visibility, distribution, etc), the more specific the better.
Any application whose material is incomplete or does not follow the structure described above will be disqualified and will not pass the selection committee. It is very important to make sure that all links and hyperlinks work before submitting the PDF, if they are not properly linked they will not be evaluated. Links can be added in all sections of the dossier.
3.3. It will be positively valued if the pdf contains links to extra material that helps to know the project better, such as graphic materials, teaser, trailer, working demo, etc.
3.4. All materials must be sent exclusively through the registration form, available at the end of this document.
3.5. The sending of this documentation is compulsory in order to formalise the application.
4. PROJECT SELECTION
4.1. The selection committee will be made up of professionals from the sector.
4.2. The selected works will appear with their information sheet and contact details in the Weird Market catalogue.
4.3. The producers or authors must guarantee to be in legal possession of the rights of the project, including those indirectly related (e.g. music or illustrations).
4.4. The material submitted in the registration of each of the selected titles will be available to accredited professionals digitally, unless the creators expressly indicate otherwise.
5. PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE
5.1. The Weird Market organisers will grant free accreditation only to projects selected to be presented at the market.
5.2. All professionals who need more information or wish to attend Weird Market 2025 can contact us at weird@weirdmarket.es
6. PRESENTATION OF PROJECTS DURING THE EVENT
6.1. The selected projects will be published on the website www.weirdmarket.es in September 2025.
6.2. The Weird Market organisers will provide free accreditation, accommodation and meals for a single representative of each project selected to be presented during the market. Any other expenses arising from attendance will be the responsibility of the participant.
7. AWARDS
7.1. Movistar Plus+ Short Film Project Award
Movistar Plus+ supports for the tenth consecutive year the call granting the Movistar Plus+ Short Film Project Award to the best national short film. The short film selected in this section will obtain the acquisition of the rights of emission by Movistar Plus+ for an amount of 9,000 euros during the term of 2 years and unlimited number of passes, being the first year in exclusivity for the aforementioned channel. In addition, this project will be awarded a second prize: the audio post-production by Menos Doce DB, valued at 5,000 euros and consisting of: sound design and editing, ADR recording, voice-overs, pre-mixing and final mixing. The prize doesn’t include the cost of Foley recording and film mixing room. The work will be carried out at Menos Doce DB.
The maximum length of the short films may not exceed 20 minutes.
The Weird Market, Movistar Plus+ and Menos Doce DB logos must appear on the header of the project.
The award will be granted between those short film projects that express their desire to participate and accept the conditions of the prize (above mentioned).
7.2. RTVE Awards
7.2.1. RTVE-Weird Market Talent Award for Best Animated Short Film Project
Following last year’s agreement between RTVE and Weird Market, the ‘RTVE-Weird Market Talent Award for the Best Animated Short Film Project’ was established. The winning project will obtain the acquisition of the broadcasting rights from RTVE for an amount of 25,000 euros (VAT included), with the first year of exclusivity. There will be a maximum period of two years to deliver the short film.
The winning short film may serve as a starting point for a possible development of a series or feature film and will have its national premiere in one of the next two editions of Weird Market (2026 or 2027), while its international premiere may take place in any other event outside Spain. The work will also be shown on RTVE Play, where it will be hosted for as long as RTVE has the broadcasting and transmission rights.
The specific rules will be published shortly and will be for projects with a Spanish author and production company, with a self-concluding narrative (beginning, middle and end); the minimum duration will be five minutes and it is essential to have the legal registration of the IP/project. The evaluation committee for the proposals received will be made up of representatives from RTVE and Weird Market.
7.2.2. Other awards
The public entity, RTVE, continues supporting this call for projects and it will give three awards: the Best Video Game Project, the Most Innovative Video Game Project and the Video Game Weird Plus, to the video game that breaks molds, to the weirdest. These awards are granted by the Interactive Media Department of RTVE; Where the selected project can be presented to the Interactive Directorate of RTVE.
7.3. Free accreditation Annecy – MIFA 2025 to the best series project by a young creator
For the seventh consecutive year, among all the participant animation series projects whose director or production company is their first or second series, it will be granted the recognition to the Best Young Creator Animation Series Project, offering a free accreditation for the next edition of Annecy-MIFA (MIFA professional accreditation).
7.4. All short film projects submitted may simultaneously compete for the Movistar Plus+ Short Film Project Award and the RTVE-Weird Market Talent Award for the Best Animated Short Film Project, provided that they meet the specific requirements established for each of them. Participation in one category does not exclude the possibility of being considered in the other.
7.5. Other awards may be given in this call. These will be communicated to all participants via email in addition to being announced on the website and Weird Market social networks.
8. CONDITIONS FOR REGISTRATION
8.1. Participation in the call for projects, with the submission of materials and registration, implies full acceptance of these regulations.
8.2. The signatory who registers the work must have the necessary rights over the work in order to submit it.
8.3. Weird Market does not reserve any ownership of the work, except for publication in the catalogue.
8.4. In the following link you can access the registration form:
For more information on the call for projects:
Raquel Izquierdo
*COMING SOON*
Submissions closed.
The call for short films ended on July 15th 2022.
You can check out the projects that will be in our catalogue (market) and the projects selected to be presented.