Melanie Errea: "We choose our content very carefully"

Founded in 2016 by Hanna Mouchez, MIAM! Animation is a Paris-based company active in the development, production and international distribution of high-quality animated and hybrid programs. Currently, Miam Distribution have a catalogue of 23 animated programs, and represent 20 programs coming from independent French producers. "We cover all types of targets, from preschoolers, to kids, and even family and young adults," said Melanie Errea, sales manager at Miam distribution in an exclusive interview with Señal News. "We have a strong editorial line, and we choose our content very carefully. We defend very strong values such as ecology, feminism, empathy, and solidarity, and we also select contents that are a bit different from what we can find in the market, she stated.

One of Miam Distribution highlighted project is “Edmond and Lucy”, an in-house animated series produced in 3D real time commissioned by France TV and HR/ARD for KiKA in Germany. The series is based on the best-selling albums “Edmond and friends” by Marc Boutavant and Astrid Desbordes. The program has already been presold to SVT (Sweden), RTS (Switzerland), VRT (Belgium), MTVA (Hungary), SYN (Iceland), LTV (Latvia) and TV5 Monde (French speaking worldwide).

“'Edmond and Lucy' follows the great outdoors adventures of Edmond, the squirrel and Lucy the bear cub, who are raised as brother and sister in a majestic forest. In each episode, they go and play outside and learn a lot from nature. And they will be growing up in harmony with nature," described Errea. "With this series, we want to present a new vision of ecology, and we want kids to develop the sense of wonder, and to make them understand how marvellous it can be to live in contact with nature," she added.

“'Edmond and Lucy" is produced in real-time CGI (Unity software), a technology that comes from the video game industry that allows to Miam designed an innovative, competitive, and overall coherent production pipeline: producing a show that is nourished by a sustainable narrative concept, in the highest graphic quality and at the same time, reducing our environmental impact as much as possible.

For kids, Miam Distribution is also offering “Goat Girl”, a 2D quirky comedy coproduced with Daily Madness. "We signed our co- production deal last year with Daily Madness, and we also get on board to WarnerMedia EMEA, that's huge for us. We are very proud to have this commission dealer in place," Errea spotlighted.

“Goat Girl” (52x11’) follows Gigi, a 13-year-old girl raised by goats, as she starts attending a boarding school. Getting along with actual people while staying true to her goaty attitude, now that’s a challenge! The program has already been bought by ABC (Australia). "The series is a lot about welcome your differences, it's not because you have been raised by goats that you cannot be integrated in your new school environments. This series it's 100% committed driven program, and it has a strong female lead," the sales manager at Miam distribution completed.

MAIN GOALS IN LATIN AMERICA

Melanie Errea affirmed that one o the key Miam objective in 2022 is to sell "Edmond and" Lucy to Latin American broadcasters. "I attended MIP Cancún last year and received many interests from both public and more commercial broadcasters," she said. "But we know that the neutral Spanish version will be key to develop the sales in Latin America. Actually, the original series is based on the book, and the book is translated in Spanish and that's also a good start to develop the series in Latin America," she anticipated.

Miam Distribution has also available a raft of feminist programs for the territory. One of them is “Brazen” (“Valerosas”). The company closed a deal with Filmin, an independent platform in Spain, which offers the program in Castellano, and with Canal Encuentro in Argentina and TVN in Chile to broadcast the program in Latin America. "We think that there are very strong needs of feminist programs in the Latin American markets, and we are super proud to bring it to the market in 2022," she expressed.

Part of this feminist catalogue is also the series “Unsung Women” (30x3’), a mix between paper cut and 2d animation produced by Zadig productions, Les Films du Bilboquet and commissioned by ARTE France. "We recently sold it to Movistar (Spain) and the series points out with humor the invisibility process that women have undergone through History", Errea said.

                                                                                                                                                                        By Romina Rodríguez and Karla Flores