Mumbai: For the 45th MIPTV featuring MILIA to be held in Cannes from 7 – 11 April, 27 projects for interactive and multi-platform content have been selected for the final of the third international Content 360 festival competition.
The 27 short-listed producers and designers were chosen from 285 candidates across the competition’s eight categories by digital commissioners from Content 360’s partners: the BBC, the Korean Broadcasting & Communications Commission (BCC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and OgilvyInteractive Worldwide.
This year’s competition drew almost 400 project entries in total, and was notable for the upsurge in pitches for the branded-content category ‘Using the Power of the Brand for the Power of Good’, created by advertising agency OgilvyInteractive (more than 100 submissions in 2008 compared to 42 the previous year).
There was also strong interest from traditional industry players such as Endemol and All3Media International, a finalist this year in the BBC’s category ‘New IPTV Concepts’. The competition has widened its international appeal, with 42 countries participating in 2008 compared to 36 in 2007.
Slovenia, South Africa, Finland and Norway are all making their first appearance among this year’s 11 finalist countries.
"The continued success of the Content 360 competition demonstrates the need for traditional media to meet today’s digital creators. We are excited to bring to MIPTV the latest content ideas for audience participation, social networking, personalization and interactivity, across all digital platforms," said Reed MIDEM director of digital media Ted Baracos.
The finalists of the Content 360 competition will be in Cannes to pitch their projects before an audience and a jury made up of executives from the audiovisual, digital and advertising sectors.
The winners in each category will be announced on 10 April during the Zapping Show hosted by Ray Cokes. MIPTV featuring MILIA continues to recognize creativity with the successful pitches sharing prize money worth €113,000 in development financing.
