Call For Entries: Ideatoon Seeks Animated Projects From Latin America

The Mexican pitching contest and summit Ideatoon by Pixelatl has opened a call for entries for its fifth annual edition. This year, the event has broadened the call beyond Mexico, and is now accepting entries from throughout Latin America.

Unlike many pitching contests that are more promotional in nature and have questionable value for the participating artists, Ideatoon is designed from the ground-up to assist in developing and evolving Latin America’s expanding animation industry.

The initiative has been a success in its first four years, resulting in at least 2 IPs being sold as options to international companies. Additionally, other participants have landed service contracts with top studios, and at least three participants have done work with Cartoon Network Latin America.

This year, Ideatoon will select 30 projects, and the creators behind each project will win a travel grant to Mexico this May to participate in a bootcamp led by an international group of directors, artists, and consultants. During the program, the participants will receive mentoring and masterclasses to further develop their pitch bibles.

Then, ten pitch bibles will be selected as finalists to move on to the Ideatoon Summit, that will take place this September in Cuernavaca, Mexico at the Pixelatl Festival. At the summit, finalists will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to potential buyers, investors and broadcasters. In past years the summit has brought together executives from Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, CBBC, Maker Studios, Discover Kids LatAm, and local Mexican networks.

Additionally, winners will be selected in three categories: best preschool series, best idea for 6-11, and best feature, as well as a grand prize award of 250,000 pesos (around US$12,500). All the category winners will receive travel expenses to attend Cartoon Connection Canada. (Cartoon Brew is a media sponsor of the Pixelatl Festival.)

Submission guidelines, as well as a guide for developing pitch bibles, can be found at Ideatoon.com. While the project is only open to Latin American artists, non-Latino projects may apply through a partnership with a Mexican or Latin American studio.

The deadline to submit a project is April 24, 2017.

(Top image: Concept art for “Viking Tales” by Mighty Animation, grand prize winner of the 2016 Ideatoon.)