On July 2, 2021, Wallimage held its last meeting with animation stakeholders from Wallonia from the project’s ‘exploration phase’. The meeting was dedicated to presenting the “WONDERLAND mechanism," designed by ALICE’s finance and legal working group. The participants included representatives from Walloon independent production houses as well as larger publishing and production companies.
Carefully designed under the lead of film funds Wallimage and Pictanovo, in collaboration with ALICE’s partners, the Wonderland label was presented as one of the project’s key solutions to boosting European co-productions. The development process involved two years of collaboration with the international law firm Taylor Wessing as well as industry stakeholders from Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Slovakia and Poland.
The presentation, conducted by film expert and former CEO of Wallimage Philippe Reynaert, included details about the new tools Wonderland-labeled territories will have access to: a smart directory of European animation studios and a new funding programme called “White Marketing Rabbit”. Designed to be a business-oriented industry tool, the smart directory will provide ample details about European animation studios, including information about their skills as well as the techniques and technologies they use. It will be both a great promotional platform for the studios and a practical database for producers looking for European partners for their projects. The labeled territories represented in ALICE’s directory will have the option to create funding partnerships with other regions from Wonderland and use the “White Marketing Rabbit” programme to co-finance the marketing phase of European projects in development.
The Wonderland tools were enthusiastically received by the participants who had previously expressed the need to create a strong European industry network as well as sources of funding for projects at an early stage. They recognized the value added of this new, market-oriented label to increase the number of co-productions.
For Wallimage and its partners, the next step will be to implement the Wonderland proposal. Open to all the territories from the European Union, the whole mechanism is described in detail in ALICE’s whitepaper, which is to be released in September. The whitepaper will also contain legally vetted framework agreements that interested territories can use to create new partnerships under the White Marketing Rabbit programme.
For now, and as stated in its one-year action plan, Wallimage will focus on launching the smart directory. The initial results of its actions will be reported during ALICEs final dissemination event that will take place during the summer of 2022.
After-meeting interviews with enthusiastic stakeholders.
