The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) has always been the world’s leading event for finding the next publishing IP to turn into audiovisual content, or the publisher partner to bring animation original stories to paper.
With +1,500 exhibitors and more than 31,000 trade visitors from over 100 countries, this fair is perhaps the most transmedia trade event, if it’s possible to use that term for an exhibition event, that exists in the b2b event offering to date. Indeed, the BCBF is first and foremost a place to: scout for content; discover new trends – not only in publishing -; link creativity and business. Above all, it is the place where an IP often comes to life. Bologna is the place where characters such as Smurfs, Miffy, Peanuts, Moomin, Pippi Longstocking, Clifford, Barbapapa, Gruffalo, Asterix come from – and the list could go on and on.
In response to the growing demand, in 2024 the BCBF launched a business area entirely devoted to audiovisual producers wishing to develop business opportunities with publishers: the TV/Film Rights Centre. It was developed in the Licensing Pavilion of the Fair – creating a large subsidiary rights centre at the heart of the event – and offered registered companies not only a space where they could schedule their meetings, but also a matchmaking service to network audiovisual producers with publishers. In fact, more than 350 meetings were organised last April between publishers/ literature/comics agents and production companies such as Netflix, Mediatoon, Gaumont, Movimenti Production,, Lucky Red, Fabula Pictures, Fabrique d’Images, TG Entertainment and many others.
Following the success of the first edition, the 2025 edition is set to be even richer and more intense.
Discover more on the first issue of The European Animation Journal.
