[Special Insert] The Bologna Children’s Book Fair on the Move: Bridging Creativity

By attending Cartoon Forum, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair reaffirms its status as a unique opportunity to take IP beyond the pages of a book and the screen. We discussed it with Elena Pasoli, Director at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

How does BCBF’s partnership with Cartoon Forum align with the fair’s evolving vision?

The BCBF, along with the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids and BolognaBookPlus, continues to evolve, increasingly focusing on initiatives that create connections among the key players in content creation for children, teenagers, and young adults.

In line with it, Cartoon Forum serves as an ideal bridge between our fair and the European animation sector. It fosters the development of relationships that can be translated into new projects, resulting in a more diverse offering for our audience and opening up new creative and commercial possibilities. Thanks to a naturally formed partnership motivated by this shared interest, BCBF is proud to lead a delegation of seven Italian publishers to Toulouse, in collaboration with ICE. This initiative promotes an exchange between Italian publishing and European representatives of the audiovisual industry, reinforcing the fair’s fundamental role as a bridge between cultures and traditions.

>>>> Read our Cartoon Forum Special Insert

BCBF’s involvement in the Cartoon Forum marks a significant opportunity to promote the TV/Film Rights Centre. How does it facilitate collaboration between the publishing, audiovisual, licensing, and gaming industries?

The TV/Film Rights Centre, established in 2024, serves as an ideal meeting point between the publishing and audiovisual industries on an international scale. With a dedicated matchmaking service, we are attracting producers who attend the BCBF seeking innovative stories and characters. Networking opportunities for audiovisual professionals also extend to the licensing sector, which has been part of the fair for 18 years, as well as to gaming, with the Games Business Centre launched in 2025 in collaboration with the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Bologna stands out as a unique opportunity to take IPs beyond the pages of a book and screens, a journey that began several years ago with the establishment of the BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award. This annual prize is awarded to the best projects developed from children’s and young adult books that have been successfully expanded to other platforms, and also recognises stories that originate from different media and are successfully adapted into print.

For the 2026 edition, we plan to offer an even richer programme, including pitch sessions for audiovisual producers who wish to present their IPs, and the enhancement of the portfolio review format to facilitate encounters between animation studios and emerging illustration talent.

 Toulouse serves as the first stop of the Grand Tour, the autumn journey where the BCBF showcases its best initiatives to a global audience, strengthening the Fair’s relationships.

Following its preview at GamesCom in Cologne and its first stop in Toulouse, the fourth edition of our Grand Tour – made possible by the support and collaboration of ICE and MAECI – will next pass through the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Here, the BCBF will showcase a selection of the best in international illustration. The tour will continue to the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair, co-organized by BolognaFiere, which provides an annual opportunity to highlight one of the world’s most dynamic publishing markets, and then make its way to the Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, a key event for the entire Latin American and Spanish-speaking publishing industry.

Lastly, it will arrive at the Spielwarenmesse, the world’s most significant international toy fair held annually in Nuremberg, and the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême, one of the most prestigious comic book events globally. This will be a valuable opportunity to promote the Comics Corner, a business area created by BCBF in 2022 due to the steady growth of the comics sector. The tour will conclude in New York, where BCBF will host an exhibition of children’s books that explore the themes of the United Nations’ 17 Goals.

>>>> Read the full interview in our Cartoon Forum Special Insert