Diboos of Honor to Pablo Berger, at the 16th Weird Market

The 16th edition of Weird Market, a national and international reference for the animation, video game and new media industry that will host more than 500 professionals from the sector from October 1 to 6, will serve as the framework for the delivery of the new award Back of Honor 2024 to Pablo Berger, who last year signed the Goya winner and Oscar nominee for animation 'Robot Dreams'.

He 16th Valencia Strange Market is once again structured around a multidisciplinary programming which includes project presentations, conferences, a short film festival, professional and talent search days, networking spaces and even a day dedicated to bringing new financing models closer and delving deeper into the use of disruptive technologies with the participation of investors, publishers and institutions.

Its official catalog will have 180 projects between feature films, short films, series, webseries, video games, transmedia projects, comics and board games; About thirty of them will be presented during the professional conferences that will take place between October 3 and 5. In the festival section animated short films (WFest – on October 1, 2 and 3 at the Filmoteca Valenciana, Rialto Building) there will be 36 who will go to the competition: 25 in the national section and 11 in the international section. A selection with three world premieres featuring emerging talents, established names and some of the most important works of the year such as the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes or one of the Oscar nominees.

He industry area is experiencing notable growth this year with more than 500 accredited and the creation of the day of Weird Invest; a wide range of conferences and activities with the aim of introducing new financing models, analyzing “case studies” and delving into the use of disruptive technologies. Among the participants there will be investors, publishers and institutions such as Triple Dragon, Animond, Blue Bits, Madwest, Raw Fury, Veemkade Capital, Blackmouth Games, Bright Gambit, Foton Games, Parabellum Games, Elipsis Capital, FEI-EIF, Hulahoop Media, ICO, Enisa, Spain Audiovisual Hub, CDTI, DeAPlaneta Entertainment, MEDIA, Ministerio de Cultura and CESCE, among others. The event will be on Thursday, October 3, thanks to the support of ICEX, Animation from Spain and Games from Spain. This same professional field includes recruitment day (Thursday, October 2), there will be the presence of headhunters from 12 international companies who will carry out more than a hundred interviews to integrate new talent into their teams

One of the notable novelties of this edition is the incorporation of new headquarters how are they The Ships y The Flour Mill, which between them offer a total of 10.000 metros squares to accommodate projects such as a space soft landing for technologies or the project Valencia Game City. The second of them will be where the showroom, a proposal that is enhanced by Indie Dev Day. On October 4 and 5 you can visit the Plaza Weird about twenty stands where, in addition to the aforementioned collaborating fair, there will be space for Animalcoi (Alcoi International Animation Festival), Prime the Animation! training centers such as Escola Superior D'Art I Tecnologia ESAT, Barreira A+D and the Universitat Politècnica de València, as well as 13 video game companies that will exhibit their latest developments.

Pablo Berger, Honorary Diboos 2024

Weird Market It is also the framework chosen by Diboos (Spanish Federation of Animation and Visual Effects Production Companies) to deliver the Honor Diboos 2024 to the filmmaker Pablo Berger. With this newly created and annual award, the Federation, which is celebrating 18 years of history, wants to recognize figures or entities that have contributed significantly to the sector by promoting Spanish animation inside and outside our borders.

The author of the tape Robot Dreams, the feature film nominated for best animated film in the latest edition of the Oscar Awards, thus culminates a historical journey with this work that, after being presented in Cannes last year, has collected awards at the Goya, Annie, Quirino, José María Forqué, Feroz, European Film Awards y Annecy. The first foray into animation by the Basque author of other titles such as snow white, Abracadabra o Torremolinos 73 came supported by an experienced team in the sector, thus achieving the clamor of critics and the favor of the public upon its release at the box offices around the world.