beactive news

Power to the Pixel (PttP) has announced that four major prizes to celebrate the best in international cross-media production will be awarded at The Pixel Market 2012 in London in October.

Power to the Pixel is a global cross-media company which supports the film and media industries in their transition to a digital age. It specializes in new ways for content creators and businesses to create, finance and distribute stories and engage with audiences across multiple platforms.

PttP’s sixth annual Cross-Media Forum is taking place from 16 to 19 October 2012 in association with the 56th BFI London Film Festival, which will run from 10 to 25 October. The Pixel Market 2012 will take place on 17 and 18 October, comprising The Pixel Pitch competition on day one (open to the public), and The Pixel Meetings on day two (closed event).

The ARTE Pixel Pitch Prize, a generous award of £6,000 sponsored by the French broadcaster will be awarded for the third year running, while three new prizes will be awarded for the first time. The beActive Pixel Market Comedy Prize will recognize the best comedy project, the Cinekid Pixel Market Prize will be awarded to the best project for children (4-14 years) while the Mozilla Pixel Market Prize will be awarded to the best non-fiction project.

All four prizes will be awarded at The Pixel Market during Power to the Pixel’s sixth Cross-Media Forum which runs from 16 to 19 October 2012 and will again be held in association with the 56th BFI London Film Festival.

Up to 30 international production teams will be selected to participate in The Pixel Market and to compete for prizes including at this year’s Pixel Pitch. While every project will be considered for the prestigious ARTE Pixel Pitch Prize, only eight teams will be selected to progress to the next round where they will deliver 10-minute presentations before a public audience and the all-important Pixel Jury, an international panel of experts who face the hard task of deciding which project deserves this ultimate prize.

In addition, for the first time this year, teams entering a comedy, children’s or non-fiction project will be put forward for consideration for one of three new prizes. The winner of the beActive Pixel Market Comedy Prize will receive £2,500 cash and automatic selection to beActive’s Comedy Lab 2013. The winner of the Cinekid Pixel Market Prize which will recognise the best project aimed at 4 to 14 year-olds, will enjoy automatic selection for the 2012 Cinekid for Professionals co-production market in Amsterdam in October, free accreditation to the festival plus return travel & accommodation. The winner of the Mozilla Pixel Market Prize for Non-fiction will gain a spot at the Living Docs hackathon in San Francisco this September, plus return travel & accommodation.

Nuno Bernardo, producer and CEO of beActive, said: “beActive is delighted to be part of The Pixel Market and to sponsor the Best Comedy prize for a cross-media project. We are excited to be able to welcome one of the market participants to our Digital Comedy Lab incubation programme. This initiative will open the DCL outside the UK and Ireland and will allow one producing team to benefit from the expertise and exposure of beActive’s programme.”

For more information about the beActive comedy lab, visit http://www.digitalcomedylab.com