PHL Trade Mission Earns $23-M In Film Festival

The Philippine trade mission to the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market (MIFA) held in June 2023 generated about USD 29 million in revenue, representing USD 3.3 million in actual sales and USD 25.7 million in potential direct investments.

Photo Insert: Annecy International, the world’s largest festival dedicated to animation, featured discussions that tackle global perspectives in the animation industry around the world and attracted regional partners, studios, investors, producers, content creators, and talent.

Representatives from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), Creative Content Creators Association of the Philippines (SIKAP), Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI), and eleven (11) production companies composed the country’s delegation tasked to promote the Philippines as a premier global provider of creative, content development, and co-production services and goods.

At Annecy, the Philippine delegation also organized the SEA Partner Pitch and PhiliPitch side events to further promote creative collaborations with the Philippines.

SEA Partner Pitch was designed for creators to share their developing animation projects and gain partnerships, funding, and co-production opportunities from regional partners, which include Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, PhiliPitch was an in-house pitching session that showcased original IPs and developing projects to market-goers at the MIFA 2023.

The developing projects featured during the said breakout were Ad Memoriam, Afternoons with Lapu-Lapu, Arcs & Crafts, Ewa, Huling Buwan, Kindred Chronicles, Leader Bored, Sitio Balete, Solemn Vow, The Flying Tricycle, and There’s a Daemon in my Head.

It is projected that the USD 29 million sales will still grow substantially due to the delegation’s participation in multiple networking events, in-house pitching sessions, side events, and business matching sessions at MIFA 2023.

Annecy International, the world’s largest festival dedicated to animation, featured discussions that tackle global perspectives in the animation industry around the world and attracted regional partners, studios, investors, producers, content creators, and talent.

One of the valuable parts of Annecy is MIFA, which is the global marketplace of animation and pitch competitions.

For the last 40 years, the Philippines has been a favored outsourcing destination for global animation. International companies have trusted Filipino animators, enabling production and continued service work for 2D and 3D animation.

The demand is gradually shifting to original content creation as the Philippine creative market matures. In 2022, the animation services market revenue in the country was estimated at USD 60 million and market headcount was at around 5.9 to 6.1 thousand.

The Philippine delegation to Annecy International and MIFA 2023 aims to help steer the country towards achieving the IT-BPM Industry Roadmap's aggressive targets of generating USD 114 million market revenue and achieving a 12.9 thousand market headcount for the Animation Industry by 2028.

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