Pietro Pinetti: "The animation market in the Emirates opens up an opportunity for development in the Arab world"

The Animation Conference held in Sharjah, the first of its kind in the Arab world, has produced very positive figures: more than 5,000 visitors, 1,500 participants and 150 meetings between publishers and producers for the development of the publishing and animation industry, according to the organisation's own figures. In addition, it is worth highlighting the high level of the speakers who gave the master classes and workshops: directors, animators, creatives and producers from several continents.  John Nevarez, Robin Linn, Wouter Tulp, Mamoru Yokota, Sandro Cleuzo, Andrea Bozetto... the list goes on. The success of this first meeting has opened the doors to the second edition. This was confirmed by Pietro Pinetti, artistic director of the event, organised by the Sharjah Book Authority and the Italian festival Bergamo Animation Days (BAD). Pinetti, who was very satisfied with the results obtained, told us about the great challenge of growing the animation market in the Emirates, as it opens up an opportunity for development in the Arab world.  He also highlighted the great potential that the Arab region has, "not only in terms of business possibilities, but also in terms of the talent and creativity of its young people".

What is your assessment at the end of the three days of the 1st Animation Conference held in Sharjah?

The feedback from this first conference has been very positive, both from the producers and from the national and international artists who attended; for them, it was very interesting to get to know another new culture, a world they didn't know before, which is the Arab world, the world of the Emirates. At the same time, there was also this interest in Emirati artists and producers from the Middle East, not only Emiratis, because people from Egypt, from Jordan, from different places in the Middle East participated in the conference. This feedback was very positive, because we realised that there is a real need in this region that justifies a conference like this and, in fact, to grow over time. And a very good collaboration is with the Sharjah Book Authority.

Does the outcome of this edition already open the doors to prepare for the next one?

Without a doubt, next year there will be a second edition. We will incorporate more activities that we were not able to organise this year, activities related precisely to the training of young people, especially young Emiratis, the local youth. There is also an idea to develop some other initiatives, always related to the conference, which are still business things, but which can put young people, young authors in contact with international production companies. This will be another idea that we would like to develop. In general, we are very, very happy. We have heard very good feedback and we have seen a lot of interest and a lot of creativity.

It's a great opportunity to be able to learn from the beginning the whole process of an animation?

Yes, especially for young people. In Milan (Italy) we have quite a big studio in terms of numbers and they are all very young. The average age will be between 24-30 years old at the most. It's important to talk about a target audience that is interested in working on animation products. We have a nice challenge in the Emirates. We hope to collaborate with schools dedicated to this world, there are few, but some of them are very good. We are looking for collaborations with local institutions, schools and producers. We have met many of them during these days, all of them very interested and grateful for having such a meeting in the Middle East. This also touched me in the sense of having the impression that it could really be an important change for the sector in the Middle East. We hope that the cultural connection between the Italian and European world and the Arab world can also lead to a beautiful exchange. In short, to a fruitful cooperation. 

How did the idea of organising this event come about and where does the relationship with Bergamo come from?

The project was born during Bergamo Animation Days, which is a conference format that took place last year in Italy with the idea of showing the world what is being done in animation. I am also a producer at Studio Bozetto and the intention in Italy was to show Italians what it means and how animated films are made. At the same time, we were collaborating with Sharjah on some projects for the Children's Reading Festival and so the possibility of this initiative came up. They knew about this project and asked us to bring it to the Emirates as well.  And that's how the collaboration came about. We created an identical format, well, very similar. We calibrated in the Arab world and looked for a focus on training, workshops, showing publishers... We focused not only on animation producers, but also on the publishing world that the Festival represents, because it was held in parallel. To show what it meant to make production, but also what it means to acquire the rights to the books and then make a product out of them. 

Do you think that the Arab world is opening up to new projects? 

I've been travelling around the Arab Emirates for a while now and I see that it has so many things to say, so many stories to tell... It has great artists, illustrators, great creativity in the young people we have met, however, they never had the opportunity to see the world of animation, and that is what amazed me from the beginning, to see that there was nothing, nothing at all related to the world of animation, except small productions, but too local and for local consumption, and without the experience of how to make the production bigger, how to produce a cartoon TV series. In this meeting, we have talked about it among the producers who participated. It is really a challenge to grow the animation market in the Emirates, where there is an interesting, huge opportunity for development in the Arab world. Maybe even for worldwide international distribution. Arab culture is fascinating, there are a lot of very interesting aspects. 

The level of this 1st Conference has been very high. Haven't you made it a bit difficult for the next edition?

No, no, (laughs). We have some cards to play and in the next edition we will surely go a step further. We are very happy, because already this year some crazy artists have come, people who are at the top worldwide, with important awards like Sandro Cleuzo, John Nevarez, Robin Linn... They are characters that have made the history of animation or that are still working in the big international studios like Disney, Netflix... The same goes for the producers, we have invited the main ones, the ones who have made the most famous series in the world, from Guru Studio to Falconi, Blue Zoo, Zinka, Smaka Studio, e-One, Studio Bozzetto...

It's true that we've started with a great programme, the kind you won't forget. Moreover, we were all very happy. And another success, not to be forgotten, was the orchestra.

Music is a key element in the entertainment...

It is fundamental. Music is in all animation projects, it is an integral and very important part. Bruno Bozetto says it, but we all share it, the musical part is 50 percent of the audiovisual product, it plays a key role, it tells emotions... We invited the Florencia Pop Orchestra, about forty musicians came. They accompanied us for the three days: at the opening, the second day with a small musical intervention and at the closing with the final concert in which they played pieces by Miyazaki. They chose famous Disney pieces, from classic feature films that took us back to our childhood. I would like to stress how important music is as a soundtrack in an animation product, and we must take it into account, even in animation conferences such as these.