What is the event like?

AAS is neither a conference nor a market, but rather an event to facilitate international financing and co-production connections for projects from the region. Participants will spend three days attending presentations of new children's TV/web concepts from all over Asia Pacific. Presentations will be given by the projects' creators and producers, with assistance from mentors from the animation industry. There will also be plenty of time built into the schedule for meetings and casual networking, making it easy for attendees to follow up immediately on the projects they like most.

What sorts of projects will be featured?

AAS will feature animated and mixed-media TV/web series of any episode length for children up to 15 years of age. Second/subsequent seasons of existing series are ineligible (although original prequels and spin-offs will be considered), so our program is very focused on brand-new content. For submission requirements, please refer to our Eligibility Criteria.

What is the Wild Card Program?

A brand-new stream for projects from creators located in other Asian regions not represented by the event’s trade agency partners. This program will be run by Kidscreen, and the submission window is open now. Click here for more info.

How are projects selected?

The Eligibility Criteria are the same for all participating regions and the Wild Card program. However, the selection process is being run separately in each country by its most relevant screen or industry development agency. Each agency has its own selection process for assessing submissions based on global-market potential and quality, and will choose a pre-determined number of projects to be presented at AAS. The Wild Card projects will be assessed and selected by Kidscreen. Materials and background info for each selected project will be available for review by attendees who have registered for AAS starting in late October on the kidscreenXchange platform.

Who is involved? And who will participate?

AAS is owned and produced by Kidscreen, with generous support from regional partners including TAICCA (Taiwan), VIPO (Japan), Screen Queensland (Australia), MDEC (Malaysia) and the Department of International Trade Promotion (Thailand).

We are anticipating roughly 200 attendees this year. The event is designed to attract producers of animation who are interested in co-producing projects with Asian partners, as well as broadcasters, distributors and investors from Asia Pacific and elsewhere.

Record of success

Roughly 50% of the projects that have debuted at past AAS events have since gone into production, including such well-known series as Vegesaurs (2018), The Curious World of Linda (2018), Bluey (2016 “Best in Show” winner), Balloon Barnyard (2014), Kuu Kuu Harajuku (2013) and Bottersnikes & Gumbles (2012).

A full 88% of producers who have presented projects at AAS report that they met critical broadcast and financing partners during the event. And 95% of them said attending AAS has helped them establish important relationships with international producers.