Entering its 15th year, the Banff Television Festival’s International Market Simulation is a must-attend event at the festival and has been transplanted at various programming conferences around the world.

The Market Simulation offers producers the opportunity to pitch their projects to an international audience of programmers, financiers and buyers. Not only do producers get to suss out potential interest, but with ringleader Pat Ferns urging the international broadcasting reps to lay down some cash, anything can happen – including the producers’ dream of landing a development deal on the spot.

Three projects in the drama and entertainment genre will be pitched at this year’s Market Simulation, with an additional three in the documentary, kids’ and educational programming category.

Following are some of the projects stepping up to the pitcher’s mound. . .

Paulie and Sasha, a mixed animation and live-action series, springs straight from the book series that bears the same name. Both the book and the tv series were created by writer and producer Judy Mazzeo Zocchi of New Jersey-based dingles & company, who will be arriving in Banff with a completed and self-financed pilot in hand (entitled Paulie and Sasha: The Conflict).

Paulie and Sasha are two bears from opposite ends of the globe who travel the world together in search of their dreams.

Budgeted at us$350,000, each half-hour episode is divided into three parts, starting off with an animated cartoon segment that introduces a country and theme. The second segment is a day in the life of a child from the featured country, with Paulie and Sasha animated into the live action. And the final segment is ‘kids on the street,’ where Paulie and Sasha encourage children from all over the world to comment on the theme.

‘It’s a global series and we definitely need international partners to get it out there,’ says Zocchi, who is currently negotiating with coproducers in Germany, England and Japan.

‘I would also love to hook up with Cinar in Canada because they have a strong education line going and really good distribution as well.’

Discovery Kids would be another perfect match, she says, ‘because they just started incorporating animation and it could be a multitiered venture. Their stores could carry the books.’

O’Plenty Animation Studios in New Jersey is handling the animation for the series, which has been in development for the past 18 months.

The pilot was shot in Bosnia and works with the theme of conflict resolution, but Zocchi, who is making her first visit to Banff, assures that although the themes are substantial, the series remains fun and educational.