This year’s MIPCOM will see a wide variety of Canadian series attempt to make a splash on the French Riviera, with some already buoyed by international partners.

Case in point, Germany’s Autentic Studios and the Toronto-based Go Button Media are showcasing season two of Deadly Science (6 x 52 minutes) and Titans of Defense (6 x 52 minutes). Meanwhile, Fifth Season will be bringing Saint Pierre (10 x 60 minutes), a Hawco Productions series premiering winter 2025 on CBC.

The show is created by Allan Hawco (Republic of Doyle, pictured above, right), Robina Lord-Stafford (Wild Cards) and Perry Chafe (Son of a Critch) and stars Hawco as a St. John’s inspector who is exiled to Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, a French archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland, after exposing corruption. The series also stars Josephine Jobert (Death in Paradise, pictured above, left) and James Purefoy (Rome).

“It was a project that felt like it would appeal to a really wide range of buyers who are looking for premium, blue sky procedurals, light-hearted humour, action adventure [and] a mystery of the week structure,” Ava Knight, director of acquisitions for Fifth Season, told Playback Daily. She also highlighted the ten-episode order as a selling point.

While the show is filming until November, Hawco was able to create a bespoke promo to use at MIPCOM. Fifth Season has global rights for the series outside of Canada and Knight says it’s aiming to sell anywhere it can, but that she sees particular interest in France and the U.K. She is also “having conversations” elsewhere in Europe and the U.S.

Knight estimates about 85% of Fifth Season’s series come from third-party productions, including several Canadian ones. Saint Pierre stands out, both in a Canadian commissioning atmosphere Knight says has slowed down in recent years, and as part of Fifth Season’s smaller, “highly curated” slate it’s presenting in Cannes.

There’s Toronto-based WildBrain, which will be launching two new series, Badjelly (13 x 22 minutes) and Secrets at Red Rocks (8 x 24 minutes), but in a more unique move the studio is showcasing all 243 x 3-minute episodes of the YouTube channel Storybooth (pictured, right), which it recently inked a global distribution deal for.

Also in the world of kids’ media, Scholastic Entertainment and Toronto’s 9 Story Media Group will present their first slate following the former’s C$249 million acquisition of the latter in June. The lineup of third-party acquisitions and returning shows also features four originals, one of which is Juno the Jellyfish, the first original series to come out of Crayola Studios’ partnership with 9 Story that was announced at last year’s MIPJunior.

Boat Rocker Media will be featuring several of its Canadian shows at MIPCOM, including season three of the animated preschool series Dino Ranch from Industrial Brothers and Boat Rocker Studios and season nine of the teen drama The Next Step from Boat Rocker Studios.

Jon Rutherford, president of global rights, franchise and content strategy for Boat Rocker Studios, says the company’s role as an investor and global distributor is more relevant “than ever before.”

Homegrown series are still part of its roots and strategy, “but we are incorporating more and more pipeline through multiple… production companies and different outlets around the world,” says Rutherford.

For example, it is overseeing international distribution on the 8 x 30-minute Ireland/Australia coproduction Mixtape from Subotica and Aquarius Films, as well as the 6 x 30-minute dramedy Video Nasty from Ireland’s Deadpan Pictures, which it co-produced. Both are currently in post-production and will air next year, the former on BINGE in Australia and the latter on BBCThree and WDR in Germany.

Its unscripted slate is comprised of Attraction’s Claw Hunters (8 x 60 minutes), the documentary Leonard Cohen: If It Be Your Will from Peacock Alley Entertainment, as well as three shows from its previously announced deal with Shark Teeth Films: season four of Secrets of the Ice (10 x 60 minutes), Discovered by Disaster (10 x 60 minutes) and season one of Secrets in the Dark (8 x 60 minutes).

One of the larger slates comes from Blue Ant Studios, which is bringing more than 20 unscripted series to the French countryside. That includes Shared Planet (4 x 60 minutes) from Vancouver-based River Road Films; Cub Camp (6 x 60 minutes) from Winnipeg’s Merit Motion Pictures; and Hope for Wildlife: The Next Generation (8 x 60 minutes), from Halifax’s Arcadia Entertainment.

The studio is also showcasing two original productions: Northwoods Survival (8 x 60 minutes, pictured left) and T+E and Haunt TV’s My Haunted Hometown (8 x 60 minutes).

Bell Media will have no small presence on the Croisette, bolstered by several comedies. This includes Counterfeit Pictures’ The Office Movers from Brampton, Ont. duo Jae and Trey Richards; Alibi Entertainment’s docu-comedy Made for TV; and season two of Pier 21 Films’ Late Bloomer.

Bell’s extensive unscripted lineup features both new and returning shows like Drag Brunch Saved My Life and Mark McKinney Needs a Hobby, both from Sphere Media; Tyson Media’s My Pet Ate What?; season two of Great Pacific Media’s Timber Titans; season three of East Harbour Heroes (Attraction); and 90th Parallel Productions’ We’re All Gonna Die: Even Jay Baruchel.

French-speaking Canada will have a healthy representation at this year’s exhibition. Montreal-based PVP Distribution, which just formed in April, will be bringing five animated and one live-action series aimed at youth to MIPJunior, which is a small part of its more than 100-hour catalogue.

This includes four series from Happy Camper Média: Mini-Jon and Mini-Maple (34 x 7 minutes), Truffle (26 x 7 minutes) alongside La Pastèque Productions, The Little Spudragon (21 x 3.5 minutes) and The Spudragon (10 x 11 minutes).

There’s also Goose and Cloud (39 x 7 minutes) from PVP Media and Dainty Productions and Let’s Play! With Biscuit and Coconut (42 x 7.5 minutes) from Echo Media.

“Our goal was to showcase that Quebec has the best to offer,” says Johanna Veysset, PVP’s head of distribution and acquisitions. “We curated this kind of content because we wanted to have a very diverse slate, and especially [one] that can appeal to an international audience.”

PVP is also bringing one unscripted series — season two of Ladies Room (8 x 6 minutes, pictured right) from Taïga Media — and two documentaries: Talking Trash (20 x 48 minutes) from Echo Media and Balestra Productions, and a 52- or 88-minute version of Lucas: An Endangered Human Species, from PVP Media.

Ladies Room, broadcasting on TV5 Unis and TV5 Monde in 2025, is the highlight for Veysset as she singled out the feminist sketch comedy for its appeal for French and European buyers. With each episode set in a different bathroom, the series stars Marie Eve Morency and Daphnée Côté-Hallé as two women discussing comedic situations.

The company’s goal for its first MIPCOM appearance, Veysset explains, is to solidify its position as a distributor that producers can go to for “impactful content from Quebec,” but also begin to get involved as a partner who can join production at an earlier stage. While the company would accept sales from anywhere, for now its main focus is Europe.

Meanwhile, Quebec City-based Amuz Distribution will bring more than 1,300 hours of programming across multiple genres to this year’s MIPCOM, bolstered by its parent company’s recent acquisition of the Just for Laughs Group.

Montreal-based Zone3 International is bringing a diverse slate of mainly new series to the exhibition. These include the comedy Splendeur et influence (8 x 30 minutes), which Mélanie Ratté, Zone3 International’s VP of international distribution and business development says the company had already signed two deals for, with hopes to sell to more international territories.

She referred to the series as the primary focus of the slate, citing a “real need for comedy right now,” as well as its strong social critique.

The slate also includes three new unscripted series and one returning: the comedy Les Bricoleurs du dimanche (10 x 45 minutes), which is launching in Canada on CASA in November; Le grand chantier RONA (40 x 30 minutes), already optioned in the U.K.; Épique (12 x 60 minutes); and three seasons of Single Parents Cruising (35 x 45 minutes), which is returning to its original broadcaster Canal Vie after “a few years on the shelf.”

Its returning series are season two of Still I Rise and season three of Becoming Gabrielle, airing on ARTV in November. There’s also two kids’ series, Adventure in the World of Worlds (96 x 30 minutes) and Whimsywonder Island (195 x 30 minutes).

Outside of the French-speaking world, Ratté says they’re in discussions for sales in the Nordic countries, the U.K. and Germany. There are a few other shows she’s certain of selling in Cannes, like Les Bricoleurs du dimanche and Le grand chantier RONA. However, those predictions don’t come with a crystal ball, and she acknowledges the appetite for large, international IP.

“Our hope is that there is still room for new, original formats that come from independent producers, and that’s what we’re working on [here at Zone3],” she says. “We believe that we can create successful international formats. So that’s the line. We do believe that.”

MIPJunior takes place from Oct. 18 to 20 and MIPCOM runs from Oct. 21 to 24.

Images courtesy of Fifth Season, WildBrain, Blue Ant Studios and PVP Distribution