Thuesday, January 31st
The 2017 will see the third edition of the Web Series World Cup (WSWC), international recognition that aims to recognize, support and promote the world’s most talented content makers.
Once upon a time there was the Web. Than came web series and, suddenly, arrived web festivals, placed all around the world. In 2015 Joël Bassaget thought that, the international network of web fests with their web series in competition, needed a further recognition. That’s when the Web Series World Cup was born.
The WSWC is all about “recognising, supporting and promoting the world’s most talented content makers” and its primary aim is to give a world stage to web series talents.
This world wide competition, in 2017, blows out its third candle and confirms itself as an event that doesn’t compete or “out do” existing web festivals, “but acknowledges and validates the best ones“. The WSWC, in fact, creates suspense across an entire year, providing direct access to the best web series that are competing in those web fests selected by the WSWC. The result? Viewers can watch the best web series online and creators receive an unconditional promotion for a year. Moreover, the web fests partner of the WSWC are strictly selected, creating thus a recognized and official network.
But… How does the WSWC work? The idea is quite simple: the WSWC collects the results from the best (selected) web fests around the world and it publishes a ranking of the most awarded web series of the year, “in order to give to the audience a live and up to date listing of the best online programs of the moment“.
The first edition took place in 2015 and it included 7 web fests and ranked a total of 310 web series from 19 countries. That first WSWC ended with a tie: High Road (from New Zealand) and Gabriel (from France) were both at the first place of the podium.
In 2016 took place the second edition, which counted 15 web fests and some new rules, in order to ensure web series “more opportunities to shine“. The 2016 WSWC counted 650 web series (more than double the year before!) from 32 countries and, in December, after nine months of competition and suspense, the Swiss web series Arthur was awarded in Rio De Janeiro, during the Rio Web Fest (partner of the WSWC), with the trophy cready by Netfall, sponsor of the Web Series World Cup. “This edition was truly amazing and the WSWC is now an institution!“, told us Joël.
And now? What will happen in 2017? We’ll have the third edition of this international web serial institution and it will have 19 web fests from 13 different countries. The event will have also the following rules:
every official selection will give 5 points to the web series, every special nomination will be worth 3 points and every award won will give 10 points. There will be some exceptions for the Marseille Web Fest, the Valencia Web Fest and the WebFest Berlin: “as Marseille, Valencia and Berlin have restricted selections and no nominations, this year every selection in these three festivals will be worth 8 points and every award 15 points” .
What else? Well, “we are talking with Netfall actually and we are planning a trophy and medals for second and third, but nothing fixed yet“, told us Joël, adding also that “we will soon have a dedicated website and we are still working on more sponsorship“.
Everything sounds amazing and we are going to expect a great WSWC for this 2017… “I try not to expect anything and let myself be surprised”, said Joël, “but I know already it’s gonna be a huge third edition“
Chiara Bressa,
World Wide Webserie / About Me
@Chiara Bressa
