In the Bologna Licensing Book Fair/Kids area of Bologna Children’s Book Fair, 2024. Image: BCBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
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Some 200 Shortlisted Products and Projects
At a press conference held today (February 25) in Milan, one of elements of Elena Pasoli‘s 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 31 to April 3) was, of course, one of the two major brand extensions of the world’s largest international trade show focused on young people’s literature and its commercial development, the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids. The other major extension, of course, is Jacks Thomas‘ Bologna Book Plus.
Complements to the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair include the fair’s new Games Business Center, a partnership with Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19); Comics Corner, BCBF’s business area dedicated to comic book and graphic novel publishers; and the TV/Film Rights Center. More on the fair’s evolving rights hubs and structural extensions is here.
And as part of its own core activities, the 18-year-old Licensing Trade Fair is holding its eighth annual awards program.
Today’s announcements have included the finalists for the Bologna Licensing Awards, which this year are reflecting on licensing projects and brand developments in 2024.
- Five jurors convened at Bologna’s Biblioteca Salaborsa to select the shortlists. Those jurors are:
- Karin Ebnet, journalist and editor at Toy Store
- Michelle Perez Barruos, general manager of Feenix Studio
- Ian Hyder, CEO of Max Publishing
- Helena Mansell-Stopher, founding CEO of Products of Change
- Marina Narishkin, intellectual property management and strategy expert
The roughly 200 shortlistees are divided into 14 categories, each holding three to five candidates. A new category is the Licensed Video Game Project.
To see the actual shortlistees under each of these 14 projects, click here to go to the 2025 shortlist page.
2025 Categories of Competition
The finalists under these categories, in the aggregate, read like a Who’s Who in product development and branding. They range from Emporio Armani and the Smurfs to Barbie and a small entourage of associated finalists, as well as Acamar Films, Hasbro, Stumble Guys, BBC Studios, Sonic the Hedgehog, Disney, Peanuts, United Colors of Benetton, Warner Bros., Pokéman, and Viacom International.
To see the actual shortlistees under each of these 14 projects, click here to go to the 2025 shortlist page.
- Pre-School Licensing Projects
- Kids Licensing Project
- Teen Licensing Project (11 to 17 years)
- Young Adult Licensing Project (18 and older)
- Retail Project
- Kids Fashion Project
- Teens and/or Young Adults Fashion Project
- Licensed Publishing Project
- Licensed Toy Project
- Licensed Video Game Project
- Promotion and/or Loyalty Campaign
- Licensed Kiosk Product
- Licensed Sustainable Project
- Property of the Year
During the course of the fair, the products and projects will be showcased in the Bologna Licensing Awards area, which is in Mall 2, Hall 29.
The winners are to be named on March 31, the fair’s opening day, in the Licensing Conference room at the same location at BolognaFiere.
The ‘visual identity’ artwork for the 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair is by Brazilian Bruno de Almeida, developed with Chialab Design. Image: BCBF
More on Bologna Children’s Book Fair is here, more on children’s books is here, more on the Italian market is here, more on the world industry’s vast field of book and publishing awards is here, more on licensing is here, and more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here.