Rights & Brands appoints Maurizio Distefano Licensing as new Moomin sub-agent in Italy
7 June 2023
Rights & Brands appoints Maurizio Distefano Licensing as new Moomin sub-agent in Italy
Rights & Brands has appointed Italian agency Maurizio Distefano Licensing as a Moomin sub-agent to develop the Moomin brand in Italy. Maurizio Distefano is an internationally accredited agency with over 20 years of experience in the sector.
The Moomins are a carefree and adventurous family who live in their house in the peaceful Moominvalley. They are central characters in the works of celebrated and beloved Finnish author and artist Tove Jansson who created the magical and fascinated stories and designed location and characters from scratch.
Moomin is a values-led brand, with three core values at its heart: love, equality and courage. The main character is young and curious Moomintroll, who goes through the important stages of growing up with his extraordinary family and quirky friends who live in the magical and protected world of Moominvalley. But at times, the Moomins venture beyond the Valley into the vast wilderness, traverse dense dark forests, land on mysterious faraway islands and climb lonely dangerous mountains engaging viewers in their adventures at once familiar and extraordinary. There is always a happy ending to the stories. Jansson, in fact, wrote during World War II so it was important to her to express a feeling of serenity and confidence.
Nine books were released in the collection, together with five picture books and an extensive series of comic strips between the years 1945 and 1980 The Moomins have since been the basis for numerous television series, films and even theme parks. The stories have been translated into more than 55 languages and are still in print all over the world today.
“Moominvalley” is the animated series based on Moomin, produced by Gutsy Animations in association with Yle and Sky. Moominvalley has been sold to over 60 countries to date, including Finland (Yle), UK (Sky), Japan (NHK) and Germany (ZDF). In Italy is available on Rai Yoyo and Rai Play. The series was awarded the ‘Audience Episodic Award’ at the New York International Children’s Film Festival 2022 and was also nominated for the British Animation Awards 2022.
Maurizio Distefano, President of MDL states: “We are so excited for this partnership. Moomin covers a wide range target which makes it appealing to multiple Licensing categories, from adults, with its pieces of art, to kids with the Moominvalley series. I’m sure that the upcoming projects will reflect its artistic and colorful style”.
About Maurizio Distefano – The evolution of Licensing
Maurizio Distefano, an internationally accredited professional with over 20 years of experience in the sector, is President of the licensing agency and management consultancy that takes his name. The innovative and exclusive proposal of the agency is based on a holistic approach which allows it to analyse and respond to the particular business development needs of each individual licensee.
Maurizio Distefano, together with his business partner Michela Marchese Patti, selects animated series, movies and brands for successful licensing projects.
The properties launched and distributed by MDL are:
Cartoons: Masha and The Bear, Bing, Bluey, CoComelon, Blippi, Little Angel, Morphle, Gigantosaurus, ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks, Leo & Tig.
Brands: Moomin, Army of Apes, Fall Guys, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Corto Maltese, Baileys, Guinness, ISA (International Space Archives), La Gazzetta dello Sport, LIFE.
Fashion: MDL is Master Agent Worldwide for PREMOLI+DI BELLA
Music: Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Backstreet Boys, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, AC/DC, David Bowie, KISS, Pink Floyd, The Police, Woodstock, John Lennon, Lennon & Mc Cartney Lyrics, Genesis, Janis Joplin, Miles Davis.
Moomin Characters Oy Ltd
Moomin Characters Oy Ltd is the official copyright holder of all the Moomin characters. All characters from Moominvalley are trademark registered worldwide. The Moomins are central characters in a series of books and comic strips written by Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson between 1945 and 1980. They are one of Finland’s biggest exports and have a global fan base.
The company was founded in the 1950’s by Tove Jansson (1914-2001) and her brother Lars Jansson to take care of the copyright of the Moomins and is still run by family members.
Rights and Brands is the worldwide licensing agent of the company.
Find out more about Tove Jansson and the Moomins here:
www.moomin.com
www.tovejansson.com
About Rights & Brands
Rights & Brands (R&B) is a 360 licensing and publishing agency bringing Scandinavian rights and brands – within art, design and literature – to a global arena. R&B operates a worldwide network of over 30 sub-agents and 800 clients.
We represent iconic Scandinavian brands, artists and authors. R&B is the worldwide master agent on behalf of Moomin Characters, and we represent the likes of Stig Lindberg, Carl Larsson-gården Sundborn, Astrid Lindgren & Ilon Wikland, The Beatles, The Smurfs, Tove Jansson, Sofie Sarenbrant and many more. R&B is ranked #1 in Europe and #16 worldwide in licensing agencies, with an estimated retail value of 900M Euro. We develop and create collaborations and brand extensions with leading brands such as H&M, Uniqlo, Granit, Happy Socks, Fiskars, Rovio, Frever, Bvlgari and Finnair.
Rights & Brands headquarter is in Stockholm, with local branches in Helsinki, Oslo, Hong-Kong and Tokyo. R&B was founded in 2016 and has a yearly turnover of 270M SEK.
