ASOB Media takes beauty docuseries A Study on Beauty to MIPCOM Cannes
ASOB Media is taking its seven-part documentary series A Study on Beauty to MIPCOM Cannes to find global buyers and distribution partners.
MIPCOM Cannes is the annual television market in Cannes, France, where broadcasters, streamers and distributors buy and sell programmes and formats. ASOB Media confirmed its sales plans to Deadline ahead of the market.
The series was created and written by Gabbi Pascua and directed by Alan Dennis. Pascua is a television makeup artist and a two-time Creative Arts Emmy winner. Dennis is a documentary maker.
The pair launched ASOB Media and lined up A Study on Beauty as the company's first series. That plan was first reported in 2024, when the project carried the title A Study on Beauty: Through Smoke.
The completed series runs to seven episodes. It explores culture, history and human identity through beauty and wellness, with each chapter set in a different country and centred on a local ritual.
Season one includes Through Smoke, which charts French perfumery. It was filmed in France, including Grasse, as well as in Spain, Monaco, Switzerland and Italy.
A second chapter, Onsen, covers Japan's hot spring bathing rituals and generational healing practices. A third chapter, Homeland, was filmed in the Philippines and focuses on matriarchal heritage and indigenous traditions.
Homeland features Whang-Od, Dr. Vicki Belo, Anna Bayle and Miss Universe contestants, according to materials shared with Deadline. The three chapters move from European perfume houses to Japanese bathhouses to family histories in the Philippines.
ASOB Media will also bring its companion podcast, A Student of Beauty, to Cannes alongside the series. The podcast sits beside the television show rather than repeating it, giving buyers an audio extension they can license or adapt.
The company has already tested short-form beauty storytelling online. Its digital short-form series A Beauty Journey has generated over one million organic views across platforms, a figure reported with no paid promotion attached.
ASOB Media's executive leadership includes Ka-Wai Ho, Shelby Barnes and Sal Benti, with Todd Burns on its advisory board. For viewers, this means the next step is a distribution deal, meaning a broadcaster, streamer or distributor agreeing to carry the programme in one or more territories, before any transmission date is set.
