13/07/2015 - Announced by President Zingaretti at the presentation of MIA, the new International Audiovisual Market, which will be held from 16 to 20 October during the Rome Film Festival

A new call for tenders worth €10 million, made possible by EU funds, to attract international film productions and encourage European co-productions, will be launched by the Lazio Region at the MIA, the International Audiovisual Market, which will be held from 16 to 20 October during the Rome Film Festival. It was announced by the President of the Region, Nicola Zingaretti, during the presentation, last Friday, of the revamped Roman Market: “With MIA we will see a significant improvement in quality. Too often in the past the system has been overly disjointed”, stated Zingaretti, announcing that a second call for tenders, worth €2 million, “will be aimed at investment in new technologies in production, to structurally reinforce companies”.

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And it is exactly at a new system of synergies and collaboration between institutions and operators that MIA is aimed. The one-of-a-kind platform, that will bring together films, TV series, video games and documentaries (see news article), was spearheaded by Fondazione Cinema per Roma, Anica, the Associazione Produttori televisivi (Apt) and Doc/it, backed by the Ministry for Economic Development, and promoted by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, with the cooperation of the Roma Lazio Film Commission. Guiding the Market, which will be held in the original Roman location of the Baths of Diocletian and the nearby Hotel Boscolo Exedra, will be thirty-nine-year-old Lucia Milazzotto, who used to be Manager of the New Cinema Network, the co-production market of the Rome Film Festival: “MIA is an extraordinary collective operation that channels exceptional expertise for reaching ambitious objectives, above all the internationalisation of the Italian audiovisual industry as a whole so that it once again holds sway on the global stage”.

“The film sector is an industrial sector to all intents and purposes, so we are investing in internationalising it with conviction”, confirmed Carlo Calenda, the Italian Vice Minister for Economic Development who is funding the market with one and a half million euros (another €440 thousand is being put up by the associates of the Fondazione, including the Lazio Region, the Istituto Luce - Cinecittà and Rome the Capital). “This is why the Ministry for Economic Development, as part of a three-year initiative, has already put up funding for next year, and in October the funding for the third year will be set”. Andrea Occhipinti, the President of distributor association ANICA, also supported the extraordinary cooperative spirit of the MIA: “It will be a space in which to plan, develop and co-produce but also to raise awareness of and sell what we have already produced. We decided to hold the market in Rome because Venice, due to when it is held, is in direct competition with Toronto. But events linked to the MIA will also be held at Venice, as at other film festivals”.

(Translated from Italian)