The two professionals deliver their verdict on the event, its role for Euro-Mediterranean projects and its capacity to strengthen production dialogue between Italy and the MENA countries

The 9th edition of MedMeetings, which unspooled in Rome on 10 and 11 November, brought together producers, directors and Euro-Mediterranean film industry professionals for two intensive days dedicated to developing co-production between Italy and the MENA zone countries. The one and only Italian industry platform exclusively devoted to projects hailing from this particular geographical area, MedMeetings alternated pitching sessions with works in progress and professional 1:1 meetings, confirming its role as a focused and highly curated space for discussion.

A variety of prizes were awarded in this year’s edition. In terms of the MedWIPs – Works in Progress, the OIM Prize (€10,000) went to In a Manner of Speaking by Val Jashari (produced by Valmira Hyseni and co-produced by Kosovo and Montenegro), the Stadion Video Prize (€3,500) was won by Yassine el Idrissi’s Halima (Morocco), while the FM Records Prize (€1,000) was handed to David Power’s Where I End and You Begin (an Italian-Romanian co-production produced by Raffaella Pontarelli). In the MedPitching section, meanwhile, the €1,000-prize was scooped by Abdullah Al-Ghaly’s El Bastardiya – Once Upon a Time in Tripoli (a Libya-Egypt co-production produced by Hala Lotfy).

We met with MedMeetings head Paolo Bertolin and MEDFilm Festival director Ginella Vocca to hear their verdict on this year’s edition and to mull over the platform’s future prospects.

Cineuropa: What is your overall view of this year’s edition of the event? How has it enhanced MedMeetings’ identity as a development and meeting platform for Mediterranean projects?
Paolo Bertolin: This 2025 edition of MedMeetings confirmed the cultural and industrial relevance of this project which is looking to build a real bridge between Italy and its sister industries within the Mediterranean region. With a selection focused more than ever on the Mediterranean’s southern shore, our project’s identity has been reinforced, but it’s also broadened the horizons of the Italian producers taking part in it, in terms of upcoming firms which are eager to work with Italy.

Could you share a few key figures revealing the reach of this year’s edition?
PB: In terms of numbers, ours is a fairly unique event. MedMeetings is a “boutique” platform which values quality over quantity. As of last year, we’ve reduced the number of projects in development sent to MedPitching from ten or eleven to six, in line with the number of projects in post-production sent to MedWIPs. We’ve raised the total number of MedPitching projects to seven by including a project from Qatar called The Pearl, which is backed by the Doha Film Institute, as part of a wider tribute to Qatari production and to the Institute’s productions within the festival. Even in terms of invited Italian professionals, we’re of the opinion that the ideal would be to involve actors who are genuinely active in co-production, in order to create a more convivial space for exchanges with greater focus on the projects.

How would you rate the quality and diversity of the projects selected this year?
PB: This year’s selection is arguably the most varied and mature since we started the MedPitching projects in development showcase. In terms of genres and languages, in addition to provenance, producers got to navigate between historical dramas from Algeria (The Joyful 1926) and Jordan (Churching of Women), psychological horror (Turkey’s Forty Days Forty Nights) and directors’ reflections on society at the crossroads of history, such as the Libyan movie El Bastardiya – Once Upon a Time in Tripoli, Lebanon’s Running with Beasts and Palestine’s Weedestine.

In your opinion, what were the main reasons the winning projects stood out?
PB: El Bastardiya – Once Upon a Time in Tripoli won the vote of industry professionals taking part in the MedPitching session thanks to its ironic, genre-based approach, inspired by the tradition of popular Italian cinema, which the director used to recount the troubled state of his country. In terms of the MedWIPs, the Kosovar film In a Manner of Speaking stood out for its effective depiction of a “returning” immigrant’s disorientation and the lone woman who helps him hide from the police.

What benefits can the selected teams expect after taking part in MedMeetings?
PB: The hope is always that the invited projects find their way towards collaborating with Italy, through a minority co-production or other resources available to our producers, such as regional funds. In terms of the MedWIPs, we hope that, once they’re completed, the films will find their way to festivals and return to Rome within the MedFilm Festival, and maybe even secure distribution in Italy.

What added value does your event offer compared to similar initiatives?
PB: The idea of a specific focus on co-production collaboration with Italy, which translates into selecting projects whose teams are genuinely interested in working with our country and inviting local producers who have a real interest in collaborating with countries from our region of reference.

What are your future plans?
PB: If the frequency of calls for submissions returns to normal levels, we hope to be able to invite even more Italian producers who are interested in collaborating with partners from the Mediterranean region, so that the Italian industry can be a driver for widespread, profitable creative development.

Ginella Vocca: As of this year, the Italian Trade & Investment Agency (ICE) will be by our side, which is a significant acknowledgement of the importance of MedMeetings’ industry platform and a sign of the national system’s interest in a thematically unique project in Italy, like the MedFilm Festival. It’s definitely an additional layer of security in organisational terms. So we’re now looking to the 10th edition of MedMeetings, the only platform dedicated to relations between the Italian film industry and the MENA countries.

(Translated from Italian)