10/10/2022 - The numerous activities announced include various talks, content showcases featuring next season’s most hotly anticipated projects, and events in support of the Ukrainian film industry

It looks set to be a record year for Rome’s MIA, which is scheduled to unspool 11 – 15 October with over 500 titles from 65 countries and an expected 12% rise in participants. During the press conference held on Thursday 6 October, new director Gaia Tridente and an assortment of guests revealed the full programme for the eighth edition of this market, which is now an unmissable event in its own right for international audiovisual professionals and which attracts the likes of top streaming players such as Amazon, AppleTV+, Netflix and Paramount+.

This year’s content showcases, via the C EU SOON, GREENLit, Italian Animation Showcase, Italians DOC it Better, Italian Factual Showcase and What’s Next Italy sections, will present premieres of next season’s most eagerly awaited and most interesting titles. Stand-out Italian projects include Francesca Archibugi’s series La Storia (based on Elsa Morante’s novel of the same name), Davide Marengo and Giuseppe Bonito’s crime-thriller Brennero, Sydney Sibilia’s Sky dramedy series Hanno ucciso l’uomo ragno – La vera storia degli 883 (produced in league with Groenlandia and inspired by the real-life story of Italian pop duo 883), Alex Infascelli’s documentary Kill Me If You Can, Giuseppe Battiston’s directorial debut What a Life! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (loosely based on Gustave Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pécuchet) and Marco Risi’s new project entitled Il punto di rugiada.

Panel discussions scheduled for the Animation section include “Working as Partners” (focusing on models and strategies for creating successful co-productions), “Money & Soul” (comparing notes between major European networks) and “The Art of Releasing Contents” (exploring “global vs local” strategies for producing and distributing animated content). The Doc&Factual section, meanwhile, is set to explore strategies and alliances for the present and the future of Italian documentaries via “The New Phase of the Italian Documentary” panel discussion, and a new international initiative between RAI and France Télévisions is also set to be announced.

Panel discussions unfolding around announced dramas consist of “The Scripted Ecosystem. New Premium Opportunities Across a Changing World” and “Tubi and the Rise of AVOD”, which will open debate on the new FAST model, on free ad-supported TV and on the continual rise of AVOD. Worth a final mention, in the Film section this time, is the event “Co-producing Today: Future-proofing Creative Models in the Independent Film Business”, whose discussions will revolve around private equity, government funds and tax incentives, and “International Sales and Distribution: Shaping the Future and Chasing IPs”, which will focus on the discovery of intellectual property with the potential to interest global audiences. Rounding off the agenda, The Alliance - an alliance between public broadcasters RAI, France Télévisions and ZDF – is set to present its slate of in-development and finished projects.

Three B2B Exchange initiatives in support of the Ukrainian audiovisual industry steal focus on the market menu, including the dedicated Ukrainian Hub space and the “The Ukrainian Showcase” panel, which will see the country’s biggest groups reporting on the current state of the sector and sharing unseen content in order to shed light on continued creation in these times of war. There’s also the “Documentary Filmmaking Inside the War” panel geared towards the factual and documentary world, during which Ukrainian and international speakers will discuss storytelling and filmmaking vis-à-vis war, and how the latter has entered into all of our lives via the TV, social media and cinemas. The closing event will be the “Kyiv Media Week | Rome Chapter” panel, which will see the MIA hosting a small section of the ten-yearly Ukrainian market conference, which has become a touring event hosted by various European market partners and which will see socially impactful content being discussed by international and Ukrainian speakers, including producer Kateryna Vishnevska of Film.UA Group.

(Translated from Italian)