01/10/2024 - Applications are open till 18 October for the 10th edition of the support fund for Italian features in post-production, which will be presented and rewarded on 20 November at the Milano Industry Days

Giorgia Faraoni in L'origine del mondo by Rossella Inglese, in official selection in Rome's 2024 Alice nella città programme

The Milano Film Network (MFN) confirms its commitment to supporting independent Italian cinema with the tenth edition of the L’Atelier MFN, the first support fund for Italian features in post-production, whose finalists will be presented and awarded prizes in the second part of the Milano Industry Days - MID by MFN on 20 November 2024, led by L’Atelier curators Alice Arecco and Alessandra Speciale. 

The call is open until 18 October (early-bird fee until 8 October) for Italian feature films at the post-production stage, presented by Italian production companies and Italian directors who own individual businesses, as well as for international co-productions so long as the director of the film is Italian if it is a minority Italian co-production (the regulations of the 10th edition and the online application form can be read here). 

For this tenth edition, a very important anniversary for the MFN, the first prize of the fund becomes the BPER Prize, a contribution of €5,000 offered by BPER Bank. In addition, two new companies are added to the list of partners offering in kind benefits this year: Sub-Ti and Sub-Ti Access, who offer subtitling and a version of the film accessible to the sensory impaired, and M74, who offers 2D visual effects.

Thanks to confirmed collaborations and to new partners, numerous are the in-kind and cash prizes that will be awarded by MFN #2 this year during the Milano Industry Days - MID, scheduled to take place on 20 November in Milan, in collaboration with the Cineteca Italiana, at the MIC-Museo Interattivo del Cinema: the BPER Prize, on €5,000, offered by BPER Bank; the the Luce Cinecittà Prize worth €5,000, given to a first or second feature, for the acquisition of a right of pre-emption for the purposes of a possible granting of distribution rights in the Italian territory; the LaserFilm Prize, which offers colour correction services; the 196-Media Prize, which consists in a 5.1 Theatrical mix; the M74 Prize, for visual effects; two Sub-Ti and Sub-Ti Access prizes, which consist in the creation of subtitles and a version of the film accessible to the sensory impaired; editing tutoring offered by Carlotta Cristiani and Valentina Andreoli; sound editing tutoring offered by Daniela Bassani; audience design tutoring by Greta Nordio; a DCP master offered by Start.

Moreover, one of the finalist projects of L’Atelier MFN 2024 will be selected and presented within the programme of This is IT in January 2025, in collaboration with When East Meets West and the Trieste Film Festival, thanks to a partnership active since 2017. 

Throughout the Milano Industry Days MID #2 on 20 November, the work-in-progress finalists (a maximum of seven) will be presented to an audience of Italian and international festival directors and programmers, distributors, buyers and commissioning editors, with the projection of 30 minutes maximum of their work, followed by a Q&A with the directors and producers. One-to-one meetings and the post-production awards ceremony will follow.

The call for the tenth edition of the MFN fund is the occasion to acknowledge two films supported by L’Atelier MFN 2023 whose official selection at the 2024 Alice nella Città festival has just been announced: L’origine del mondo by Rossella Inglese and Still Here by Suranga Katugampala, which will have their world premieres in Rome between 16 and 27 October.

(Translated from Italian)