The 11th edition of Rome’s MIA - Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (6-10 October), headed by Gaia Tridente and promoted by ANICA and APA, is set to host more than 80 events, including panels, conferences, keynotes, round-tables and networking activities.

Alongside screenings in the Film section, five showcases will present 44 titles across animation, documentaries, television formats, drama series and fiction films, complementing the 62 projects in the Co-Production Market (see the news). In total, more than 100 projects will be unveiled to international buyers, producers and commissioners.

First, the Animation division will highlight pressing issues for the sector, from audience-centred storytelling to digital distribution and the role of public broadcasters in European co-productions. For the first time, a panel will bring together children’s commissioners from major European public broadcasters – Patricia Hidalgo (BBC), Pierre Siracusa (France Télévisions), Roberto Genovesi (RAI), Yago Fandiño (RTVE) and Patricia Vasapollo (HR/ARD) – to discuss editorial priorities and co-production strategies.

Among other section highlights, Anna Taganov, head of Children’s Content & Programming Strategy at the BBC, will deliver a keynote on building IP visibility in the digital space, while Ampere Analysis will present new research on audience behaviour to open the session “Engaging Audiences Today: Data-Driven Storytelling”.

AnyShow, the international showcase for animated content nearing completion, will feature 11 titles, including four Italian productions.

Next, the Doc & Factual Division is set to reaffirm MIA as a hub for non-fiction professionals, with the “Italians Doc It Better” showcase presenting ten world premieres and the International Factual Forum highlighting ten innovative formats spanning true crime, food, history and adventure.

Panels will include a keynote by Emmy-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny and a case study on The (Second) Italian Job: Stolen, Heist of the Century. The debate “Getting Docs to Theaters” will focus on the challenges of theatrical distribution, with contributions from distributors and festival leaders across Europe.

Meanwhile, MIA’s Drama sidebar will once again gather leading commissioners, producers and executives. Among the highlights is “The Nordic Blueprint”, which for the first time at MIA unites the heads of Drama from NRK, YLE, SVT and DR, moderated by producer Josefine Tengblad. Despite global declines, the Nordic broadcasters recorded a 24% rise in commissioning in early 2025, underlining the resilience of the regional model.

Other sessions include “Packaging Successful Stories”, with speakers from Federation Studios, Secuoya, Fox Entertainment, Banijay and New Regency, and “Drama Focus: Sky Studios”, a conversation with Nils Hartmann and Italian producers. Moreover, the panel “Beyond 27%: Shaping European Drama” will address representation and strategies for greater inclusivity.

As usual, the GreenLit showcase will present six upcoming international series, four of which originated at MIA’s own Co-Production and Pitching Forum.

Notably, the Film division will focus on Italian cinema’s strengths and weaknesses in “Italian Cinema at the Crossroads: A Reality Check” and on indie resilience in “Indie Voices in a Shifting Industry”. A financing session, “Follow the Money”, will bring together financiers and producers from the USA, Europe and Brazil, while “The Independent Film Distribution Arena” will explore circulation strategies for auteur films.

Furthermore, the work-in-progress strand C EU Soon will feature seven European titles in post-production, including Laura Haby’s Beyond the Mountains of Acrocero (Albania), Katharina Rivilis’s debut, I’ll Be Gone in June (Germany/Switzerland), Sergio Castro San Martín’s Il Cileno (Italy/Chile/Switzerland) and Laura García Alonso’s Runner (Spain).

A major new feature at MIA 2025 is the launch of the Book Adaptation Forum, which aims to connect publishers, agents and producers around the adaptation market for unpublished novels.

Innovation will once again be in focus through MIA XR and sessions dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). Some of the key events include a workshop on the use of AI led by Largo.ai’s Sami Arpa and Céline Udriot, and another one led by Manuel Badel, focusing on the integration of blockchain and AI for financing and rights management. The VFX case study, presented by the EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani team, of The Last Image, will further demonstrate creative applications of AI.

Finally, four more events are worth mentioning. First, on 7 October, APA president Chiara Sbarigia will present the seventh Report on the Italian Audiovisual Industry, followed by a high-profile discussion featuring representatives of RAI Fiction, Mediaset, Netflix and Prime Video Italy. Secondly, ANICA will also host a session on audience behaviour and cinema-going trends. Third, DiversiFind will present its first-year results, along with the new DiversiCheck tool for measuring representation levels. Lastly, sustainability will take centre stage in the panel “AnImpact: A Common European Approach to Sustainable Animation”, organised by Green Film, Ecoprod and CineRegio.