Development and rationalization are the key words for the eagerly- awaited Rome audiovisual market that made its successful debut a
year ago and which it is preparing to replicate from 20 to 24 October, confirming its trans-media nature.
“In the last few months we have worked on the idea that the first edition of MIA was just the start rather than the finishing post,” explains the director Lucia Milazzotto to Cinema & Video International on the on the eve of the market.
“We didn’t feel we had found a magic formula, but that we needed to establish a precise order for what we had launched by rationalizing the various segments – TBS and NCN have thus disappeared to be replaced by three macro areas: MIA Cinema, MIA Tv, MIA Doc – starting from the core idea of a market, i.e. laying out parallel yet converging instruments.
The challenge was to create an efficient market that could also offer an original format on the international panorama.
In this regard we believe our intuition was right because the informal market formula works”. And once again it has the backing of the Italian industry (the ANI- CA [Italian Association of Cinematographic Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries] and the APT [Italian television producers association], whilst Doc/it will not be returning) and the institutions (the support of the MISE [Italian Ministry of Economic Development] and the ICE [Italian Trade Agency] is con- firmed), with an unchanged budget of almost two million Euros.
Five days of business and networking in the setting of Piazza della Repubblica – between the Terme di Diocleziano and the Planetario (co-production meetings), the Hotel Boscolo Exedra (conferences and meetings) and The Space Cinema Moderno (screenings) – for an audience of accredited viewers which should more or less mirror the figures for the last edition (Ed: over 1000 attendees from 58 countries).
“There will be some returns”,announces the director of the MIA, “but also some new entries. I do not expect an increase in the participations, that is not a goal we had set ourselves, but rather an improvement and a growth in the level of the interlocutors. The preponderance of Europeans is confirmed, alongside a good presence from North and South America, whilst interest is growing on the Asian front”.
Having now acquired a structure over the several editions of TBS and NCN held over the years, MIA Cinema consolidates its market mission of commercializing independent quality cinema and developing co-productions with a packed program of world premieres, targeted initiatives (from Remake it! to What’s next Italia, the new showcase for Italian works-in-progress), territorial focuses (Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, as well as Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK) and some interesting new features like the introduction of a Young section aimed at Kids & Teens/Young Adult products within the sphere of the co-production market that this year will include the presentation of 24 projects (dramas and documentaries) from 14 countries.
Five Italian titles have been selected, a mix of up-and-coming and established filmmakers: from the thrillers of Salvatore Mereu (Assandira) and the writer Donato Carrisi (La ragazza nella nebbia), who steps behind the camera for the first time, to the debut of Grazia Tricarico (Mona), a recent graduate of the Centro Sperimentale, to the docs of Michela Occhipinti (Flesh Out), who travels all the way to Mauritania to talk about women, and Michele Pennetta who, with L’oro del diavolo, ventures into the depths of the Earth with Sicilian miners.
In the meantime, one year after the first edition of MIA, some projects are now at an advanced stage: “Both Costanza Quatriglio (Sembra mio figlio) and Fulvio Risuleo (Guarda in alto) are filming as we speak”, says Lucia Milazzotto, “whilst currently in preparation is The Party by Sally Potter who returns to MIA with her new project, Molly, a good sign of continuity”.
The big gamble of this second edition, MIA TV is expanding and improving, “transforming itself from a moment of rationalization into a business rendezvous”. It will range from meetings on the new way of forecasting in the global TV era to the all-Italian journey around financial resources, sets and skilled workers in “The Italian Journey”, with the participation of Film Commissions, institutions, companies specialized in visual effects and creatives.
New for this year is the launch of a call for the registration of TV series projects which, selected by the TV Board, will take part in the Pitching sessions and move on to the co-production round tables, enriching NCN’s solid and well-tested formula.
There will be a packed program, with over 60 projects registered, for MIA Doc, now bereft of Doc/it and the Italian Doc Screenings. “But the section won’t be weaker”, states Milazzotto, “because MIA Doc is aimed towards the industry and not associations”. The debut of the Arts & Culture Pitching Forum, scheduled from 20 to 22 October, is presented as this edition’s feather in the cap. Here new projects will be assessed by a prestigious international audience, whereas at MIA Talks relations with museums as well as transmedia and art doc co-production opportunities will be explored. “Each section will have its own targeted events, but the central idea remains that of convergence and transversality that will be reinforced by the introduction of Screenings and Talks open to everyone. MIA has a multiple schedule” concludes the director of the market, “but Italy will return as the in-depth recurring theme”.
It will all kick off on Thursday 20 with a day dedicated to animation, like the last edition, branching out into gaming in franchising territory.
On Friday 21 the morning will be devoted to the Italy system, focusing on the television industry, whereas on Saturday 22 we will take a closer look, inside the MIA Doc section, at the Canadian industry and its relations with Italy. As part of the focus on Mexico and Latin American countries, on Sunday 23 there will be the presentation of the Ibermedia Program in which Italy participated alongside Spain, Portugal and Latin America
