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Rome’s MIA Market — which is dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films and documentaries — is set to kick off its 12th edition with a new format that will expand its venues to several hotels in the
Eternal City’s Via Veneto, of “La Dolce Vita” fame, while also seeking to create a synergy with the Rome Film Festival.
While in recent years MIA (which stands for Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) and the Rome Film Festival were held in separate dates, the two event’s upcoming editions will now overlap, with MIA running Oct. 19-23 during the Oct. 13-25 Rome fest.
“We want the market to be more rooted in the city and Rome to become a major film and TV industry hub during this period,” MIA chief Gaia Tridente tells Variety.
Tridente added that the first step of this newfound collaboration between the market and the fest is that buyers will automatically get an accreditation to attend the morning screenings — reserved for the press and industry — at the Rome Film Fest and its Alice in the City sidebar, which is dedicated to films for children and youth.
MIA’s previously announced fireside chats will be with Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti; Anna Marsh, CEO of Studiocanal and chief content officer of Canal+; Jane Tranter, CEO of Bad Wolf; and director Edward Berger, best known for “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Newly added onstage conversations and/or keynotes will be held by Oscar-winning documentary director Asif Kapadia (“Amy”); fellow brit Kim Longinotto, who is known for docs highlighting female rebels and pioneers, including 2019’s “Shooting the Mafia” about Sicilian photographer Letizia Battaglia; and Trevor Roth, COO and president of development at Roddenberry Entertainment, which is celebrating 60 years of the “Star Trek” franchise.
There will be more than 100 projects, in various stages and hailing from 43 countries, on display. This includes a sneak peek at Sky Italia’s upcoming high-end Gucci family series “Gucci: Game Over,” directed by Gabriele Muccino; the drama “About Love & September Laws,” the next feature by Sudanese filmmaker Mohamed Kordofani, whose 2023 feature debut “Goodbye Julia” made a splash in Cannes; the doc “Ducati 100 Years of a Legend,” about the Italian motorcycle manufacturer, directed by Alex Infascelli and produced by Minerva Pictures Group; and U.K. animation kiddie series “Barry Loser,” which is based on Jim Smith’s bestselling books and is being produced by Big Little Fish Television. This project is part MIA’s new Animation Series Gap Financing Market, which is open to international animated series projects that are already supported by broadcasters or commissioners and have significant financing in place.
Standout panels at MIA will include “Producing With AI: Augmentation or Replacement?” featuring Max Wiedemann, managing director and head of AI at France-based pan-European studio Mediawan, and Tom Paton, founder and CEO of AiMation, the company behind the pioneering AI Reality series “Non Player Combat.” That panel will followed and complemented by a companion keynote from Al Munteanu, CEO of BriskPace Studios, which is based in Munich and London and will examine the practical use of AI across the production value chain. The Al Munteanu keynote is to be moderated by U.S. entertainment lawyer Steve Saltzman, head of the International Entertainment Group at London-based law firm Fieldfisher.
