Market In Focus: Rome’s MIA Market Gears Up For Its Most Internationally-Focused Edition To Date
As Italy has ramped up its efforts in the last year to lure in international productions, so too has Rome’s MIA Market been making big strides in attracting global companies and executives to its annual five-day industry confab. The innovative Italian event, which has fast become a top destination in the TV market calendar, is returning for its ninth edition on October 9-13, 2023 and this year looks set to be bigger than ever with top execs from Paramount, Imagine, Banijay and Skybound Entertainment all set to attend.
“We have been prepping for this edition for a while and I think it’s even better than last year because we started working much further in advance,” says MIA director Gaia Tridente of this year’s event, which will be the second one with her at the helm.
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Tridente is proud of last year’s attendance, which was up by 20% with more than 2,400 registered participants from 60 countries around the world and she’s confident that there will be more growth this year as the event looks to position itself firmly as a global audiovisual ecosystem. The curated event, which runs alongside the Rome Film Festival and right before Mipcom kicks off in Cannes on October 16, is a joint venture between Italian organizations ANICA (the trade association representing the Italian film and audiovisual industry, chaired by Francesco Rutelli) and APA (the Italian audiovisual producers association chaired by Chiara Sbarigia. It’s supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It’s offering a wide range of tailored programs including its popular co-production market and pitching forums, market screenings, content showcases, b2b meetings, conferences and networking activities.
Already its popular co-production market and pitching forum (which includes animation, documentaries, drama and feature films) has seen more than 500 projects submitted from 81 countries worldwide, a 30% increase on countries compared to last year. Of these, 16 were selected (read more on that here).
The main directive for 2023, says Tridente, has been to attract more international players to the market and facilitate new business opportunities for attendees. “We have tried to differentiate and open up our boundaries and work closely on an international strategy to be much more effective in the international co-production market.”
She’s particularly proud of the line-up of speakers at this year’s industry event, which will see three women speak in three key sessions: Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ Original Scripted Series; Imagine Documentaries President Sara Bernstein; and Marge Dean, Head of Skybound Entertainment’s Animation Studio.
Clemens oversees a robust slate of shows for buyers across multiple platforms, with upcoming productions including Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits and Billy Crystal’s Before, both of which will stream on Apple TV+. Clemens ran point on Paramount+’s original scripted series, shepherding projects such as Halo, The Offer and the Star Trek franchises. She also recently exec produced British drama Sexy Beast with Paramount Television International Studios for Paramount+. At MIA she’ll talk about her career and Paramount’s worldwide production strategy.
Bernstein leads the development of production and premium documentary feature films and series for Ron Howard and Brian Glazer’s Imagine. At MIA, she’ll give a keynote on her career with a special reference to recent productions like Judy Blume Forever (Amazon Studios), Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman (Disney+) and The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari (Netflix). Docs she has worked on have earned her 11 Emmy wins and two Oscars.
Industry veteran Dean will keynote on the development and production of adult and teen animated content, including Invincible for Amazon Prime. She’s played a major role in shaping or reshaping entities including Columbia-TriStar TV, Warner Bros. Animation, Mattel’s Playground Production, Steve Oedekerk’s Omation, Technicolor Animation and Wildbrain Entertainment.
“It’s a powerful representation of women in this industry and these women are really at the top level of the industry so we are really proud of that,” says Tridente of the speakers.
Additional names on the speaker line-up include Anonymous Content’s David Levine and David Davoli, Waltz with Bashir director Ari Folman, Invention Studios’ Nicholas Weinstock and Banijay’s Chief Content Officer of Development James Townley.
“We wanted to be more effective in the animation division this year, so it was really important that we secured the presence of big players in the animation sector,” says Tridente. Last year was the first year it offered an animation division and this is, says Tridente, a key area of growth for the market going forward.
Additionally, MIA will be hosting the second edition of Spanish Screenings on Tour, one of the main initiatives of Spanish Screenings XXL which aims to boost and provide new opportunities for the Iberian audiovisual industry. This year will see 31 titles at different stages showcased at the event.
Tridente is encouraged that Italy has increasingly become one of the “most promising and interesting hubs” for international producers. “It’s not just our locations but also there is a changed perception of the Italian industry in terms of what we are able to produce,” she says. “Production quality has increased a lot in Italy thanks to the studios we have, tax incentives from the government and so forth and this is really changing the perception of what we are able to produce and our global outreach.”
She adds, “Our stories are becoming more appealing, and the boundaries are less constricted because of the streaming platforms. We now have production companies that are really well established in the market and I think the perception of what we can be and the quality is becoming much more recognized around the world. MIA is the perfect place to discover good partners for international co-productions.”
MIA will take place at its usual venue, Rome’s Palazzo Barberini, which is Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery from October 9-13, 2023.
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