Rome MIA Market to Provide Buyers Taste of New European TV, Film, Doc Crop
By Nick Vivarelli
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Roughly 400 buyers will get a taste of new Italian and, more broadly, European TV skeins, movies, and docs at Rome’s new concept MIA market, which has assembled a discerning display of potentially hot high-profile content in various stages, set to attract a copious contingent of top-level international execs.
In line with its stated mission of being an “incubator and accelerator” for the Italian industry in the global arena — as market director Lucia Milazzotto said during a recent press conference — the fourth edition of the post-Mipcom pre-AFM (Oct. 17-21) event features sneak peeks of upcoming high-profile local goods, such as RAI’s “The Name of The Rose” adaptation toplining John Turturro and Sky Italia’s financial thriller “Devils,” co-starring Patrick Dempsey and Italian A-lister Alessandro Borghi, as well as “Freaks Out” (pictured) the new genre-bending pic by Gabriele Mainetti who made a splash with widely sold sleeper hit “They Call Me Jeeg.”
From Europe, the 58 projects being pitched — with coaching from American pitching guru Bob Schultz — comprise crime skein “The Last Cop” on which Keshet International has teamed up with London-based Blackbox Multimedia, the new London-based company co-founded by former Lionsgate COO Guy Avshalom, who are also pitching a skein titled “Murder In Time”; sci-fi series “The Feed,” penned by Channing Powell (“The Walking Dead”) already ordered by Amazon but available for some territories; buzzed-about Gullane-produced Brazilian thriller feature “The Hanged,” by Fernando Coimbra (“Narcos”) and French-German docu-series “1979 The Big Bang of History” on which PBS Distribution is a partner.
Keshet International CEO Alon Shtruzman will be making the trek to Rome to present his new $65 million KI content fund. Other top execs expected at MIA include AMC SVP production chief Alysse Bezahler; Lionsgate’s Marc Lorber, ’s Ram Murali, Netflix head of international originals Felipe Tewes, and newly-appointed Fremantle COO Andrea Scrosati.
Anonymous Content chief Paul Green will be giving a keynote speech and Walter Presents founder Walter Iuzzolino will also give a talk.
Panels, with a strong UK focus, will thrash out topics ranging from pre-Brexit industry uncertainty, with Scott Free head of TV Kate Crowe among speakers; how to co-produce with the UK; Blockchain; and improving diversity in the film industry.
Held in central Rome, a stone’s throw from Via Veneto, in an area between the 17th century Palazzo Barberini, where several events takes place, and nearby cinemas set to host roughly 125 screenings of fresh movies, MIA will make the most of the Eternal City’s ancient allure and new world grandeur. MIA’s lavish day-one dinner on October 18 will be held in an auditorium near the Vatican preceded by a surround-sound live immersive show titled “Universal Judgment: Michelangelo and the Secrets of the Sistine Chapel” featuring actors, dancers and acrobats, 4K projections onto giant ceiling screens, a theme composed by Sting, recorded narration by Susan Sarandon, and the intention of conjuring the pyrotechnic energy of an Olympic ceremony.
