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Lucia Milazzotto • Director of Rome’s International Audiovisual Market

"A new market with the support of the entire industry”

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- The first edition of the International Audiovisual Market is being held in Rome from 16 to 20 October. Cineuropa caught up with its director, Lucia Milazzotto

Lucia Milazzotto  • Director of Rome’s International Audiovisual Market

The MIA is the new International Audiovisual Market, the first edition of which is being held in Rome from 16 to 20 October 2015. It is the first time, strategically and operationally speaking, that all the most well-established and active production and distribution stakeholders have been brought together for such an event in Italy. The MIA will thus cover all segments of the audiovisual industry, from film to TV series, from documentaries to factual films, from animation to video games. Its budget includes €1.5 million from the Ministry for Economic Development and €440,000 from the Rome Film Foundation.Cineuropa met with the director, Lucia Milazzotto, who already runs the marketing section of World Content Pole SA, is in charge of the New Cinema Network, and has a lot of experience of working in the international audiovisual industry, having worked with producers, distributors and some of the biggest film institutions around, such as Eurimages, MEDIA Programme, Sundance Institute and Cannes Cinéfondation.

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Cineuropa: What’s changed compared to previous years with the TBS and NCN?
Lucia Milazzotto: There are a number of changes. The first is that MIA is a collective project, which brings ANICA, APT, Doc/it and the Rome Film Foundation together for the first time, so it is built on shared points of view and intentions, and has a lot more clout. It is supported by the entire Italian audiovisual industry. It works with five different boards of international professionals in film, documentaries and television. The second thing to bear in mind is that it focuses on the similarities between film, TV, and documentary film, and has kept the bar high when it comes to selecting audiovisual works, all the while trying to create a strong identity with innovative matchmaking formats. We set up a series of networking and discussion events that have been attended by big international professionals. 

So the number of accredited professionals at this first edition of the MIA has increased?
We have 13000 accredited professionals, compared to 700 last year. Around 400 buyers and more than 500 producers, with 120 sales agents and various others. Basically not only is the national industry interested in the MIA, the international industry is too. 

How did the boards contribute to this first edition?
They contributed to shaping the editorial structure and identifying themes, who to invite from among the most active stakeholders, to create an up-to-date market that would meet the needs of those attending it.

MIA seems to place a lot of emphasis on co-production.
We have three different sections dedicated to co-production: NCN, MIWI and IDS for documentaries. With its 30 projects from 20 countries, chosen by a committee of international experts (the 2015 selection committee is made up of Matthew Baker of HanWay Films, Iole Giannattasio of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Anne Lai and Paul Federbush of the Sundance Institute), the MIA NCN-New Cinema Network is a forum for international film projects, where producers from all over the world can find effective and solid co-production opportunities. In addition to the NCN is Make it With Italy (MIWI): a specific forum aimed at incentivising the participation of Italian producers in European and international co-productions and, as a result, strengthening our industry’s business links with the top foreign players. IDS brings together the most well-known broadcasters, producers, distributors and fund managers from the Italian and international industries in an intense networking event. The IDS has received support from an international board made up of Agnese Fontana, Catherine Olsen, Markus Nikel and Christian Popp.

Are there high expectations for international sales of films like Suburra...
As well as Suburra [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefano Sollima
film profile
]
, which is a very strong film, we have a lot of very interesting films, such as Non essere cattivo [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Claudio Caligari, Per amor vostro [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giuseppe M Gaudino
film profile
]
by Giuseppe Gaudino, which was awarded at Venice, the debut feature film by Gabriele Mainetti, Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile
]
, which is in the Festival’s official selection, and many more.

It’s very interesting to see the way that Netflix is taking hold in Europe and the resulting changes to the way the market is structured.
There will be a day dedicated to digital media, we want to analyse the way the various platforms behave, because each has its own strategy and has a different effect on the market. We will have a number of companies represented at the MIA. Then we’ll discuss original digital content, because if we look at content itself, new forms are appearing based on different economic models.

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(Translated from Italian)

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