FormatBiz | Announced a rich agenda for the sixth edition of MIA will take place from 14 to 18 October 2020 in Rome

The sixth edition of MIA will take place from 14 to 18 October 2020 in Rome, in its traditional location at Palazzo Barberini, in a safe and Covid proof environment, ready to host the many national and international industry's representatives who have already announced their participation. The on-site activities will be complemented by online events on the MIA DIGITAL platform, a crucial tool to make our Market even stronger. As every year, the Market will offer selected projects the opportunity to be presented in the field of the CO - PRODUCTION MARKET and PITCHING FORUM in front of an audience of national and international key players. This year's rich line-up, which amounts to 50 total projects from more than 20 countries including films, TV series and documentaries, confirms once again the fundamental role played by MIA in supporting the co-production, financing and dissemination of the most interesting premium content on the way.

50% of the 16 projects of the MIA|FILM COPRODUCTION MARKET, from 14 countries and selected by Paola Malanga (Deputy Director, production and acquisitions division, Rai Cinema, Italy), Joseph Rouschop (Producer, Tarantula, Belgium) and Katarzyna Siniarska (Head of Sales, New Europe Film Sales, Poland), are by female directors, proof of the Market's commitment to inclusiveness and enhancement of female work.

Among the titles this year: AMOR Y DOLOR by Emanuele Scaringi (DIAZ, La profezia dell'armadillo), produced by Domenico Procacci's Fandango; ANIMAL by the director of the award-winning Park, Sofia Exarchou; AUDREY LA MER, a new film by Sebastiano Riso, (Più buio di mezzanotte, Una famiglia), the story of two
young men who survived the Nazi atrocities; AUTONAUTS OF THE COSMOROUTE by Olivier Gondry and Leslie Menahem, the story of the extraordinary journey undertaken by the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar in May 1982; THE BEAUTIFUL SUMMER by Laura Luchetti (Fiore gemello), coming-of-age set in Turin in 1939;
DALVA by Emanuelle Nicot (Snatched), a thirteen-year-old story pushed to put on make-up and dress like a woman by her father Jacques; THE LAST SHOT by the director of La casa de papel, Alex Rodrigo, the story of the adventurer Luis Valtueña, involved in a humanitarian mission in Rwanda; THE ROUGH LIFE OF THE
HEAVENLY ANIMALS by Beatriz Seigner (Los Silencios); THE SORCERERS by Christopher Murray (Propaganda, El Cristo Ciego), produced by Fabula run by Juan de Dios and Pablo Larraín, acclaimed director of Jackie and Neruda.

In addition to the international selection, this year the MIA|Film Co-Production Market, led by Alexia De Vito, presents “WANNA TASTE IT?”: A new section dedicated exclusively to Italian film projects in development and a launch and growth platform for the Italian industry and talent, thanks to targeted networking with potential sales and financiers and opportunities for advanced training and updating, through targeted meetings with industry experts, representatives of institutions, funds and support programs.

Also confirmed for the 2020 edition, the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award: the Council of Europe Fund, recognizing that of Rome as one of the most effective European co-production markets, will award a prize of 20,000 euros, intended for the development of the project that best meets the collaboration
and co-production criteria that inspire Eurimages.

This year, MIA is also proud to present the ARTE Kino International Prize, a prize of 6,000 euros through which ARTE intends to support the development of a project, which will be chosen by a special jury.

The MIA|Film division, curated by Francesca Palleschi, also presents three “taught” sessions for discussion and reasoning. In addition to the annual appointment organized in collaboration with Europa Distribution - this year declined on the theme Everything you always wanted to know about Distribution but were afraid to
ask: How to survive a pandemic - other important moments are included: among these, the Developing original films for local audiences with the OTT platform panel, dedicated to the development strategies of original film content at local and European level with the large platforms, through the involvement of producers who have developed films for the large platforms and representatives of the OTT platforms themselves (such as Netflix and Amazon).
I

nternational co-production in Covid times and beyond: film financing in the contemporary scenario, organized in collaboration with ACE Producers with the idea of offering an open conversation session, will instead address the different, very topical issues related to the situation of international co-productions in times of Covid and, above all, in the post-Covid. Among the confirmed participants, led through the conversation by Jacobine van der Vloed (Director & Head of Studies of ACE): Iole Giannattasio (Mibact and Eurimages), Marta Donzelli (Vivo Films), Tobias Pausinger (The Match Factory, Germany), Dominique Malet (Cofiloisirs, France), producer Tom Dercourt (Cinema Defacto, France) and producer Jonas Dornbach (Komplizen Film, Germany).

Another great novelty of the 2020 edition is represented by the series of meetings "THE PRODUCER'S KEYNOTE", organized by the MIA|DRAMA section, curated by Gaia Tridente: a series of exclusive interviews with international protagonists of the industry, streamed on the MIA platform DIGITAL and live at the Palazzo Barberini venue.
The first meeting will be, not surprisingly, with one of the most important Hollywood producers, MICHAEL ELLENBERG, founder and CEO of Media Res, studio and production company that develops, produces and finances premium content for tv and cinema. Michael served as Head of Drama for HBO, commissioning hit
series such as Westworld, Big Little Lies, True Detective, The Young Pope. Among the films, he produced Prometheus by Ridley Scott, Cyrus, with John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill, and Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.

With Media Res, Michael immediately made a name for himself as an international producer: his first series for AppleTV+ was The Morning Show, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. Highly acclaimed by critics and audiences, the series has garnered 8 Emmy Award nominations and has a second season in
production. Michael most recently produced Scenes from a Marriage for HBO, a mini-serial remake of Ingmar Berman's classic film, starring Michelle Williams and Oscar Isaac. Connected from Los Angeles, Michael will be featured in an interview that will cross the stages of his Hollywood career and talk about the production of Media Res.

The second appointment of "The Producer’s Keynote" series will be with STEPHEN CORNWELL, co-founder and co-CEO of The Ink Factory, with his brother Simon. He is an important player in the drama industry globally: he has signed as Executive Producer the AMC mini-series The Little Drummer Girl, and the awardwinning series The Night Manager; co-wrote and produced Message from the King for Netflix Original; produced Ang Lee's film Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk; A Most Wanted Man, with Philip Seymour Hoffman; and Hotel Artemis, with Jodie Foster.

During the meeting at MIA DRAMA, connected from Los Angeles, Stephen will retrace the greatest successes of his career and will talk about the highly anticipated new series The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, based on the novel of the same name by Le Carré.
The narrative universe produced by Cornwell, however, is not limited only to the production of films and TV series, but goes as far as the interactive storytelling of video gaming. With Giant Squid, sister company of The Ink Factory, Stephen produced the award-winning game Abzû, twice BAFTA nominated, and developed
by acclaimed creator Matt Nava, with whom he is currently working on a new interactive fantasy project, The
Pathless, designed for use on various gaming platforms.