The third edition of the MIA Mercato Internazionale dell’Audiovisivo in Rome (running from 19 to 23 October) will present feature, fiction and documentary films to the international film industry.
While Eurimages – the European Cinema Support Fund – is due to make an appearance and will be awarding the €20,000 Co-production Development Award prize. This year’s new feature is the MIA|EDI Visionary Award, a prize aimed at supporting projects that develop innovative approaches to storytelling through the creative and excellent use of visual effects.
Let’s look at the selected projects in a bit more detail: Duo is an Argentinian co-production from emerging Spanish director, Meritxell Colell Aparicio, already selected for Cinéfondation’s L’Atelier at Cannes. Mikel Gurrea debuts his feature film, Cork, backed by Lastor Media, who produced the films of two Catalonian talents, Júlia ist by Elena Martín, and Long Distance by Carlos Marques-Marcet. Durendal is an “adult” animation project by Egidio Eronico, while its producer Partner Media Investment also produced the documentary Michel Petrucciani Body and Soul by Michael Radford. Emil was directed by Slovakian Peter Bebjak, who won the Director award at the Karlovy Vary IFF for The Line. The director of I Hate Berlin, the Romanian Valentin Hotea, brought Roxanne to Locarno, Cottbus, Prague, Luxor and other festivals, while Hi Film Productions boasted a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for Direction, which went to Radu Jude for Aferim!. The Swedish project Madame Luna by Binyam Berhane had already been selected as part of the TRL Espresso program, a collaboration between London Production Finance Market and When East Meets West from Trieste. Noah’s Ark is a Brazilian animation project produced by Walter Salles among others. Nowhere by Portuguese Marco Leão was born out of a collaboration between MIA and Sundance, where he participated in the Mediterranean Screenwriters Workshop. Pablo by Enrico Maria Artale was produced by Roberto De Paolis‘ Young Films, director of Pure Hearts, presented this year at Cannes.
The Polish Agnieszka Zwiefka, awarded at the IDFA in Amsterdam for The Queen of Silence, is behind Patagonia, a project presented by Harine Films. Saving One Who Was Dead (producer Sirius Films) comes from Czech director Vaclav Kadrnka, prizewinner at Karlovy Vary for his previous film, Little Crusader. The Brazilian project by Fabio Baldo, Sweet Hell Throughout the Galaxy, was produced by Glaz, while American indie animation project, The Cryptozoo Debut by Dash Shaw,comes from the Sundance Lab. The Outpost (Dugong Films) is the ambitious documentary by Italian Edoardo Morabito, editor of Liberami by Federica Di Giacomo, winner in the Horizons section at Venice in 2016. The Searchers (Temper Films) is a project by director Andreas Prochaska, best known for The Dark Valley, the Austrian Oscar nominee and winner of 8 German Film Awards. The Tentmaster’s Daughter by Isabel Anderton, with Patchwork Productions, is a project that has already received BFI script development funding. Among the producers of We Are the Winners by Giovanni Piperno is Matthew Garrone who, along with Giovanni Pompili, is developing a social coming-of-age social musical, born from a laboratory (out in the fields) in the suburbs of Rome. Yalda by Massoud Bakhshi is a project focused the female condition in Iran with JBA Productions, having already spent time in the Sundance Lab and the Résidence at Cannes, while Caliber 9 is directed by Renato De Maria (Italian Gangsters) and produced by Angelo Barbagallo‘s Bibi Film.
By Cineuropa.org
