The eleventh edition of MIA | Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (6–10 October) will convene the global screen industry in Rome with a program that mixes market access, debate, and premieres. Promoted by ANICA and APA and directed by Gaia Tridente, MIA 2025 will stage more than 80 events—panels, conferences, research presentations, seminars, workshops, training sessions, keynotes, round tables, and networking—alongside Film Section screenings. Five curated showcases will feature 44 titles across Animation, Documentaries, Television Formats, TV series, and Films. Together with 62 projects in the co-production market, the event will present over 100 projects to buyers, commissioners, and financiers. Official delegations are expected from several Latin American countries (including Cuba) as well as Sweden and Canada.
A major engine of this year’s market is the Doc & Factual Division, led by #Marco Spagnoli# (Head of Doc & Factual and MIA Deputy Director) with Ben Pace (Head of Co-Production Market). The strand positions MIA as a practical forum for international factual deal-making and trend analysis, pairing showcases with discussions on commissioning, financing, and distribution.
Headline sessions include a keynote from Thom Zimny—the Emmy and Grammy-winning director known for films on Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, and Sylvester Stallone—offering a craft-level view on music and celebrity documentaries. Case-study programming features The (Second) Italian Job: Stolen, Heist of the Century, presented by producer Chiara Messineo and director Mark Lewis, with contributions from Paolo Manera (Film Commission Torino Piemonte) and producer Davide Valentini.
Market dynamics on the home front will be probed in New Challenges and Opportunities for the Italian Market, with APA producers Gioia Avvantaggiato, Simona Ercolani, and Gloria Giorgianni in conversation with Jacopo Chessa (Veneto Film Commission), Mattia Mariotti (Sky Italia), Cecilia Penati (HBO Max), and Luigi Del Plavignano (Rai Documentaries), who will also join a session on RAI’s evolving editorial line. International growth will be tackled by Factual Frontiers: Unlocking Global Growth, featuring Gerbrig Blanksma (Blue Ant Media), Cecilie Olsen (ITV Studios Global Distribution), and Carlotta Rossi Spencer (Banijay). Theatrical pathways for non-fiction take focus in Getting Docs to Theaters, with Enrico Bufalini (Cinecittà), Artur Liebhart (Millennium Docs Against Gravity), Agustina Lumi (Usheru), Gregorio Paonessa (Vivo Film), and Anastasia Plazzotta (Wanted Distribution), moderated by Giorgio Bigoni (Cinetel).
Italians Doc It Better: all-premiere slate
Returning with an all-world-premiere program, Italians Doc It Better presents ten films exploring history, identity, and social change. Highlights include Agostino Ferrente’s The Possible Lives / Le vite possibili, expanding the world of Selfie in Naples’ Rione Traiano; Audrey Gordon’s Fish Don’t Close Their Eyes / I pesci non chiudono gli occhi, a hybrid portrait of writer Erri De Luca; and Marco Amenta’s The People’s Theater / Il teatro povero della Val d’Orcia, chronicling a 59-year grassroots stage tradition in Tuscany.
Sabrina Varani’s The Eighth Day / L’ottavo giorno follows homeless pilgrims during the Holy Year; Pepi Romagnoli’s Rosanna Between the Lines traces memory and authorship across generations; and Lorenzo Signoretti’s My Father’s Wigs turns a personal archive into an inquiry on craft and legacy. Global and environmental threads surface in Heart Dressed (Sophie Chiarello, Giulia Amati), Pestiferus Lupus (Ludovico Serra, Luca Jankovic), and OTO (Elisa Motta, Matteo Ferrarini). Fabio Breccia’s ARI: Mom, Sex and Everything Else closes the selection with a formally adventurous portrait set in Berlin’s KitKat Club.
