Coproduction focus for MIA as submissions climb 26%
By C21 Reporters 06/10/2026
With coproduction and co-financing the new normal throughout the audiovisual sector, Italy’s MIA Market has embraced the changes and increased its focus on copro, with project submissions up 26% compared with last year’s edition.
MIA venue the Piazza Barberini
Karelj via CC
Rome’s Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (MIA) has received more than 630 project submissions for its 12th edition, up 26% on 2025, as the market adds a European Investment Hub and an Animation Series Gap Financing Market to its line-up.
The submissions came from 83 countries, and 104 projects from 43 countries have been selected for the Co-Production & Gap Financing Market and the Work-in-Progress sessions. The market runs from October 19 to 23, and a new layout turns Via Veneto and Piazza Barberini into a district dedicated to the international film and audiovisual industries. The event will span seven official venues and include more than 40 conferences, talks and meetings featuring 85 international speakers, more than 40% of them women.
MIA is promoted by Italian industry bodies ANICA and APA, chaired by Alessandro Usai and Chiara Sbarigia respectively, and is directed by Gaia Tridente. It receives support from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, ICE – Italian Trade Agency, Creative Europe MEDIA, the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Roma Lazio Film Commission Foundation, and is held under the patronage of Eurimages.
APA’s Sbarigia says the changes reflect the demands on the domestic production sector. “After 12 years, rethinking MIA was necessary in order to respond to the new challenges facing Italian producers,” she says. She points to the “new focus on microdrama and emerging forms of serial storytelling, a new programme dedicated to animated series, and a platform focused on European and international financial instruments” as strengthening the market’s ability to support the value chain.
The Co-Production Market has been redesigned for 2026, and its official selection runs to 67 projects, comprising 24 live-action features, 10 animated features, 11 feature documentaries, two docuseries, two TV one-offs and 18 scripted series. A further seven documentaries appear in the new Doc Connect: One-on-One section, which offers guided B2B meetings with international buyers.
The Drama Co-Production Market will present 18 series projects from 17 countries, with Luxembourg and Panama participating for the first time. Titles include Burntime, from UK producer and creator Douglas Mackinnon of Rugged Island Films; Sherlock North, a Finnish crime series set in Lapland; Disqualified, a Finland-Sweden miniseries based on the novel Paljastus, from Banijay Finland; and Wanda, an Italian miniseries about Wanda Ferragamo.
Lapland-set Finnish crime drama Sherlock North
The projects were assessed by a 22-strong committee that included executives from Rai Fiction, France Télévisions, NRK, ZDF, YLE, Sony Pictures Television, Banijay and StudioCanal. The Sony Pictures Television Award will go to one of the selected drama projects at the closing ceremony.
The Animation Series Gap Financing Market is aimed at animated series that already have broadcaster backing and are largely financed. Producers will pitch to a table of decision makers as they look for coproducers, co-commissioners and international distributors to complete their financing. Applications were received from 24 countries, and the 19 selected projects come from 15 countries, including seven international coproductions. Confirmed decision makers include execs from BBC Studios, ZDF Studios, France Télévisions, Gulli/M6, RTS, DR, RTBF, Paramount, Rai, YLE, Blue Ant Media, DeAPlaneta and Federation Studio.
The European Investment Hub, meanwhile, will open the market on October 19 with a session at Palazzo Barberini on the European landscape of financial instruments and policy, involving the European Commission, the European Investment Fund, Creative Europe MEDIA, Eurimages and CineRegio. Regional round tables with European funds will follow in the afternoon. Panels on October 20 will cover global film finance, equity and growth capital, closing financing plans, brands as financing partners and the monetisation of film IP through videogames. The hub will also preview MCT Credit Solutions, a new initiative from Media Capital Technologies, with the company’s CEO, Raj Singh.
“In this increasingly international environment, access to innovative financial instruments and solutions that help companies secure financing for projects and support business growth has become a critical factor for the sustainability and development of the film and audiovisual industry,” says ANICA’s Usai, who adds that the European Investment Hub “will encourage dialogue among companies, investors and institutions and make European and international financial instruments supporting the audiovisual sector more accessible.”
Finland-Sweden miniseries Disqualified from Banijay Finland
Shortform drama features across the conference programme. A Vertical Drama Forum, moderated by Robert Franke of Intaglio Film, will include executives from Banijay, Mediaset, VRT, ZDF, YLE and Fabula Pictures, as well as Kelly Luegenbiehl of Shorties Studio. Luegenbiehl also joins Sky Studios Italia’s Emanuele Marchesi, Fremantle’s Jamie Lynn, Sony Pictures Television’s Andrew Plotkin and Nordisk Film Group’s Marike Muselaers on a panel about how scripted series can reconnect with fragmented audiences, taking in the creator economy, social media and shortform drama.
The European Broadcasting Union will hold its Fiction Experts Plenary Meeting at MIA for the fifth consecutive year on October 20 and 21, bringing together more than 40 heads of drama from European public-service broadcasters. Its agenda includes the growth of vertical and microdrama and the impact of AI on production.
Elsewhere, the GreenLit Showcase will preview four scripted series: Gucci Fine dei Giochi, created and directed by Gabriele Muccino for Sky Italia and Lucky Red and distributed by StudioCanal; Metamorphoses, from Jaco Van Dormael, commissioned by Arte France with ZDF/Arte; The Postman, a spy thriller from ZDF Studios and BlackBox Multimedia starring Mark Addy; and Wallander, starring Gustaf Skarsgård, produced by Jarowskij/Yellow Bird with TV4 and Banijay Rights among its partners.
A Korea focus with the Korea Creative Content Agency will bring a delegation of Korean companies to Rome, with CJ ENM’s Diane Min presenting on the international performance of K-content. A first event with Lega Calcio Serie A will connect producers with IP emerging from football. Sbarigia will also present APA’s eighth report on national audiovisual production, followed by a panel on production quality with executives from Rai Fiction, Netflix, Medusa Film, Sky Studios Italia, Amazon Studios and Warner Bros Discovery.
Awards at the closing ceremony include the MIA Development Award, offering cash prizes to projects in the Co-Production & Gap Financing Market; the WIFTMI Award for gender equality and inclusion; and the Screen International Award for a film in the C EU Soon work-in-progress showcase. MIA director Tridente says this edition is “built around a precise ambition: to read market transformations as they happen and translate them into concrete opportunities for the industry.”
