Italy’s MIA Market Sets Gaia Tridente As Director & Reveals 2022 Dates

EXCLUSIVE: Italy’s key film and TV market MIA (Mercato Internazionale dell’Audiovisivo) is returning in 2022 with a new director in the shape of Gaia Tridente.

The eighth edition of the Rome event will run from 11 to 15 October 2022, we can also reveal. This means the event will take place days before MIPCOM, which will run October 17-20. The MIA market usually runs during the Rome Film Festival, whose 2022 dates have yet to be confirmed.

Tridente has worked at MIA between 2017 to 2021, most recently as Head of Scripted, during which time the event has become an increasingly dynamic gathering. Last year’s event included a keynote from Joe Russo and panels featuring a host of studios and streamers.

In her new role, Tridente will be flanked by two Deputy Directors: Francesca Palleschi, in the role of Head of Film Content, and Marco Spagnoli, in the role of Head of Doc/Factual Content.

Tridente succeeds Lucia Milazzotto who had worked at the event since its inception but left the project last October.

Tridente, who holds a PHD in Film Studies, has twenty years of experience in the audiovisual sector. She spent ten years as a member of the board of RomaFictionFest, covering the role of Head of International Programming until 2016. She was also Director of European Relations for the Fondazione Rossellini per l’Audiovisivo from 2010 to 2011 and collaborated in the programming of the Taormina Film Fest and Europa Cinema until 2007.

Said Tridente: “I would like to thank the President of ANICA, Francesco Rutelli, and the President of APA, Giancarlo Leone, for their trust and renewed commitment to making MIA an essential place for the Italian and international audiovisual industry. Over the years, MIA has established itself as the most important Italian marketplace in terms of number of attendees and activity results and has contributed to increasing and facilitating co-productions, distribution, and business relations at an international level.”

She continued: “My ambition is to produce a high-quality new edition of MIA, representing a turning point that will meet the needs of the global industry’ ecosystem and bringing content in all its formats and genres at the centre of the market.”

Francesco Rutelli, President of ANICA commented: “With the development and integration into MIA of all audiovisual components, as well as animation, the Market will once again confirm itself as an irreplaceable autumn appointment in the calendar of European business events.”

APA President Giancarlo Leone added: “The support of Italian institutions for MIA is a further strength of a market that combines the great commitment of the national industry with extraordinary opportunities for the entire audiovisual market and for the growth and development of business relations between the main Italian and international players”.

MIA is a joint venture between Italian orgs ANICA (the trade association representing the Italian film and audiovisual industry, chaired by Francesco Rutelli) and APA (the Italian audiovisual producers association chaired by Giancarlo Leone) and has financial support from the government and regional cultural bodies.