Eight talking points from Rome’s MIA market

The 10th edition of Rome’s MIA film and TV market unfolded last week against the backdrop of the 17th-century Barberini Palace in the heart of the Italian capital.

A co-production and sales market as well as a conference programme and content showcase, MIA attracted 2,800 executives from 64 countries for this year’s edition (October 6-10).

Screen captures the key talking points among delegates and panelists, including the threats and opportunities presented by YouTube, the outlook for genre films, the challenges of the film sales market, and the rising popularity of international films.

Festival reality check

The inherent challenge of financing independent films – and securing a return on investment – was a key talking point throughout MIA.

Producer Rodrigo Teixeira, the founder of Brazil-based RT Features, whose credits include Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, Luca Guadadgnino’s Call Me By Your Name and Noah Baumbach’s Francis Ha, gave a sobering assessment of the realities of the market for international films. He said it was vital to be one of the roughly 200 international films that manage to secure a slot in one of the three major festivals – Cannes, Venice and Berlin – to have a chance to stand out. “If you’re outside those 200 films, no one is going to know about you. That is the reality of the movie business,” he claimed.

A Sundance selection, he reckons, is too far from awards season to provide much help with visibility for international films in the crucial US market. “Until you are selected for an award in the United States, you are a possibility. But to be a possibility, you need to be in one of these three major festivals. If you are not, I don’t know how you’re going to recover your money, because you don’t have the recognition [a sales agent] needs to sell you.”

As a result, Texeiro said the possibility of a festival selection strongly influences his decision to get involved with a film. He cited the example of backing films by US filmmaker James Gray, a Cannes regular. RT has worked on Gray’s two previous features Armageddon Time and Ad Astra, and is co-producing his next film Paper Tiger, with Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson. “I know my risk is removed, because I have a possibility to bring him to Cannes or to Venice,” said Texeiro.

Genre bubble looming?

Given the challenging market for indie arthouse films, genre has long been seen as a more commercially attractive investment for its relative low cost and potential for high returns. Also, success doesn’t depend on the vagaries of a festival selection. “A lot of investors like genre film,” noted Celine Dornier, content executive at alternative investment fund manager IPR.VC, which has invested in film and TV content since 2015. But she warned investors “to be careful about genre” amid signs the market may be overheating. “It is so trendy at the moment. There are so many genre projects on the market at the moment. Just keep that in mind.”

Who’s afraid of YouTube?

As at so many conferences, the threats and opportunities posed by YouTube cropped up regularly in conversation. For many, YouTube is an existential threat – winning young audiences away from cinemas. But for Gianluca Curti, the CEO of Italy’s Minverva Pictures, the platform has become a tool to boost revenues and better exploit its archive. He noted that Minerva, a 70-year-old production, distribution and sales company, had only been selling around 10-12% of its library to traditional media before embarking on its YouTube strategy. Minerva is now exploiting its content on 140 of its own YouTube channels, such as Films&Clips, and is aiming to reach 200 channels in 2026.

“It’s definitely the place to be because you can create a much higher value from your archive,” said Curti.

Minerva has also started financing low-budget genre movies – around 15 a year – specifically for YouTube. “Under certain circumstances, we are able to get back our investment just within the YouTube universe,” he said, noting the truly international audience that the platform can deliver. “In theory, we might need one [new] movie every week to fulfil the need of our audience.”

Execs at MIA also flagged the potential of Google’s latest expansion of its YouTube auto-dubbing technology, which incorporates lip-sync functionality. The tech uses AI to visually match up auto-dubbed audio and mouth movements. Not only will it save on dubbing costs, but it also has the potential to unlock further value for archives.

Cost-cutting tips

Many delegates spoke of the need to bear down on production costs at a time of high inflation and challenged returns for indie films. Their solution: film in Europe to access its talent alongside its generous subsidies and tax incentives in countries such as the UK, Hungary, Romania, Italy or Spain.

“Europe is the most advantageous place to shoot,” said Alexandra Lebret, partner in Axio Capital who co-leads its Together Fund focused on investing in production companies. “The US has understood clearly that there is no better place to be when you’re a producer today than in Europe.”

Dominique Malet, managing director of French film financing bank Cofiloisirs, noted the “real competition” between countries to offer the best tax credit but warned producers to be wary. “When one of them offers this beautiful scheme, then two or three years later, they have so many films coming into the state. If they did not put an envelope [on the tax credit], they cannot afford it anymore. And then they cut it.”

Teixeira stressed the need for producers to negotiate down talent costs. One way to do so, he said, is to work with an acclaimed director who might help talent secure awards and change how audiences perceive them; the possibility for an actor of an Academy Award nomination is a good way to drive down fees, he said, only half in jest.

Another solution: work with a big-name director just after they have had a critical failure “because they will listen to you and work closely with you”. It’s a bit of a joke, but it’s true, added Texeira. “Because when a director becomes too empowered [after success], they become a producer and don’t listen to anybody.”

Navigating a suppressed sales market

How to navigate a challenged international sales market was another big talking point. “It is sort of old news that pre-sales are suppressed,” said Alex Brunner, an agent in the Independent Film Group at UTA.

Looking ahead to November’s American Film Market, he said: “We’re all busy trying to package movies. We’re trying to add elements to our screenplays and our filmmakers’ stories that we think have pre-saleability.”

He noted that the market is very much divided between must-have projects and those that struggle to pre-sell. “If you go to any market now, there are things that pre-sell like gangbusters, and there are things that are wait and see, wait to screen.”

Sometimes just selling a few territories in advance isn’t necessarily the right strategy, added Brunner. “Often, if it’s not [selling to many] territories, you will choose to hold the world back and play the upside later. Because having the whole world available is a material advantage. If you’re Apple or one of these other [global streaming] companies, it’s the world or nothing for them.”

Turning to the US distribution market, Brunner did strike a cautiously optimistic note. “We’ve had some new distributors come into the fray with Black Bear and Row K, and there’ll be two or three others in addition to that, probably around Q1 next year. So in the US distribution market, there are a bunch of companies that see opportunity there. But on a pre-sale basis, they’ll want to see the finished film generally.”

Hollywood eclipsed?

Several speakers at MIA predicted that the popularity of international films would grow further in the years to come, citing the success of recent titles from Asia, South America and Europe. “In the next five years, the international market is going to be bigger than America. International film is going to be bigger than English-speaking, for sure,” said Texeira, to applause from the MIA audience.

Together Fund’s Lebret agreed: “That is our bet as Together Fund – we do believe in the growth of the European market with its own talents and the success of European films we can see today in theatres.”

Texeira said that Academy Awards were a good indicator of the rise in reach and popularity of international films, noting that two international films made the main shortlist for best picture this year: Emilia Perez and I’m Still Here. This year it could reach three or four, he suggested. “Maybe in two years from now, we’re going to have 60% of the 10 [shortlisted] films being international.”

Tariff confusion

US president Donald Trump’s renewed call last month to impose tariffs on films made outside the US generated plenty of head-scratching at the market. Opening MIA, Italian undersecretary for culture Lucia Borgonzoni called the idea “insane”. Said Borgonzoni: “Every so often I hear about this tariffs thing, which would damage the Americans themselves if they imposed them, which would be insane.”

Texeira was one of many who took a dim view of the idea: “No one knows what he means. No one knows what he’s talking about,” said the Brazilian executive. Lebret added: “He’s taxing his own companies. That makes Europe even better.”

Rome in focus

MIA marked the start of a busy month for the Italian industry, and Rome in particular. MIA had around 2,800 attendees for its 10th anniversary edition, with participants coming from 64 countries. Over 100 projects were presented during the market. At the same time, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was in the city to announce a new venture with the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC) national film school. This will see the pair renovate and reopen Rome’s historic Cinema Europa theatre, which was closed in the wake of the pandemic. It will be brought back to life as a new cultural, educational, and film heritage centre. The announcement marked Netflix’s tenth anniversary in Italy.

Meanwhile, this week the Rome Film Festival, an important launchpad for local and international films into the Italian market, kicks off.

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