Italy’s True Colours unveils first slate at MIA following pivot towards TV sales

EXCLUSIVE: Italian sales outfit True Colours has unveiled its first series-focused slate since announcing last year that it was branching out from film into representing TV content.

Co-owned by Italian producers and distributors Lucky Red and Indigo Film, True Colours last year hired Elliot Gustin-Hollman from Paris-based Studio TF1 as managing director.

Under his watch, True Colours has diversified into TV series alongside film. The full slate, including four series and two documentaries as well as features, is being showcased at this week’s MIA market in Rome.

True Colour’s diversification is a response to the changing market in Italy, said Lucky Red founder Andrea Occhipinti. When True Colours launched ten years ago, there was a space for a film sales company for Italian movies. “It is now more difficult to find worldwide rights for films to sell,” he said.

He cited market changes such as key Italian film funder Rai increasingly selling its films through its new Rai Cinema International Distribution sales operation. New distributor PiperFilms recently teamed with France’s Playtime to launch the PiperPlay sales operation run by former True Colours execs Catia Rossi and Giulia Casavecchia. Meanwhile, many of the top Italian directors’ latest films are represented by powerful French film sales operations.

Occhipinti said True Colours’ diversification is also informed by a film and TV landscape that has changed dramatically in the past ten years. “Series for platforms and television are more relevant than they were before, so we want to go into that business as well.”

Series slate

True Colours’ new slate comprises series from across Europe, including Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and France.

Fulvio Bernasconi’s mafia series La Linea Della Palma for Swiss broadcaster RSI and Arte, starring Gaia Messerklinger (Supersex), is based on the real-life theft of a Carravaggio painting in 1980s Palermo that resurfaced in Lake Lugano 40 years later.

Also on the slate is Spanish comedy Milenial Mal, for streamer Filmin, which is written and directed by Lorena Iglesias and is about a 40-year-old woman who pretends to be in her 20s to study at university.

João Maia’s Lisbon-set Broken Spies is a female take on the spy thriller for Portugal’s RTPE and is produced by Ukbar Filmes, behind Netflix hit Turn Of The Tide.

Eldorado, for France’s Arte, is centred on an oil industry scandal, and is produced by The Originals’ Alex Berger, producer of Le Bureau. It is directed by Louis Farge (Culte) and stars Jérémie Renier and Karim Leklou.

Meanwhile, True Colours’ documentary slate includes Valentina Zanella’s Manara, about comic book artist Milo Manara, and fashion industry history Alta Moda, featuring the last interview with Giorgio Armani.

Film sales

These join True Colours’ film slate which includes Suzanna Nichiarelli’s Happy Days (Giorni Felici), an adaptation of a Zuzu graphic novel starring Riccardo Scamarcio and Carlota Gamba; Stefano Grasso’s feature debut Golden Boy starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; Farnoosh Samadi’s Toronto premiere Between Dreams And Hope; and Ludovica Rampoldi’s Brief Affair, which world premieres later this month at Rome Film Festival.

Also on True Colours’ film slate is Francesco Costabile’s Familia, Italy’s candidate for the Academy Awards’ best international feature category.

Both Occhipinti and Gustin-Hollman acknowledge the challenge of competing in the drama series market with the major TV production and distribution groups, such as Banijay, Fremantle and Newen.

Occhipinti said that True Colours was taking the same approach to its TV slate as for its film line-up, looking to represent up-and-coming directors and producers with talent and potential rather than big projects by well-known talent.

Gustin-Hollman used a footballing metaphor to describe the True Colours approach, likening its strategy to looking for the next Messi rather than signing well known stars.

He described True Colours slate as diverse in terms of subject matter and country of origin, with “a little bit of everything” for buyers. “We want to go where the good stories are.”

Despite the challenged TV series market, Gustin-Hollman said broadcasters are still buying. “You have to have the right series and to believe in it, and to know how to sell them.”

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