Organizers of the 11th MIA | Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo, taking place in Rome from October 6-10, have unveiled this year’s programming lineup, with several animation-focused channels to pursue.
The market will present more than 80 events including panels, conferences, research presentations, seminars, workshops and training sessions, keynote speeches and round tables, as well as networking opportunities, alongside film screenings. Five showcases will feature 44 titles spanning Animation, Documentaries, Television Formats, TV series and Films, adding to the 62 projects in the co-production market for a total of over 100 projects presented at MIA 2025.
Promoted by ANICA (Italian Association of Film, Audiovisual and Digital Industries), chaired by Alessandro Usai and APA (Italian Audiovisual Producers Association), chaired by Chiara Sbarigia and directed by Gaia Tridente, MIA 2025 presents a rich and diverse program, with participation from leading professionals and major companies in the international audiovisual sector, along with official delegations from Latin American countries (including Cuba), as well as from Sweden and Canada.
The Animation Division, curated by Carla Vulpiani, Head of Animation Co-production & AnyShow, and Federica Pazzano, Conference Programming Lead Animation Division, brings together leading international professionals to examine the current landscape and future outlook of the industry. The section features a range of talks and roundtables, alongside the global showcase AnyShow, completing the line-up of events dedicated to animation, together with the already announced line up of participants of the Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum and the MIA B2B Exchange | CEE Animation Lab.
The Animation program shines a spotlight on urgent issues reshaping the sector, addressing the challenges faced by key industry players. Its talks will explore critical aspects of the industry, from data-driven, audience-centered storytelling to television programming, digital distribution, market volatility and the indispensable role of public broadcasters in European co-productions.
For the first time at MIA, a panel dedicated to children’s content in public service broadcasting will showcase the outcomes of a joint effort by leading European broadcasters, who will gather at MIA for a closed-door summit. In this open session, commissioners Patricia Hidalgo (BBC), Pierre Siracusa (France Télévisions), Roberto Genovesi (RAI), Yago Fandiño (RTVE) and Patricia Vasapollo (HR/ARD) will share their editorial priorities, case studies and perspectives on co-development and co-production in animation and kids’ programming. The panel will highlight concrete tools to foster the circulation of original content across Europe.
In the panel Turning Crisis into Opportunity, Nicolas Edmery of the European Audiovisual Observatory will present an analysis of theatrical data, providing the starting point for a conversation on funding strategies in today’s landscape. Philippe Alessandri (Watch Next Media), Barbara Tonelli (Coficiné) and Maria Carolina Terzi (MAD Entertainment) will join the discussion.
Brands take center stage in the two-part panel The Brand Experience. In the first part, Maura Regan (President, Licensing International) will introduce the “licensing-first” approach, illustrating how IP with local roots can expand globally through synergies between storytelling, publishing and audiovisual media. Enrico Racca (Mondadori Libri), Francesco Manfio (Gruppo Alcuni) and Mikael Shields (Acamar Films) will join the discussion. The second part, Intergenerational IPs Across Media, will focus on the longevity of franchises and their evolution over time: Helene Juguet (Ubisoft Film & TV Paris) will present the cross-media journey of gaming-born IPs, while Iginio Straffi (Rainbow Group) will recount twenty years of global success with Winx Club, and Diego Ibáñez Belaustegui (DeAPlaneta) will analyze the history of half-century-old properties such as Heidi and Maya the Bee.
The BBC’s multi-platform editorial and distribution strategy will take center stage in the keynote by Anna Taganov, Head of Children’s Content & Programming Strategy, within the panel Building IP Visibility in the Digital Space.
Technological transformations will be in the spotlight in The Artist’s POV on Technological Innovation, which repositions the role of the artist at the heart of technological change. Among the speakers: visionary director Theodor Ushev and Italian artist Lorenzo Ceccotti.
The audience takes center stage in the panel Engaging Audiences Today: Data-Driven Storytelling in a Fragmented Market, which will open with an exclusive study on audience behavior conducted by Ampere Analysis, followed by a conversation on narrative strategies that effectively reach viewers. Speakers include the American director and concept designer Andrew Leung, who has created artwork for major Disney and Marvel productions including The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming, as well as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and La La Land.
AnyShow is MIA’s international showcase dedicated to animated content nearing completion and scheduled for release from the second half of 2025 onwards, seeking sales and distribution opportunities. This exclusive presentation and pitching event features high-quality animated formats designed for television, digital and theatrical distribution, across all genres and for audiences of all kinds.
Among the 11 selected projects is The Great Dreamscape (France, Belgium), a TV special, one-off television format for ages 6 to 9, directed by Rémi Durin, produced by Nicolas Schmerkin, Autour de Minuit, and co-produced by Kawassa Film. The special centers on Andrea, who is supposed to play the Blue Bird in the school play, but overcome by stage fright, she runs backstage and finds refuge in a golden palace thanks to a magical cloak. Bizarre friends and a special bird help her overcome her fear and return to the stage.
Four Italian projects were selected, two targeting adults and two for children. The feature film Hope. An (Almost) Gypsy Fairytale (Italy, U.S.A.), written and directed by Monica Manganelli and produced by Paolo Artoni (Qreactive, Q&Q Group), retraces family history through the memories of Hope, a Romani girl who became blind due to Nazi experiments, and her father Grigo, up to their arrival in the concentration camps.
The web series Theorized: Season #1 Race Historicized (Italy, Qatar, U.K.), directed by Midiaou Diallo, Héloïse Dorsan-Ratchet, Williams Zouzou, Stefano Sottile and Pierangelo Pirak (Pomona Pictures), who also serves as producer, together with author Marcela Pizarro (Goldsmiths), features the pilot episode “Race Historicized: Epistemologies of Color,” exploring and telling the stories of anti-racist and anti-colonial thinkers W.E.B. Du Bois, Aimé Césaire, Sylvia Wynter and Frantz Fanon, produced for Al Jazeera Media.
For the whole family, the edutainment TV series The Recipes of Arthur & Kiwi – The Italian Cuisine (Italy), created by Andrea Zingoni (T-Rex Digimation) with Vernante Pallotti (Gastonia Motion), follows the dog Arthur and his feathered assistant Kiwi as they explain regional Italian recipes with humor, promoting a healthy eating lifestyle.
For the youngest viewers, the adventures of two seahorses are featured in Nip & Lena – Fin Friends (India, Ireland, Italy), directed by Enrico Paolantonio, produced by Evelina Poggi and Sabrina Callipari (Lynx Multimedia Factory), and co-produced by Telegael and DigiToonz.
International TV series include Fizzy and Suds (Australia), where two effervescent bubbles take children on a journey of discovery, exploring new passions in each episode. The series is written and directed by Gemma Lee, Michelle Lehman, Rebecca O’Brien, Kimberly Melville and Ramana Dienes-Browning, and produced by Sam Griffin, Nicole Sullivan, Kim Steblina and Chris Hilton (Tilt Media) for ABC Network. Hidden Islands (Denmark), directed by Peter Egeberg and produced by Sarita Christensen (OYA Copenhagen), tells the story of three children who uncover a secret on a mysterious island that could save the world. The epic sci-fi Star Raider (France), by Morade Rahni and produced by Reginald De Guillebon (Les Armateurs), follows an art thief returning to action in the space city of Confluence, where no one knows that behind the mask is Oskar, a 13-year-old student. The historical-satirical comedy Roman Pigeons (Italy, Israel), produced by Alexander Boyarskiy (Polydont Films) and directed by Konstantin Bronzit, reimagines the history of the Roman Empire as we know it, narrating the deeds and exploits of its true founders: the Roman pigeons.
Two Canadian feature films conclude the 2025 AnyShow selection. Lydia and the Mist Rider (Canada), directed by Emilie Rosas, Philippe Arseneau Bussières and Nancy Florence Savard, who also serves as producer (10e Ave Production), and presented by Attraction Distribution, tells the story of 11-year-old Lydia, who searches for her brother Thaddeus after he is kidnapped by the Enchanter in the Misty Sea. From the 2024 MIA Co-Production Forum selection comes Parts of a Bigger Story (Canada, France), directed by Chrystelle Maechler and Sasha McIntyre, and produced by Maechler (CMaechler Productions), Daniela Mujica (Productions Ocho) and Sébastien Onomo (Special Touch Studio). In each sequence of this hand-animated docu-fiction, scenes of everyday life reveal the stories of ordinary people who were once refugees, using seemingly ordinary moments to enter their personal epics.
Visitors can also catch in the International Factual Forum a project titled Marco Polo’s Adventures, produced by L&C S.r.l. and created by Attilio Aleotti and Luca Di Cecca (Italy), which follows children from across the Silk Road as they retrace the legendary journey of Marco Polo, discovering monuments, markets, and traditions through their eyes. Animation brings the story to life, weaving episodes from Il Milione into a lively and contemporary exploration.
There will also be a special panel presentation dubbed AnImpact: A Common European Approach to Sustainable Animation. As the animation industry embraces its environmental responsibilities, an international working group — led by Green Film, Ecoprod and CineRegio — is collaborating to develop a common sustainability certification tailored to the animation industry. This panel will present the progress of this initiative, explore the unique challenges of sustainable animation production, and share some practical tips to reduce the environmental impact of an animation project. Speakers are Linnea Merzagora (Green Film – Trentino Film Commission), Adrien Roche (Ecoprod International Manager), Pedro Citaristi (Red Monk, board of Cartoon Italia) and Valentína Hučková (Sustainability Manager, CEE Animation).
This year, for the first time, MIA hosts an exclusive summit titled The Children’s Pubcasters Meeting, dedicated to animation and youth production within Europe’s public service broadcasting. This meeting provides a strategic closed-door forum aimed at identifying shared editorial priorities, fostering co-development opportunities and strengthening alignment across territories. Key figures include Patricia Hidalgo, Director of Children & Education at the BBC (United Kingdom),one of Europe’s leading broadcasters with a strong leadership in kids & education content; Patricia Vasapollo, Director of Family and Fiction at the German public broadcaster HR/ARD (Germany); Pierre Siracusa, Director of Animation, Children & Youth Department at France Télévisions (France), the reference broadcaster for French animation and children’s programming; Yago Fandiño, Head of Children’s Content and Director of Clan TV, the kids’ channel dedicated to preschool and school-age audiences of Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE (Spain); and Roberto Genovesi, the newly appointed Director of Rai Kids (Italy), the division that oversees RAI’s animation and children’s content offer and strategy. Following this, an open roundtable will offer the public an exclusive insight into the projects discussed and the potential synergies to foster the circulation of original content at the European level.
For the second year, MIA celebrates excellence in the audiovisual industry with the MIA Development Awards, which honor the best projects across the four categories of the Co-Production Market: Animation, Documentary, Drama and Film. Four juries, composed of industry experts, will evaluate the projects and award four cash prizes. The winners will be announced during the MIA Awards Ceremony, to be held in Rome on October 10. These awards reaffirm MIA’s commitment to supporting creativity, talent, and the international development of high-quality audiovisual content.
MIA, in collaboration with Women in Film, Television & Media Italy (WIFTMI), hosts the third edition of the WIFTMI AWARD, presented to an Italian scripted project selected from the Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum across the Animation, Drama, and Film divisions. The award — an editorial consultancy — will be granted to the project with the highest potential for realization, based on criteria related to gender equality, positive representation, balanced representation, diversity and inclusion.
The full program of MIA 2025 is available on the website www.miamarket.it.
