The second Audio-Visual Producers (AVP) Summit ended last Friday after three days of panels and discussions tackling topics from the use of artificial intelligence to innovative methods to get indie production projects financed and off the ground, the production of series and films for a global audience, the effects of the platforms on product quality, the difficulties faced by Italian producers in the US.
The AVP Summit was organized by Cinecittà for the General Direction Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture (DGCA-MiC) in association with the Italian association of audiovisual producers (APA) and with the support of the Ministry of Culture (MiC), the Italian Trade Agency (ITA), the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Promo Turismo FVG (the agency that promotes the northeastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia as a tourist destination), and the FVG Film Commission. Partners included the Motion Picture Association, the Producers Guild of America, the French National Center of Cinema (CNC), and Unifrance.
Italy’s Undersecretary of Culture Lucia Borgonzoni commented on the importance of the AVP Summit for the Italian film and audiovisual industry and said a stronger audiovisual industry would make Italy more competitive. “This is the way forward,” she said.
That the AVP Summit would be interesting was immediately clear at the kick-off panel on “The Producer’s Role” at Trieste’s beautiful Miramar Castle last Wednesday.
The panel, moderated by Cattleya founder Riccardo Tozzi, saw the heavy weight participation of Eliseo Multimedia founder and artistic director Luca Barbareschi, Bona Fide Productions’ Albert Berger, LUX Vide CEO Luca Bernabei, Mediawan CEO Elisabeth d’Arvieu Bessiere, and The Walt Disney Company Italia country manager Daniel Frigo.
At the panel, Barbareschi vented his frustration with the difficulties faced by Italian producers in the US while, he said, American producers were being given the “red-carpet treatment” in Italy. He blamed what he defined “a socialist law from the Seventies,” and claimed the Italians undersell “what good we have” to the Americans.
Barbareschi also blamed the frequent changes of government in Italy and said the industry should be helping indies with tax credits and such, instead of concentrating on the big players. He said he found it hard to explain to the Americans that politics play a major role in Italy. “Certain governments,” he said, “have always favored certain producers, regardless of merit, thus lowering the quality of the output.”
Rai Cinema CEO Paolo Del Brocco, on the other hand, highlighted the loss of quality on the platforms, saying that their original productions were “on the average ugly. The characters lack depth and so do the stories, but that’s understandable. As Nanni Moretti put it, they have to talk to 190 countries so they end up having to standardize taste.”
Berger pointed out the problems faced by “artful films,” thanks to “dismal” marketing and a lack of opportunity to be screened in cinemas. “Possible solutions,” he said, “would be to have more local cinemas geared toward local film fans as well as more international partnerships.”
Frigo disagreed, saying “the marketing is as good as it has ever been and suggested that the culprit may be in the fact that there is too much competition.”
Valhalla Entertainment founder Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) lamented the lack both of access to international films for most consumers and of co-production agreements between the U.S. and European countries, forcing many producers to look for partnerships in the UK and Canada.
In another panel, Media Res International’s Lars Blomgren, Cattleya CEO Marco Chimenz, Amplify Pictures CCO Rachel Eggebeen, France Télévisions Mourad Koufane, CAA Media France’s Benjamin Kramer, and Palomar CEO Nicola Serra discussed with MIA Director Gaia Tridente the new financing models to get projects off the ground.
Amplify’s Eggebeen said her company’s plan was to “fully indie finance” using the Amplify model of “enhanced acquisitions” – in other words, fully finance, develop, and approve a project for production before offering it for sale – and some combination of pre-sales. She said, “The goal is to get things made quickly, innovatively, and in a way that we have agency of how they get made.”
Chimenz pointed out how the streamers have become more cautious in spending, opening up the possibility for the producers to retain the rights. He said this was a very desirable development as it will allow the production companies to achieve long-term growth.
Another positive development that has come out of this, Chimenz said, is the revival of the distributors, which had recently been seen as belonging to the past, but now “look like they are part of the present and the future.”
At the Spotlight On Amazon event, Prime Video’s head of scripted, Davide Nardini, pointed out a possible, unintentional outcome of a protracted SAG-AFTRA strike in Hollywood: new opportunities for international talent that would move in to fill the void. Nardini was quick to add, however, that he was merely pointing out a possibility and that Amazon was in no way planning to change its strategy.
“What Amazon has changed in Italy is its editorial line, moving away from scripted shows for specific audiences to shows with a wider appeal,” Nardini added.
At Spotlight on Mediaset, Italy’s main commercial broadcaster Mediaset’s head of drama, Daniele Cesarano, said that the broadcaster had been working diligently since 2016 to bring back Mediaset to its central position in the Italian audiovisual industry. In doing so, he said, “Mediaset had experimented with both mainstream and “edgy” offerings, but the latter did not work out as expected.”
Cesarano said Mediaset viewers were “fundamentally conservative” and although a third of the broadcaster’s earlier output had been edgy and experimental, its lack of success had dictated a return to more mainstream productions, which was the “more rational choice, although in recent years TV production everywhere has gone back to being cast-oriented and plots have ceased being innovative.”
The American Producers present lamented on and off stage of being ”squeezed” by the streamers and the inability to own the Rights to their own productions. The contrast between the more optimistic Europeans and the pessimism of the American producers permeated all the panels.
On the final night of the AVP Summit, MAXIMO Awards were handed out to Italian audio-visual productions for TV and for streamer distribution between January 2022 and April 2023. The winners were:
• Best Producer: Roberto Sessa, CEO Picomedia for the series “Mare Fuon”
• Best Series: “La Legge di Lidia Poet” directed by Matteo Rovere and Letizia Lamartire and produced by Groenlandia
• Best Film: “Era Ora” directed by Alessandro Aronadio and coproduced by Bim Distribuzione, Palomar, and Vision Distribution
• Best Actor: Piero Paolo Spollon for the series “Doc” produced by Rai and “Che Dio Ci Aiuti” produced by Lux Vide
• Best Actress: Elena Sofia Ricci for the series “I Fiori Sopra l’Inferno – I Casi di Teresa Battaglia” coproduced by Publispei and Rai Fiction
• Best Director: joint winners Stefano Lodovichi for the series “Christian” coproduced by Sky, Lucky Red and Newton Connect, and Elisa Amoruso and Julian Jarrold for the Disney+ series “The Good Mothers” produced by Wildside and House Productions
• Best Creator: joint winners Andrea Di Stefano for “Bang, Bang Baby”, an Amazon Original produced by Fremantle’s The Apartment and Wildside, and Elena Bucaccio for Mediaset series “Buongiorno, Mamma!” produced by Lux Vide
• Excellence Friuli-Venezia Giulia: FastFilm CEO Maurizio Tini, producer of the popular series “Porta Rossa” coproduced by Rai Fiction and Garbo Produzioni
— By Caren Davidkhanian
