The 9th edition of MIA (Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo), directed by Gaia Tridente ended yesterday. The audio-visual industry event took place from 9th to 13th October in Rome at Palazzo Barberini, Cinema Barberini, and on the MIA Digital platform. At one of the panels, Netflix Italy said it would be looking for content beyond the Italian stereotypes.
Attendance at MIA increased compared to the 2022 edition, with 2,600 participants from 66 countries around the world (+10% more countries than in 2022).
On Thursday 12th October, there was a talk titled, ´Netflix, the craft of European storytelling: A spotlight on Italy, Spain and the Nordics.
Netflix VP content for Italy Eleonora ‘Tinny’ Andreatta said she is looking for content that goes beyond the stereotypes about the country that were formed by the success of Italian cinema in the 1960s.
“The biggest challenge we have nowadays is to overcome the big success that Italy had in the 1960s that created some stereotypes about our country. It was so huge,” Andreatta said on a panel at MIA Market in Rome.
“Now the ambition is to relaunch a more modern, more actual, more true, more out of stereotype image of Italy.”
Netflix portraying change in Italian society
Andreatta said Netflix likes “to tell stories through the point of view of the younger generation” and that it is ”creating an image of women that is modern, complex, complicated – with women that not only desire to please every time.”
She also said she wanted to portray Italian society as it is changing, looking at “families of blood, but especially the family you choose, the family you want for yourself.”
Furthermore, Netflix Italy is looking for shows about people who are bigger than life, citing upcoming shows such as Matilda de Angelis’s The Law According to Lidia Poët; Supersex about Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, and music doc Vasco Rossi: Living It. She also pointed to Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of the classic novel The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
“We want to create stories that are really rooted in our culture, in our country and our traditions. And we want to create authentic stories that can speak first for all to our audience at a local level, also through dubs and subs to arrive to the rest of the world.”
Andreatta said it was important to recognise the regional differences within Italy in its storytelling – citing The Leopard as being set in Sicily and Lidia Poët being set in Turin.
