Fremantle Names New CEOs for The Apartment & Wildside

Annamaria Morelli has been appointed CEO of The Apartment and Sonia Rovai as CEO of Wildside following the departure of former heads Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli, who have signed a co-production agreement with Fremantle.

The Apartment and Wildside will continue to have editorial autonomy and coordinate from an organizational point of view with Fremantle.

Morelli is a film and television producer who began working as a story editor for Rai and continued her career with a long collaboration with Mediaset. Morelli was also a member of the board of directors and head of production for TimVision and was commissioning editor of Killing Eve. In 2019, she left TimVision to dedicate herself to Elsinore Film, an independent company of which she is the founder and CEO.

Rovai began her career collaborating on the creation of entertainment productions for R.T.I. She worked at La7 and at Sky, coordinating the new creative department of the Cinema channels. Since 2016, she has been leading the original series department of Sky Italia and became the managing director for Wildside in October.

Gianani and Mieli, meanwhile, have left their roles as CEOs of Wildside and The Apartment, respectively, and, at the same time, signed a co-production agreement with Fremantle that provides a collaboration on several projects. Among those in production and postproduction are the new film by Paolo Sorrentino, Limonov—The Ballad by Kirill Serebrennikov, Queer by Luca Guadagnino, a new film by Gabriele Mainetti, Maria by Pablo Larraín and the TV series M. The Son of the Century by Joe Wright and Il Mostro by Stefano Sollima.

Andrea Scrosati, group COO and CEO for Continental Europe at Fremantle, said: “I am really happy to continue collaborating with Lorenzo and Mario with this new formula, which guarantees to continue to work together on projects that were born in The Apartment and Wildside under their leadership and vision. After having created dozens of extraordinary projects together over the years, this agreement is the basis for continuing to create many more in the future.”

Scrosati said: “Annamaria Morelli and Sonia Rovai have vision, experience and passion. I am so happy to welcome them to The Apartment and Wildside, two labels that have attracted some of the best talent, both Italian and international. We are and will continue to be the place creatives want to call home. A place where you can express your creativity by experimenting and innovating with freedom and independence, but also with the fundamental support of a global group such as Fremantle. A formula that I am sure will guarantee Morelli and Rovai the conditions to create new great successes.”

Morelli said: “I am so proud and happy to join this prestigious company and be part of the amazing world of the Fremantle group. I am also thrilled to work alongside Andrea Scrosati and the brilliant team I will be collaborating with. We share the same passion for the creation of unforgettable, high-end, inclusive stories and the ambition of taking them to global audiences.”

Rovai said: “Becoming CEO of Wildside is a privilege and a great challenge at the same time. Wildside is synonymous with excellence and professionalism in the world of movie production and is the result of the great work of Mario Gianani, who has trained a group of high-level people and talent. My thanks go to Andrea Scrosati and all of Fremantle for the trust.”

Gianani and Mieli said: “Working with Fremantle for the last fourteen years has been a hugely important, exciting and great adventure. We put all our energy and passion to contribute to making Fremantle a successful hub of innovative and provocative creativity, and we are grateful for the support, freedom and trust Fremantle has given us. This new entrepreneurial adventure fills our desire for new challenges and goals, and we are happy and proud to announce this deal that will allow us to continue producing with Fremantle on extraordinary movies and series as we have done over the years. We want to thank all the hundreds of people we worked with within Fremantle. And a special thanks to Andrea Scrosati, without whom many of our achievements, including this deal, would have never been possible.”