Italian Global Series Festival Slated for June

The Associazione Produttori Audiovisivi (APA) has organized the inaugural Italian Global Series Festival in partnership with the Italian Ministry of Culture and SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) and curated by film and TV critic Marco Spagnoli.

The event received its official launch today at the headquarters of the Foreign Press Association in Rome, Italy.

The Italian Global Series Festival (IGSF) is an updated incarnation of the Roma Fiction Festival, which ran annually for ten years from 2007 to 2016.

The first edition of IGSF will take place from June 21 to 28 in Riccione (at the Pala Riccione and Multiplex Cine Palace) and Rimini (at the Cinema Fulgor, Teatro Galli and Corte degli Agostiniani), with an aim to promote and celebrate the production of Italian and international series, their artistic quality and capacity to entertain.

Italian and international series will be screened across four competitive sections at IGSF: drama, comedy, limited series and TV movies. The titles will be eligible for the “Maximo Awards” as best series, best leading actor and actress, best creator and/or director, voted for via a jury of industry professionals. A special “Italian Fiction” award will be bestowed on a title of Italian origin distributed in Italy between June 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025. The National Union of Film Journalists will also award a Special Nastro D’argento to a major international co-production present at the festival.

The event will feature a series of keynotes and master classes with Italian and international talent, “first looks” at new series in production will be presented by attending cast and creatives. President of the David di Donatello Awards, Piera Detassis, and the president of the National Union of Film Journalists, Laura Delli Colli, will also moderate conversations with attending talent.

Already lined up are Palme d’Or-winning and Emmy-nominated director Bille August (The Count of Monte Cristo), director and screenwriter Cristina Comencini (Don’t Tell, When the Night) and multi-award-winning director/writer Paolo Genovese (Perfect Strangers).

“I am grateful to the Ministry of Culture (MiC) and the Audiovisual Producers Association (APA) for the honor of being able to return to work, this time in person, on the ‘reincarnation’ of the Roma Fiction Fest,” commented the artistic director of IGSF, Marco Spagnoli. “This festival represented a unique event in the history of Italian audiovisual and today returns with a dual mission: on the one hand, to promote Italian production in a very diversified international context; on the other hand, to recognize the talents and excellences of our country, with particular attention to the protection of the current Star System and the commitment to building the future one. IGSF aims to soon become a point of reference and a meeting place for the national and international industry in the name of the stories, talent and audiovisual productions that have always represented Italian excellence.”