MIA DOC, a section of the MIA International Audiovisual Market (October 14th-18th 2020) and GZ DOC, the most prestigious documentary Festival of the People’s Republic of China are confirmed for the second consecutive year of their partnership that translates in a close and fruitful collaboration, starting from the respective next editions of October and December.
The Mia Doc Pitching Forum and Italians Doc It Better, the selection of the best Italian documentaries curated by the team led by Marco Spagnoli, continue to be the basis for the pre-selection of the titles made by Italian industry present in China during the Festival next December. A documentary project pre-selected by GZ DOC will, however, be previewed at the MIA DOC Pitching Forum. The title will be revealed in September, but great interest can already be expected, after the considerable response of the market to last year’s film "The Sound of the Camel Bell" by Liu Yingzhi, which has fully benefited from the wide audience of buyers and commissioning editors interested in purchasing and distributing the film in their respective countries.
“We are happy that this agreement continues and intensifies at such a delicate moment for the international industry,” explains Roberto Stabile, head of the Anica Internationalization Office and the China Project of DG Cinema of the Mibact, and ICE. “It is a program that has been developed in the context of the work we are carrying out with the DG Cinema of Mibact and the ICE, in close collaboration with the Chinese institutions. The goal is to have Italian products increasingly suited to international challenges, fundamental for the revitalization of the national economy and for which the audiovisual sector can play a leading role".
“We appreciate the documentaries created by Italian directors and producers who have been able to capture the interest of the Chinese audience. We wish to collaborate with Italian companies to co-produce stories from the two cultures addressed to the international market. We would also like to present Chinese documentaries in Italy together with their talented authors to the public and to our Italian colleagues. I firmly believe that collaboration with MIA DOC can help achieve these goals and encourage mutual exchange between the documentary communities of the two countries.” explains Jun Liu, Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of GZDOC.
“We are happy to be able to return to work with our Chinese friends in a crucial year for MIA” commented Lucia Milazzotto, Director of MIA MARKET “Thanks to the strategic support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the Italian Trade Agency (ICE), despite the complexities of the international situation, MIA was able to continue to build fruitful international partnerships for all sections and, in particular, this with Guangzhou continues the work to strengthen the role of Rome and MIA DOC as the productive hub of the documentary on the international market, significantly helping Italian documentaries."
In the last twelve months, Mia Doc, besides being one of the founding members of the newly formed Documentary Association of Europe (DAE), has created fruitful partnerships with Hot Docs in Canada, Guanghzou in China, Docs Barcelona in Spain, Sunny Side of the Doc in France and DOK Leipzig in Germany.