The Italian region of Puglia, specifically Bari's city, is ready to host the 75th edition of the Prix Italia, the RAI international competition for Radio, Podcast, TV and Digital that will take place from 2 to 6 October 2023 under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic. "We feel we are part of a national project that concerns the whole country and we think that RAI is a fundamental piece to build in every Italian citizen a vision of the future that is even more stable," said Michele Emiliano, President of Puglia region.
The Prix Italia has been chosen as the RAI pilot project for the realisation of sustainable ESG events, with the launch of a process of analysis and monitoring of all processes. "Engage me" is the title chosen, in continuity with "Sustainable Me" of 2022, to emphasise the importance of engagement in the first person with the involvement of different target audiences, territories and insiders, and the greatest possible accessibility. "Engage me, capture the attention, is our daily work in RAI," said Marinella Soldi, Rai Chairwoman, who also referred to the evolution of the event. She mentioned Rai has greatly raised the level and the international ambition of the Prix from the point of view of the panels, for the citizens, for the employees, "including also a panel on how artificial and generative intelligence impacts our work," she detailed. Soldi also said Rai has raised the level of commitment and work with the management. "Bari will be home to many RAI programs this year and there will also be previews," she added. Lastly, Rai has instituted a pilot project to create, for the first time, a sustainable event from an environmental, social and governance point of view. "This is a virtuous path that a contemporary public service has to do," she asserted.
FINALIST PROGRAMMES
27 finalist programmes will compete for the podium. Out of 266 productions submitted to the Competition - three nominations for each of the 9 categories in the official Radio/Podcast, TV and Digital sections – the finalist were chosen by an international jury of 80 professionals from all over the world.
18 broadcasters are represented: from UK (CHANNEL 4, in the final with "I Am Ruth") to Australia (ABC), Czech Republic (ČRO), Denmark (DR), Ireland (RTÉ), Norway (NRK), Poland (TVP), Slovenia (RTVSLO) and Spain (RTVE). In addition to Italian Rai, which received 5 nominations, productions from Switzerland (SRG SSR, with 4 nominations), Netherlands (NPO, 3 nominations), France (ARTE and RADIO FRANCE, with 3 finalist products), Germany (ARD, 2 nominations) and Sweden (SVT, 2 nominations) were also very successful. A significant interest in Asian productions has also been noted, from South Korea (MBC) to Japan (NHK).
The Italian Rai, the South Korean MBC and the Swiss SRG SSR are also among the three finalists of the Prix Italia/Ifad/Copeam Special Prize, which is now in its second edition and aims to create awareness on sustainability issues and food security, increasingly linked to the protection of ecosystems and water resources. During the Award Ceremony, two other special prizes will be presented: the Signis Prize and the Special Prize in Honour of the President of the Italian Republic, whose jurors will select the best product among the 27 finalists.
"This is an important birthday for Prix Italia, it is 75 years old, and it comes at a time of a very particular challenge for our industry," affirmed Walter Iuzzolino, Prix Italia 2023 President. "The last decade has been of enormous challenge. The arrival of the streamers has completely overturned our ecosystem, with huge capital, predominantly American, which have often put us in crisis," he admitted. "We have all read 2,000 times the epitaph of television or the public television service, yet this has not happened, because in the last decade, broadcasters from all over the world have come together with an extraordinary humility and possibility to find a place of existence in the ecosystem of the streamer", he illustrated, and "this is the year when everything has changed, because it is a year in which austerity is the new word of order, in which streamers are limiting or cutting investments, reconfiguring the staff, reconfiguring the offer from a content point of view. And so this is a very important opportunity for the public television service to remind itself and the world that the virtue of the public television service is precisely that of having been able to operate and survive in very complex market conditions," he concluded.
MEETINGS
The 75th Prix Italia will also be an opportunity for discussion and debate on the themes of sustainability and the global audiovisual industry. “Going Green: Mission possible. An ecological transition for Cinema and TV” is the title of the debate on 3 October with Giuseppe Abbamonte, Director for Media Policies at the European Commission; Nathalie Bobineau, Directrice du développement international chez France Télévisions; Linnea Merzagora, Project Manager, Green Film - Trentino Film Commission; Micol Rigo, Vice-Director Rai Per la Sostenibilità - ESG; Anna Maria Tosto, President Apulia Film Commission.
In the meeting entitled “Co-Financing: more with less, together. High quality productions in the age of austerity” will be the discussion between Manuel Alduy, Directeur du Cinéma et des Fictions Numériques et Internationales, France Télévisions; Claudio Cappon, Secretary General, COPEAM; Carlo Dusi, Executive Producer, Strategy Director, ENDOR Productions; Michele Zatta, Head of International Coproductions, Rai Fiction.
The profound impact that the use of new technologies increasingly linked to artificial intelligence will be the focus of the panel scheduled for 5 October entitled “Generative AI: fact or fake?” with the participation of Marinella Soldi, RAI President; David Caswell, Founder, Storyflow Ltd / Executive Production Manager, BBC Labs; Ewelina Jelenkowska, Deputy Director Policy Strategy & Outreach, Head of Communication, DG CONNECT, European Commission; Antonio Arcidiacono, Director of Technology & Innovation, EBU; Aki Kekäläinen, Head of Democracy and Digitalization, Yle News Lab; Pere Vila I Fumás, Director of Technology Strategy, RTVE; Gino Alberico, RAI, Research, Innovation and Technology Director.
For more than ten years a reference event for the Prix Broadcaster Community, this year's BBC Lecture will attempt to compare the experience of broadcasters and platforms on the theme of Drama ina market of profound investment crisis. “The Bursting of the Bubble - Programming excellence ina post-boom era is the title of the Face to Face that will see Charlotte Moore, BBC Chief Content Officer, and Prix Italia 2023 President Walter Iuzzolino confront each other.
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