A splashy Italian TV festival celebrating local and international series has been unveiled this morning with some firepower.
The Italian Global Series Festival (IGSF) will take place in Riccione and Rimini in northern Italy from June 21 to 28, with details revealed at a Rome press conference in the past few minutes by artistic director Marco Spagnoli.
The IGSF is described as an “updated incarnation” of the now-defunct Roma Fiction Festival, which ended after a decade in 2016. It has been given the status of High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, according to the organizers.
The fest’s jury will feature two-time Palme d’Or winner Bille August along with director and screenwriter Cristina Comencini (Don’t Tell, When the Night) and multi award-winning director/writer Paolo Genovese (Perfect Strangers). They will judge Italian and international series screened across Drama, Comedy, Limited Series and TV Movies. These titles will all be eligible for Best Series, Best Leading Actor and Actress, and Best Creator and/or Director at the new Maximo Awards. A special Italian Fiction award will also be given to a local show distributed in Italy between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025. The National Union of Film Journalists will award a Special Nastro D’argento to a major international co-production present at the festival.
The first recipients of the fest’s Maximo Excellence Awards include Evangeline Lilly, who is being recognized for her work on Lost, Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh and Godmother’s Elena Sofia Ricci. The other winners are Carlo Verdone, who, with Vita da Carlo, will be lauded for his decades-spanning comedic work, along with electronic music pioneer Giorgio Moroder.
In addition to keynotes and master classes with Italian and international talent, first-looks of new series 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 moderate conversations with talent.
Spagnoli said the festival has a dual mission: “to promote Italian production in a very diversified international context” and “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.”
“I am grateful to the Ministry of Culture and the Audiovisual Producers Association for the honor of being able to return to work, this time in person, on the ‘reincarnation’ of the Roma Fiction Fest”, added Spagnoli. “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”.
The fest comes in a rapidly expanding and changing TV markets landscape, which has very much become a year-round business. Last year, Seriesly Berlin launched in Germany, while the decades-long MIP TV moved to London and the London TV Screenings grew in stature once again.
