Italian drama event – the Italian Global Series Festival – kicks off this summer with a new awards offering. The IGSF organizers told Deadline they hope winning one of their new accolades will become the Italian equivalent of landing an Emmy. The U.S. has various awards for TV, the UK has the BAFTAs, France has the Césars, Spain the Goyas and so on. With IGSF’s Maximo awards, Italy’s TV folk will have a new chance to get their hands on some awards hardware.
Location and timing are crucial for any festival. The IGSF will be held in Riccione and Rimini in June – two popular summer beachside locales. Its first edition will feature nine world premieres including Italian dramas Alex Bravo, Poliziotto A Modo Suo and Noi Del Rione Sanità from Italy, epic Euro co-production Rise of the Raven, Spanish language drama Los Sin Nombre, and Who Almost Killed Melody? from Canada.
There will be a preview screening of Netflix’s Lena Dunham series Too Much ahead of its launch in July. IGSF will also screen Squid Game Season 3. The new season of the Korean bows on Netflix during the festival.
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The newbie drama event – which is maybe not so new in the sense that is a re-imagined version of the RomaFictionFest that ran for a decade until 2017 – will be public-facing with screenings free to attend.
The festival is backed by Italy’s Association of Audiovisual Producers with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Italian studio Cinecittà. IGSF’s Artistic Director Marco Spagnoli was at Cannes this week with Italian Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, Lucia Borgonzoni, and APA chief Chiara Sbarigia to preview what’s to come.
Spagnoli – a seasoned journalist and critic, said that a key goal with the new festival and its awards is to put Italian drama back on the map.
“If you have something good, you have to show it,” he said in a chat with Deadline at Cannes’ Majestic Hotel. “There are many very good Italian shows but when you think of television, I don’t know if you think about Italy. We produce a lot of television. Some of it is very good, and some of it is very different from what you see elsewhere.”
Maximo Awards
The festival will have competition sections for Italian and international series. The international piece will have 28 series from 21 countries competing across Drama, Comedy and Limited Series sections The Italian competition will have the same three sections plus an added one for TV movies. It will feature specific awards for Best Series, Miniseries, Comedy, Best Director, Best Leading Actress, Best Leading Actor, and Best Screenplay.
Elsewhere, a special section dubbed ‘Extraordinary – Women Portrayed In Series’ will be curated by the Director of the Turin Cinema Museum, and former Berlin Film Festival artistic director, Carlo Chatrian.
Talent including Katheryn Winnick, Clive Standen, Lucy Martin, Alan Gasmer, Polly Walker, Marianna Fontana, and Gaetano Aronica will attend IGSF.
A Light On David Lynch & Fellini
Spagnoli shared some news not in the festival’s official PR yet, in the shape of a Federico Fellini-inspired Twin Peaks piece that will be an homage to David Lynch and the Italian director, one of Rimini’s most famous sons.
“Rimini was the city where Federico Fellini was born and the Fulgor cinema, which we will use, was where he watched films,” Spagnoli said. “It makes sense to pay homage to Fellini and David Lynch by screening the pilot of Twin Peaks.
“I would like to call it ‘The Light Of David Lynch’ because Federico Fellini said: ‘Cinema is turning dreams into light.’” Chatrian and New York Film Festival Director Dennis Lim will intro the event and Spagnoli is hoping to have Lynch collaborators Frederick Elmes (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet) and Peter Deming (Mulholland Drive) in town to join the session.
“The loss of David Lynch was enormous; he was a genius and Twin Peaks was the beginning of a new way of doing television. This is perfect to have this in the city of Federico Fellini and his films, and we needed to pay homage to this beautiful friendship.”
The IGSF director also shared news of a focus on Nordic series, with two episodes of three series playing: Generations out of Denmark; Norwegian crime comedy Piggy; and another Danish series, the restaurant drama series Behind Every Man.
Unlike MIA in Rome later in the year IGSF will not be a market or have a packed schedule of conferences and speakers. There will, however, be two masterclasses, one from Mark Gatiss (Sherlock) whose new series Bookish premieres at the festival. Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) and Sue Vertue will deliver the other screenwriting masterclass. Moffat’s Douglas is Cancelled plays at IGSF.
The festival runs June 21 through 28 June with the Opening Night at the Teatro Galli in Rimini and Closing Night at the Arena del Sole in Riccione.