The Film Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum 2026 brings 22 projects in development to the attention of the international film industry, with 18 titles selected for the Film Co-Production Market and 4 for the Wanna Taste IT? section.
The authors and producers will present their projects to MIA accredited professionals during a pitching session to be held on Tuesday, October 20 at 9:30 a.m. at the Westin Excelsior Hotel.
One-on-one meetings will take place starting Tuesday afternoon and throughout the following market days. Please contact us at filmcopro@miamarket.it to book your meetings!
This year’s selection brings together different geographies, cultures and cinematic traditions, with projects from 15 countries, spanning Sudan and Turkey, Europe, Brazil and Canada, and a significant presence of animation, with 6 selected projects. The selection also places a strong focus on emerging voices in cinema: more than half of the selected titles are first or second features, confirming MIA’s vocation as a platform for discovering and championing emerging talent.
The projects were evaluated and selected by an international committee comprising Robert Aaronson, Executive Vice President, Cohen Media Group (USA); Bettina Brokemper, Founder & Producer, Heimatfilm (Germany); Elodie Mellado de la Cruz, Acquisitions, Filmin (Spain); Noëmie Devide, Head of Acquisitions / Co-productions, Goodfellas (France); Ron Dyens, Producer, Sacrebleu Productions (France); Hans Everaert, Founder & Producer, Menuetto Film (Belgium); Miyuki Fukuma, Producer, Bunbuku (Japan); Alexis Hofmann, Producer, Asphalt Jungle (France); Emir Külal Haznevi, CEO, Saudade Ink (Turkey); Nathalie Jeung, Head of Sales, Kinology (France); Caroline Ljungberg, Creative Development Executive and Producer (Sweden); Jenny Luukkonen, Executive co-productions Talent & Documentary, Film i Väst (Sweden); Emily Morgan, Founder & Producer, Quiddity Films (UK); Emmanuel Pisarra, Head of Acquisitions, mk2 (France); Delphine Tomson, Producer, Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium); Agnieszka Wasiak, Founder & Producer, Lava Film (Poland).
From Sudan comes About Love & September Laws / عن الحب و قوانين سبتمبر by Mohamed Kordofani (produced by Klozium Studios), who returns behind the camera after Goodbye Julia, his debut feature presented in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2023. The project follows an African-American journalist who, in Khartoum in 1983, becomes caught up in a love triangle and in the tensions of a country marked by the imposition of Sharia law. A story of love, freedom and sacrifice on the eve of a historic turning point.
Adem and the Others / Adem Ve Diğerleri (Turkey) by Onur Saylak is produced by Ay Yapim and Liman Film, the latter one of the leading companies in contemporary Turkish arthouse cinema and co-producer of İlker Çatak’s Yellow Letters, winner of the Golden Bear at the 2026 Berlinale. Set in the winter of 1996, the story begins with the discovery of a murdered man in a remote mountain village, drawing a young shepherd into a story of fear, revenge and buried truths.
Grief and the obsessive need to understand those we love are at the heart of After the Night / La vita dopo la notte (Italy, France) by Luca Maria Piccolo, produced by Movimento Film and FILMO2. Ettore, a night-bus driver, loses his twenty-year-old son Cristian to a chemsex-related overdose. Unable to accept his death, he tries to reconstruct the young man’s secret life: as he moves ever closer to the world that swallowed his son, his search for the truth turns into obsession and ultimately a desire for revenge.
Blue Souvenir (Italy) by Alain Parroni, produced by Alcor and Fandango, marks the director’s return after An Endless Sunday, his debut feature presented in the Orizzonti section at Venice in 2023, where it won the Special Jury Prize. Written by the D’Innocenzo brothers, the film follows a couple travelling across Italy, forced to live between hotels and temporary apartments while their home is being renovated. The journey becomes an emotional map of their relationship and a reflection on what it means to build a life together.
Set in Breslau in 1908, The Case of E.E. (Poland) by Olga Chajdas, produced by LOOKS Warsaw, is based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. At its centre is fourteen-year-old Erna Eltzner, who discovers that she can communicate with the dead and soon becomes the object of the interest and manipulation of the adults around her. A journey that will lead her to reclaim her own voice and destiny.
Goda (Spain, produced by Elastica Films) marks the feature debut of screenwriter, actress and illustrator Katia Klein. In the 1990s, ten-year-old Penélope arrives on the island of Lanzarote to meet the father who abandoned her and his new family. It is in her father’s wife that the girl will find an unexpected ally.
Guardian by Marcelo Brennand (Brazil, produced by Biônica Filmes and Zéfiro Filmes) blends action, suspense and magical realism against the backdrop of the Brazilian Amazon. During a sport-fishing trip on the Rio Negro, the mysterious disappearance of an American influencer ignites tensions between the wealthy tourists and the local crew, in a genre film that explores class conflict, power relations and the exploitation of the territory.
In Little Girl Blues (Malta, Germany) by Chris Zarb, produced by Dragonfly Films and Bonum Films, grief is seen through the eyes of young Mimo, a Japanese-Maltese girl who sets off alone for Gozo, convinced she will find the dog her mother told her had been sent to live on the island. Encounters with local people and their own stories of loss gradually guide her towards the truth.
The Lost Sons of Nada by Kyran Davies and Scott Quinn (Finland, UK, produced by Poolboy and Falcon Nest Film) is a surreal and irreverent blend of comedy, coming-of-age, Nordic folklore and satire on power dynamics. Three brothers, raised in a sect on a remote island in the Finnish archipelago, escape on the eve of a deadly ritual and encounter the outside world for the first time, on a journey that challenges everything they have always believed.
Näcken (France, produced by Master Movies) is directed by Adrien Beau, whose The Vourdalak screened in competition at Venice International Film Critics’ Week in 2023. Continuing his distinctive exploration of the fantastic and the mythological, Beau sets in 1919 the encounter between an unscrupulous phonographist and the Næcken, a mysterious water spirit from Scandinavian tradition endowed with extraordinary musical talent.
Surface Tension / Yüzey Gerilimi by Hikmet Kerem Özcan (Turkey, produced by AZ Celtic Films and Nefes Films) is the second feature from the director of Hakkı, a debut that enjoyed a significant international festival run. Blending coming-of-age and sports drama, the film follows Nare, a nineteen-year-old freediver who sees the national championship as her chance to leave her Aegean hometown behind, until an unexpected pregnancy calls everything into question. Diving becomes a metaphor for her search for freedom and self-determination.
The Village In The Woods / Tο Χωριό by Alexandros Chantzis (Greece, produced by Rflx and Boo Productions) is a drama inspired by true events that pushes the dynamics of a survival reality show to their extremes. After twelve months of isolation in a coastal forest, for the three remaining contestants the line between competition, survival and violence begins to dissolve.
Completing the panorama of the 2026 selection, 6 exceptional animated-feature projects from different cultures, landscapes and periods come together to form a powerful mosaic of memory, identity and transformation, recounting the profound bond that connects us to the world around us.
Each of these films begins with a disruption – a moment where reality fractures and a journey of survival and self-discovery must begin. In Malica by Ismael García Moreno and Pere Migó Aran (Spain, produced by Mago Production), a woman dives into the depths of the Mediterranean and its ancient folklore to process grief and find herself anew after her partner vanishes at sea.
This journey across dark waters finds a vivid parallel in The March of the Sunflowers / A Marcha Dos Girassóis by Erick Ricco (Brazil, France, Portugal, produced by Studio Tubz/Cup Filmes, Autour de Minuit, Spamflix), where a young girl in the Brazilian Sertão traverses an endless night to wake the Sun after its morning call is silenced – a tactile, handmade fable blending stop-motion and puppetry to light up the darkness.
Yet, the darkness we face is often rooted in human history and inherited trauma. Maryam & Varto by Gorune Aprikian and Luciano Lepinay (France, Armenia, produced by Tchack, Araprod, Bright Lighht Films, OnOff Studio) bridges generations and borders, tracing an odyssey of empathy during the turmoil of 1915 Anatolia that echoes into a present-day journey of memory and reconciliation from Istanbul to Paris.
A harsher, more intimate side of survival unfolds in Mancera by Khris Cembe (Spain, France, Portugal, produced by WKND, Dos Soles, Bígaro Films, Capitán Araña, Les Films de l’Autre Cougar, Cola Animation), an intense adult 2D drama set in an isolated post-war village, where a mother and son forge a silent pact to break free from generational violence and tyranny.
Escaping inherited fates requires immense courage to define who we truly are. In 1950s Istanbul, All the Softness in the World / Toute La Douceur Du Monde by Ayce Kartal (France, produced by Les Valseurs), a boy raised as a girl to evade an ancestral curse, whose lifelong quest for lost tenderness leads him to Paris, where art, fashion, and beauty become his ultimate tools of self-affirmation and resilience.
Finally, expanding this search for identity to a planetary scale, The Time Bender / Le Plieur Du Temps by Kim Nguyen (Canada, produced by Yzanakio) takes us on a breathtaking sci-fi adventure where a time-travel paradox transports two scientists to a parallel Earth – a world where humanity is extinct, forcing us to rethink our relationship with nature, progress, and existence itself.
Alongside the Film Co-Production Market selection, WANNA TASTE IT? returns in 2026. Conceived as a launch and growth platform for the Italian industry and Italian talent, the section aims to foster networking and offer selected producers and directors opportunities for exchange and business with international partners, experts, institutions and support programmes, continuing the mission that has defined previous editions.
Animal Instinct / Istinto animale (Italy, produced by Cinefonie) is the feature debut of Vittoria Rizzardi Peñalosa. After the return of the father who abandoned her, sixteen-year-old Gemma decides to kidnap him and force him to confront her, in a story of anger, trauma and the need to be understood.
In Intra Montes (Italy, Spain, produced by Slingshot Films and Un Capricho de Producciones), director Alberto Diana draws inspiration from his grandfather’s story. Between Sardinia and Mallorca during the Spanish Civil War, a young man enlisted in the Italian Fascist army confronts the violence of the regime, on a journey through obedience, conscience and individual responsibility.
Match (Italy, produced by Fargo Film) by Mattia Temponi tells five years in the lives of Chiara and Diana through four boxing matches: the ring becomes a space of confrontation and self-determination for the two young protagonists, where the body takes the place of words.
Parabasis (Italy, produced by Anemone Film) marks the directorial debut of Francesco Bianconi, frontman of Baustelle, who co-wrote the screenplay with Paolo Strippoli. In a world devastated by violence, a young woman searches for an alternative path between the brutality of youth gangs and a community of adults willing to sacrifice their own children in order to shield them from the horror.
Selected Projects for Film Co-Production Market 2026
About Love & September Laws
Original title: عن الحب و قوانين سبتمبر
Feature Film
Sudan
In 1983, President Nimeiri imposes Islamic Sharia law across Sudan. Carter, a pragmatic African-American journalist, arrives in Khartoum to revive a struggling newspaper and reconnects with Nouri, an idealistic doctor suspended after refusing a court order to amputate a man's hand. Carter falls for Fatin, his enigmatic translator, unaware that... more
Main Producers: Khalid Awad (Klozium Studios)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALAdem and the Others
Original title: Adem ve Diğerleri
Feature Film
Turkey
In 1996, a remote, snowbound mountain village is shaken when a young shepherd, Adem, finds a corpse in the snow. Serdar, a respected villager, has been stabbed to death. With the roads blocked by a blizzard and the gendarmerie unreachable, the village council searches for a scapegoat: Davut, a solitary... more
Main Producers: Nadir Öperli (Liman Film)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALAfter the night
Original title: La vita dopo la notte
Feature Film
France, Italy
Ettore, a night bus driver, is shattered when his twenty-year-old son, Cristian, dies of an overdose under unclear circumstances. Unable to accept the loss, he sets out to uncover the hidden life his son kept from him, searching for answers and someone to hold responsible. His investigation leads him to... more
Main Producers: Mario Mazzarotto (Movimento Film)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALAll The Softness in The World
Original title: Toute la douceur du monde
Animated Feature Film
France
Animation
Istanbul, 1950s. The Hakimian family lives in the shadow of an ancient vendetta: every firstborn grandson is destined to die, a cruel retribution for an infanticide committed by their grandfather long ago. Then comes Levon, a baby boy. His first act is to reach out and touch his mother’s soft... more
Main Producers: Damien Megherbi (Les Valseurs)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALAnimal Instinct
Original title: Istinto Animale
Wanna Taste IT?
Italy
Gemma, 16, lives with her mother in Northern Italy. Convinced there is something wrong with her, she spends her free time inside an abandoned barn, the only place where she feels connected to her estranged father. When summer begins, she starts working at the local store with her only friend,... more
Main Producers: Ilaria Marchetti (Cinefonie Scarl)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALBlue Souvenir
Feature Film
Italy
Berto tries to find something through places, Lyla looks for it in people. Near forty, Berto watches more than he speaks. He is awkward and, on most things, he has no clear-cut opinions and this is why he takes photographs. Lyla is twenty-five, a top-model constantly hyper-connected. She knows everyone,... more
Main Producers: Giorgio Gucci (ALCOR Srl)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALGoda
Feature Film
Spain
1990s. Ten-year-old Penélope travels to Lanzarote to meet her father for the first time. He lives there with his wife and their two daughters. In this new home, where everything seems perfect, Penélope becomes the outsider — until she builds an unexpected bond with her stepmother, Leticia. Leticia, 45, welcomes... more
Main Producers: María Zamora (Elastica Films)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALGuardian
Feature Film
Brazil
Alice, a young woman from Manaus disconnected from her Indigenous roots, works as a guide for businessman Rogério. When she discovers that the mythical yacht Guardian is up for auction, she convinces her boss to enter a new business venture: luxury sport fishing tourism. The deal proves successful, and... more
Main Producers: Karen de Athayde Castanho Vega (Biônica Filmes), Fernando Fraiha (Biônica Filmes), Bianca Villar (Bionica Filmes)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALIntra Montes
Wanna Taste IT?
Italy, Spain
Sardinia, 1924. Eight-year-old Angelo grows up in an isolated mountain village under the influence of his charismatic friend Bastiano. When Fascist Blackshirts murder Angelo's older brother Agostino, the trauma marks him for life. By 1937, Angelo is trapped in poverty with no future. Persuaded by Bastiano, now an ambitious fascist,... more
Main Producers: Manuela Buono (Slingshot Films)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALLittle Girl Blues
Feature Film
Germany, Malta
When her family puppy accidentally dies, Japanese single mother Terumi hides the truth from her eight-year-old daughter Mimo, fearing that Mimo’s supposed schizoid traits make her vulnerable to trauma. Instead, she tells her the puppy has been sent to Gharb, Gozo, to reunite with its litter. The next morning, Mimo... more
Main Producers: Pascal Schmitz (Bonum Films)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALMalica
Animated Feature Film
Germany, Portugal, Spain
Doris, a ceramic painter with a mysterious bond to the sea, lives a quiet life with her beloved Petra, a fisherwoman who returns each day with tales of underwater creatures and the legendary submerged city of Malica. When Petra's boat comes back empty after a storm, Doris dives into the... more
Main Producers: Peter Keydel (Mago Production)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALMancera
Animated Feature Film
France, Portugal, Spain
In an isolated, impoverished village, a family survives on pig slaughter. The violent, alcoholic father tyrannizes his wife and son while hiding fugitives in the cellar. The mother conceals a pregnancy and seeks solace with marginalized friends, while the son glimpses freedom through first love. As military pressure mounts and... more
Main Producers: Roger Torras (WKND)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALMaryam & Varto
Animated Feature Film
Armenia, France
Animation
In 1915, in Anatolia, Maryam and her brother Varto, two Armenian children, are caught in the turmoil of war. Hassan, a young Turkish man, is given the difficult mission of saving them. During a perilous odyssey, the three of them will cross a torn country and discover each other beyond... more
Main Producers: Barbara Vougnon (Tchack), Matthieu Liégeois (Tchack), Marie-Claude Arbaudie (ARAPROD)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALMatch
Wanna Taste IT?
Italy
Chiara Sarti and Diana Douadi are two amateur boxers on their way to turning professional. Between 2019 and 2024, they face each other four times, after a chance first encounter in which Diana knocks Chiara down. They never meet outside the ring, yet each becomes a constant presence in the... more
Main Producers: Daniel Coffaro (Fargo Film)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALNäcken
Feature Film
France
In the late 1910s, journalists travel to an isolated hotel by a lake to meet the world's most famous violinist: Magda Lundberg. Among them, a venal Aurographer is determined to record her and sell it to RADIO, a miraculous new technology. Magda refuses. But the Aurographer soon discovers, lurking in... more
Main Producers: Lola Pacchioni (Master Movies)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALParabasis
Wanna Taste IT?
Italy
The world is in flames, shaken by the “Jackals”—young marauders who have made chaos their law. Ivan, a broken pianist, is led by his daughter Tina to an isolated village. This apparent oasis conceals an atrocious philosophy: to preserve their children’s innocence, adults kill them at twelve and embalm them... more
Main Producers: Walter de Majo (Anemone Film S.r.l.)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALSurface Tension
Original title: Yüzey Gerilimi
Feature Film
Turkey
Nineteen-year-old freediver Nare dreams of escaping her small Aegean town, where she lives with her bedridden grandmother, silent mother, and controlling father. The national freediving championship, and the support of her coach Tan, offer her only chance at another life. Determined to seize it, she leaves Emir, the boyfriend who... more
Main Producers: Nefes Polat (Nefes Films), Zeynep Santiroglu Sutherland (AZ Celtic Films)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALThe Case of E.E.
Feature Film
Poland
Breslau, 1908. During a family dinner, fourteen-year-old Erna Eltzner sees the ghost of her grandfather. Her mother Nina, a former actress, seizes on the gift and arranges séances with occultist Frommer – a dangerous game on the border between life and death. The real threat comes from the living: doctoral... more
Main Producers: Katarzyna Ozga (LOOKS Warsaw)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALThe Lost Sons of Nada
Feature Film
Finland, UK
The film begins on the idyllic and tranquil island of Nada, in the Finnish archipelago. The occupants of the island are an enormous and joyous family led by Sandero, their handsome and charming leader. The family, who call themselves the Children of Nada, are jubilantly rushing around, skipping and singing... more
Main Producers: Sonia Stenius (Poolboy), Joel Rahkonen (Poolboy)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALThe March of the Sunflowers
Original title: A Marcha Dos Girassóis
Animated Feature Film
Brazil, France, Portugal
In the poor Brazilian countryside, Marialice lives with her family. One day, her father is forced to cook the farm's only rooster. Without a rooster to sing in the morning, the Sun does not wake up, leaving the world in endless night. Determined to restore the day, Marialice follows the... more
Main Producers: Ivan Melo
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALThe Time Bender
Original title: Le Plieur du Temps
Animated Feature Film
Canada
Julien, a brilliant but shy 15-year-old, discovers a revolutionary way to manipulate time. While testing his theory with Professor Schrödinger, a harmless prank sends the professor's lighter two million years into the past, creating a catastrophic paradox. Transported to an alternate Earth where humanity never survived, they encounter extraordinary plant-animal... more
Main Producers: Éric Idriss-Kanago (Yzanakio)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITALThe Village in the Woods
Original title: Το Χωριό
Feature Film
Greece
Hungry, exhausted and wounded, Alice lives in an abandoned camp in the middle of a coastal dense dark forest with Gus. Not far from them, in the same condition and completely alone, Michael lives in a roughly built wooden cabin. The three of them are the last contestants of the... more
Main Producers: Nikos Smpiliris (Boo Productions)
Read the full project description on MIADIGITAL
