True Colors founders discuss moving into TV sales at Rome’s MIA market
Nearly a decade after its launch, Italian sales company True Colors is branching out from feature films into the television content space under the new management of Elliot Gustin-Hollman, previously at Paris-based distribution center Newen Connect.
The move into TV sales is being made by True Colors – which is co-owned by Italy’s Indigo Film and Lucky Red – after the companies increasingly ventured into scripted dramas over the past decade. And these Italian shows, made by indie producers, should be sold outside Italy with the right dedication and curation.
“Ten years ago we saw the opportunity to start a film sales company and it paid off,” says Indigo Film partner Carlotta Calori, adding that True Colors has become a reliable international film distributor not only for them but also for other Italian producers. And “in the long term, even for producers outside Italy.”
“Now we want to do the same with TV shows,” Calori added.
“I’m not just here to work on their shows,” says Gustin-Hollman, who held the title of VP of acquisitions and co-productions at Newen Connect. “I am also here to work with all the independent producers in Italy.”
Gustin-Hollman further noted that indie producers are “in a moment of crisis with less money coming from broadcasters and streamers,” which in turn means that “sales companies need to work with producers from the early stages of their development.” projects.” The new director of True Colors also announced that he plans to work with library content.
Lucky Red head of acquisitions Stefano Massenzi noted how True Colors’ expansion into the TV space comes as the landscape of Italian sales companies changes with the arrival of new players such as distribution company PiperFilm, which has ties with Netflix in Italy and has just launched from the Rome MIA Market, and RAI Cinema International Distribution, the new standalone film sales unit of Italian state broadcaster RAI that was launched in February from the European film market.
“The good news is that there are now more opportunities to exploit Italian films around the world,” said Massenzi, who pointed out that under the new legislation, Italian producers can now retain a greater share of rights, including internationally. “But the feeling that both Indigo and Lucky Red had when we took our shows to the international market [through other, bigger, sales companies] is that we didn’t get the right exposure,” he continued.
“With True Colors we will have a different approach. We’re smaller, we’re a boutique. We will take care of all shows as if they were our baby,” Gustin-Hollman promised.
On the TV side, new True Colors titles include American director and producer John Maggio’s seminal documentary series Milano, about the explosion of Italian fashion in the 1970s and 1980s, and featuring interviews with Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford, Sharon Stone , Frances Mcdormand, Helen Miren and Samuel L Jackson, as well as the Swiss/Italian series ‘The Palm Line’, about a Swiss journalist who investigates how her father was murdered by the Sicilian mafia when they planned to sell a fake Caravaggio painting selling it and keeping the original for himself failed. “The Palm Line” is directed by Fulvio Bernasconi and produced by Switzerland’s Hugo Films, Italy’s Indiana for Swiss broadcaster RSI and French-German broadcaster Arte.
Recent True Colors film titles showing at MIA include Ukrainian filmmaker Pavlo Ostrikov’s science fiction rom-com “U Are the Universe,” launching from Toronto; Brussels for Helenme Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s tribute to the Euro-espionage stories of the 1960s “Reflection in a Dead Diamond”; and the animated film ‘Forest’ by Italian directors Luca Della Grotta and Francesco Dafano, which is about deforestation.
Pictured above (left to right): Stefano Massenzi, Carlotta Calori, Elliot Gustin-Hollman, Andrea Occhipinti
