The Italian TV industry is being showcased this week at the Italian Global Series Festival, which runs June 21-28 in Rimini and Riccione, Italy. Nineteen Italian titles were screened, including five world premieres and seven new seasons of successful TV series. There is one revival and one reboot.
Gloria Giorgianni, an independent producer and the founder of the production company Anele, is previewing “The Other Inspector,” a new show, produced with public broadcaster RAI. It a crime procedural with a difference: the lead character investigates cases of death at work. It stars Alessio Vassallo in the lead as a works inspector returning to his hometown of Lucca to take on the new job.
“There have already been over 250 deaths at work in 2025 in Italy. This is what a public broadcaster like RAI should be making,” Matteo Pilati, a filmmaker and programmer for the festival, says.
“This is a rare TV series where the main character that is not a cop,” Giorgianni says. “We have worked to find the balance between a very important message and entertainment.”
The six-part series is in post-production. It is directed by Paola Randi, who co-wrote it with Salvatore De Mola and Andrea Valagussa.
In terms of the international market, Giorgianni is optimistic. “The global market could change quickly. Italy has a big cultural identity abroad, but we need to have control of it. ‘The Leopard’ for instance is a keystone of Sicilian culture, but this Netflix production is based on only the market rules, and not Italian identity. I would like to combine both, otherwise ‘The Leopard’s’ main character will be similar to the ‘Bridgerton’ heroine.”
Pilati says Italian TV shows like “Gomorrah,” “Montalbano” and more recently “The Sea Beyond” have shown the potential of Italian product to have an international reach.
“Authenticity is the key. It makes it easier for an international audience to find a mirror and connection with the story, because the truth is universal and so everyone reacts very well to it. So ‘The Sea Beyond’ is about a prison for young people and depicts in an exaggerated way classic teenage angst, being confined by a lot of rules made by adults who they don’t necessarily agree with. Of course, teenagers relate to that.”
Also in the program are shows such as “Estranei,” about a disappearance in a Sikh community in Italy, and “Noi del Rione Sanità,” a gritty drama about a parish priest sent to a rough neighborhood in Naples. There is also the much-anticipated release of “Sandokan,” a remake of the 1970s hit TV series.
