about us | who are we

The Florida Media Market is a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and developing independent film and TV artists, connecting creative talent with the global film, television and media industries. Through its wide-reaching programs, the Florida Media Market seeks to discover, support, and connect independent filmmakers from Florida, the United States and around the world, and to introduce the global community to their work.

FMM works hand-in-hand with media makers through our “Project-A-Thon” workshop to develop projects, and with our Fiscal Sponsorship to prepare them to shop for funding. The first Project-A-Thon took place with the support of Maria Eugenia Meloni, FMM co-founder and vice president, Ignacio “Nacho” Argiro, and Jesus “Chuchi” Rivero. During 7 Saturdays in the Summer of 2006, several projects were developed including three documentaries; Javier Mitchell’s, “Fallen From Paradise”, Marian Wertalka’s, “Eat Local,” and Fernando Romero’s, “A Mambo,” which were accepted to NALIP’s Producer’s academy in Arizona for further hands-on development by top industry professionals.

This first Project-A-Thon in Summer '06, however, developed a total of 13 projects, and graduated 13 artists. A mini Market was created at the graduation event where our participants had the opportunity to pitch and present their projects to investors and other Florida industry professionals. Our projects that are still in development can be seen at www.floridamediamarket.com. Our next Project-A-Thon will take place in Winter 2007.

The idea of FMM first emerged as Founder and CEO Maritza Guimet served as Director of the NALIP Florida Chapter, serving the emerging Latino market. In her experience from traveling to different markets for several years and analyzing the needs of Floridians, she saw that the interest of Hollywood, Europe, Asia and Latin America toward Florida expanded beyond the Latino Market. So, she created The Florida Media Market in Miami and put the tools in place to make media deals for all markets a reality with the support of Paul Sirmons, Florida Film Commissioner, Jeff Peel, Miami-Dade Film Commissioner, Graham Winnick, City of Miami Beach, Robert Parente, City of Miami, among others. Florida is the bridge to all Media cultures of Hollywood, Europe, Asia & Latin America.