Country Focus: Italy
by Cineuropa
23/05/2010 - Articles, interviews, news, analysis on the Italian audiovisual sector.
Country profile: Italy
International Film Guide 2012: Italy
A survey of the film culture and output in Italy published by the International Film Guide.
ANICA report: half of Italian films made in 2006-2008 released abroad
A total of 172 films, about half the 357 Italian titles produced during the three-year period 2006-2008, were released abroad. These are the findings of the first research into the impact of Italian cinema on foreign markets, coordinated by ANICA, the Ministry for Economic Development and the National Institute for Foreign Trade. The research, presented at the Venice Mostra, examined a broad cross-section of such films, looking at the outcome of foreign sales of 81 films (47% of total...
Summer audiences, domestic market share on the rise
Admissions went up in August while domestic films conquered 24% of the local market in the first eight months of 2010. According to data from Cinetel (which represents 85% of the entire market) in August 2010 admissions sold in Italian cinemas increased – by 29% over August 2009 – despite the fact that new blockbusters were released only in the second half of the month. Overall, just over 4 million tickets were sold, 900,001 over the 3.142 million sold in August 2009. These figures were...
Italian cinema looking for new paths (part 2)
A response to discussions on the costs of art house cinema, which many feel are too high, came from Mario Gianani, who with director Saverio Costanzo founded Offside and today, besides producing his partner’s films (such as the highly anticipated The Solitude of Prime Numbers), also produces film by other young directors and established greats (like Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere) “We’re too expensive with respect to whom?” asked Gianani. “Perhaps China, but we’re a civilised country, which...
Italian cinema looking for new paths (part 1)
It’s hard to imagine a more opportune moment for a convention on “The Economy of Italian Cinema”. The conference held June 14 at Rome’s Tor Vergata University (in collaboration with ANICA and the Roma Lazio Film Commission) comes at a time of “bitter controversy over the budget cuts to culture” (according to Giovanni Spagnoletti, a professor at Tor Vergata and director of the Pesaro Film Festival). Cuts that are threatening cinema as well – the FUS (Entertainment Industry Fund) is slated to...
Tozzi proposes “third way” for supporting local cinema
In a discussion at the conference The Economy of Italian Cinema, Riccardo Tozzi, president of producers of entertainment umbrella organization ANICA, proposed a new, Italian approach for supporting cinema. The event was held at Tor Vergata University (in collaboration with Anica and the Roma Lazio Film Commission). After having analyzed the history of the golden years of Italian cinema, Tozzi stresses that today, “the typical distribution channels, free and pay TV, are a dead-end market”....
Schermi di Qualità improving results for Italian, European titles
Over the last year, 214 Italian and European participating films garnered eight million admissions from 672 screens through the Schermi di Qualità (“Quality Screens”) project promoted by AGIS with exhibitors associations and financed by the Ministry of Culture (MiBAC) through Arcus with €3.5m a year. The project’s fourth edition – the results of which presented yesterday – registered a 28% increase in spectators. "This means that the project is working so we’ll ask the General Direction for...
2009 market figures negative but producers see upward trend
Italian cinema is at critical levels according to the second edition of the 2009 report "Il mercato e l'industria del cinema in Italia" (“The film market and industry in Italy”), published by the Fondazione Ente dello spettacolo in collaboration with Cinecittà Luce, with backing from the Ministry of Culture, and presented at Rome’s Luiss University. According to report editor Redento Mori, both the number of domestic films produced and funding have dropped, and more film companies folded...
Italy - International Film Guide Survey 2010
A survey of the film culture and output in Italy published by the International Film Guide.
Microcinema: Digital comes to over 100 theatres
It is a season of great innovation for Microcinema, the first Italian digital distribution network of film and digital content, with over 100 participating theatres. After the release of Alejandro G. Monteverde’s Bella, which on January 26 inaugurated its collaboration with ACEC (Association of Catholic Cinema Exhibitors) – that according to CEO Roberto Bassano “offers independent cinema distribution possibilities in Italy by reducing those costs that normally burden traditional...
New 22film to make very low-budget arthouse films
Forty-five directors, screenwriters, producers, actors and production designers have formed a company that will produce 22, low-low budget films, under the laconic name 22film. Names of members of a collective response to the government policies against Italian culture include Marco Bellocchio, Pasquale Scimeca, Ugo Gregoretti, Citto Maselli, Grazia Volpi, Wilma Labate, Enzo Porcelli, Pasquale Pozzessere, Marco Puccioni and Marco Pozzi. The feature films, which will be shot in digital and...
New fund for project development in Lazio
At a recent conference on regional film and audiovisual policy, Lazio Region Councillor for Culture Giulia Rodano announced the institution of a new fund managed by the Roma & Lazio Film Commission, which will offer its services to those choosing to shoot in the region. Rodano also announced the creation of a €1.3m "experimental grant fund for film project development,” financed by the Region. Moreover, she added, audiovisual companies "will have more opportunities to access credit thanks to...
Avatar breaks records, Verdone and Virzì going strong
No film has ever grossed so much in its opening weekend in Italy: after Friday's release, with figures at over €2m, Avatar earned almost €4m on Saturday to reach just over €9.6m in three days (according to Cinetel data from 848 screens, for a press screen average of €11,382). The global success of James Cameron's blockbuster did not, however, do too much damage to two Italian films already out. Released on January 5, Io, loro e Lara by Carlo Verdone grossed another €2,631,567 this weekend,...
Verdone grosses over €8m
After an excellent debut on January 5 (over €3m in two days), Carlo Verdone’s comedy Io, loro e Lara (“Me, Them and Lara”) closed the weekend at the top of the box office, with another €4.69m, a per screen average of €7.7, and overall takings so far of €8.2m. The film is distributed by Warner Bros Pictures Italia (see news). A new European title is in fifth position – Muriel Barbery’s The Groundhog has grossed €669,819 euro – while two local titles have dropped on the charts: Leonardo...
Apulia Fund more than doubles 2010 budget to €1.6m
The Film Fund of the Apulia Film Commission Foundation is increasing from €700,000 in 2009 to €1.6m for 2010. The fund for supporting domestic and foreign films made in Apulia is divided into €1m for production and €600,000 for hospitality. The deadline for requesting funding from the first allocation of monies is January 31. Information can be found on the Commission’s website. Meanwhile, January 16 will see the inauguration of Cineporto in Bari, the new space that brings together at...
Audiences hold, earnings rise in 2009
Over 99 million admissions were registered from January 1-December 31,2009 (-0.3% less than 2008), for a gross of €623m (+4.95% over last year), according to preliminary data of 2009 from Cinetel, which monitors approximately 85% of national cinemas. The steady audience figures and increase in admissions, despite the economic crisis, are being attributed to 3D films shown throughout the year, and in particular in December. These films, however, only widened the gap between multiplexes, which...
Medusa and Warner merged for The Space Cinema
Medusa Multicinema and Warner Village Cinemas have been merged to create the largest multiplex circuit in Italy, The Space Cinema, the result of a partnership (of 51% and 49% shares, respectively) between 21 Partners, the private equity company headed by Alessandro Benetton, and Gruppo Mediaset. The new circuit, which just today unveiled its name and brand, has 24 multiplexes and a total 242 screens, for a potential 16 million admissions. “We aim to cover the entire country, with at least...
Borrelli to replace Blandini at Culture Ministry
After 20 years at the Ministry of Culture, Gaetano Blandini is leaving his post as Director General of Cinema Direction to take on the position of Director General of SIAE, the state company that protects and exercises copyright laws. Blandini will be replaced by Nicola Borrelli, currently head of Ministry’s General Affairs, Programming, Accounts and Personnel section. "Gaetano Blandini was a staunch supporter of Italian cinema", said the National Union for Film Journalists in a statement....
€24m reinstated for cinema of Entertainment Industry Fund
Film will get €24m of the €60m allocated this summer by the government, for the reinstatement of the Entertainment Industry Fund: €18m to production and €6m to exhibition. This is the first sure news on the distribution of the reintegrated funds, which came in a statement by the Ministry of Culture’s General Direction for Cinema. "We’re satisfied,” Paolo Protti, president of ANEC (the national film exhibitors’ association) told industry weekly Giornale dello Spettacolo, because "cinema’s...
DeAgostini sells Mikado to Franco Tatò
Publishing house DeAgostini has announced the sale of its production and distribution company Mikado to Franco Tatò, who has been active in the industry with Pixtar. The group led by Marco Drago and Lorenzo Pellicioli had acquired 100% of Mikado just over two years ago from Roberto Cicutto and Luigi Musini (see news). Mikado has released over 400 titles, and recently picked up distribution rights to Michael Moore’s latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, in competition at the recent Venice...
EC approves €82m in tax incentives for cultural films
The European Commission (EC) has approved a second package, worth €82m, of film tax incentives proposed by the Italian government. The incentives in question, a tax credit and tax shelter, are relative to spend and investment in creating and distributing European cultural films by businesses outside the film sector, and distribution and exhibition companies. For the General Direction for Cinema of the Ministry of Culture (MiBAC), "the approval of tax incentives for businesses outside the...
Local cinema experiences 8% drop in first half of 2009
Italian cinema is losing audiences while US films are at full sail according to results for the first half of 2009 in the movie theatres monitored by Cinetel, compared to the same period in 2008. January 1-June 30 of this year registered approximately one million overall admissions less than in 2008 (-2%,), a loss that was contained thanks to North American titles, with their 32 million admissions and over 63% of the overall market (+ 7%). With 12.1 million admissions (-4.6 million), the...
2008 Report: The Film Market and Industry in Italy
The first true economic analysis of the Italian film market, Rapporto 2008. Il Mercato e l’Industria del Cinema in Italia (“2008 Report: The Film Market and Industry in Italy”, published by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo, was presented yesterday at Luiss University in Rome. It outlines a "pulverised" market the overall vision of which is difficult to identify, with the same holding true for admissions, box office and film company rights. It moreover depicts a market that conforms to...
New regulations for the development. Tax Shelter and Tax Credit, the italian support to Cinema
The news rules for development were disscussed during the movie seminar. Tax Shelter and Tax Credit are the new Italian measures presented on 28 October 2008 in Rome at the Teatro Studio dell’Auditorium Parco della Musica. With the help of the Ministry of Culture, this event was the first of three meetings of the General State of Italian Cinema, held during the International Film Festival in Rome.
Copyright within analogical and digital
Come interpretare oggi il Diritto d’Autore nella transizione da analogico a digitale? Come tutelare gli autori cinematografici? Come si è evoluto il Diritto d’Autore in rapporto alle nuove modalità di fruizione delle opere? Come proteggere le produzioni audiovisive? E cosa comporteranno i nuovi scenari nell’era di Internet? Come tutelare gli autori nell’era del digitale? Come proteggere i format televisivi che riempiono oggi la programmazione televisiva? Cosa comporta il passaggio da...
Piracy and Audiovisual Criminality: copies are ruining the market
Here are the themes discussed during the seminary on the copyright forms between analogic and digital content. This event took place on 30 October 2008, at the Teatro Studio dell’Auditorium Parco della Musica, in Rome. Organised with the help of the SIAE, the event was the third and last meeting during the Rome International Film Festival.
Italy - International Film Guide Survey
In Italy, it is mainly the festivals, from the Alps to Sicily, that feature most of the non-commercial films screened in Italian cinemas. Italy’s annual output of approximately eighty films remains scandalously divided into two echelons: at one end, a dozen guaranteed blockbusters, widely released for Christmas, Easter or the early November holidays; at the other, all the remaining films, parsimoniously screened for elite audiences, or through festivals, late-night TV and DVD releases. Read...
Positive 2008 results could worsen in 2009
The Italian market is holding strong according to ANICA’s annual report. In 2008, the number of Italian productions increased and overall box office revenue declined only slightly from 2007, but many worry over the fate of public funding. Says Riccardo Tozzi, president of ANICA producers: "There was a huge rise in films produced – an overall 154, 30 more than in 2007 – due above all to the growth of low budget films – 29, compared to five two years ago. However, box office returns from...
Italy - Italian Cinema ready for change (October 2006)
2006 seems like a year of great change for Italian cinema. In September, during the Venice Film Festival, Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli announced the details of an extensive legislative reform within the industry, which companies are now discussing before it begins its lengthy course in Parliament. Simultaneously, the Ministry’s General Direction for Cinema, headed by Gaetano Blandini, is continuing its meetings with numerous interested parties over "adjustments" to the existing law....
Italy - The Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Fund and Salento Film Fund (March 2005)
The first Italian film fund In 2003, the first Italian film fund was created. What happened is, Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission used the 2003 Regional Financial Law to create a proper regional film and TV fund. The budget, renewed every three years, consists in 350,000 per year to support productions shooting in the Friuli Venezia Giulia. Grants vary depending on the time spent in the region : for a seven-week or more session, productions are given up to €120,000 ; for five weeks...
Italy - The Lazio Film Commission (March 2005)
The Lazio Film Commission and the network ‘Capital Regions for Cinema’ ‘Not just locations’. This is the motto of the Lazio Film Commission, and it must apply to the facts, since its mission is to offer certain services to national and international productions which choose the Lazio Region as the ideal scenery for shooting. For that matter, this scenery already attracts over 80% of the national productions. The Lazio Film Commission was created in 2004 as a joint venture between Cinecittà...
Italy: Italian film, an ‘experimental’ market (March 2005)
Italian film, an ‘experimental’ market The Italian film industry is currently going through a sea-change : it has to adapt to the new rules of the game set by a law implemented over a year ago but at the same time, it must deal with the scarcity of its financial resources. This is, in a way, an ‘experimental’ time : old-fashioned views must be replaced by new market strategies. A glimpse at the figures reported by the Anica (the Italian producers’ and distributors’ society) shows that...
Italy 2003 - Distribution and exhibition
2002 was a good year for cinema in Italy and especially for Italian films. DISTRIBUTION Fewer big films were produced and perhaps that is why Italian cinema managed to increase its share of the domestic market to 22.2 per cent from 2001’s 19.4 per cent. According to Cinetel 216 Italian films were programmed in 2002, 114 of which were new releases (coproductions included): an increase of 8 and 28 films respectively. 16 Italian films broke the Euros1m barrier at the box office and 3 entered...
Italy 2003 - Coproductions
Official co-productions can be undertaken with the countries with which Italy has stipulated coproduction agreements. There are 30. There are two main advantages to this system: films made for cinema list the nationality of each of the participating countries and they can thus benefit from financial support from the other participants. Italy is a member of the European common production agreement for films for cinema which regulates coproductions between three or more countries. In recent...
Italy 2003 - Minister Urbani's Reforms and the new Cinecittà Holding
A massive advertising campaign to get people to go back to seeing Italian films, the internationalisation of our cinema by means of agreements with other countries, the penetration of heretofore unexplored markets like Russia and China, the restoration to Cinecittà of the theatres currently controlled by Istituto Luce. These are the main points of the programme with which Italy’s Minister for Culture, Giuliano Urbani, intends relaunching Italian cinema. He set down the fundaments of this...
Italy 2003 - Production, TV and State funding
2002 was a good year for Italian cinema. The number of films produced rose by 27 from 103 in 2001 to 130 in 2002. The number of co-productions did not change after the significant leap forward reported in 2001. Fewer majority co-productions were made - i.e. where Italy is the biggest single contributor, dropping from 22 in 2001 to 17 in 2002. Italian minority co-productions rose from 13 to 17. The sector that reported an authentic boom was in the investment of Italian capital in national...
Italy. A guide to Italian cinema (February 2003)
A detailed analysis of both established and new funding mechanisms to see just where Italian cinema is headed over the next few years A guide to Italian cinema The end-of-year data for Italian cinema reveal a steady but positive trend, with an increase in box office takings and more investment. The financial world is showing more interest in cinema and the papers are full of articles about the appeal of Italian films (even the smaller ones) abroad. A small injection of trust that indicates...
