The Italian Film and Audiovisual Law that was approved last November will be fully implemented by this summer. The announcement was made yesterday by Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini at a conference entitled “Where Is Italian Cinema Headed?”, organised in Rome by ANICA. The minister declared that film is a growing and rapidly changing sector. Within the new regulatory framework, there will have to be a way of managing the impact of a major global change that is transforming traditional supply and demand.

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The lengthy debate between auteurs and producers, and the speeches made by association representatives (you can replay the recorded video of the event here), provided an in-depth examination of the context in which Italian professionals need to work to strengthen the industry and drive up Italian production. The introductory speech was given by Marco Chimenz, a producer at Cattleya and president of the European Producers' Club (see his presentation in PDF format here), who painted a picture of the international landscape, complete with the changes in technology that are leading to the unrelenting expansion of over-the-top video services.

The situation in Italy and the legislation currently being implemented were the subjects tackled by Elena Cappuccio, head of Institutional Affairs and Communication at employers’ federation Confindustria Radio Televisioni (see her presentation in PDF format here). We are witnessing a recovery of the TV sector, with a rise in online advertising as the real backbone of the system. Total advertising spending by the five European reference countries (the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain) was €70.3 billion in 2016 (and internet has been the number-one advertising medium in Europe since 2014). Cinema also appears to be recovering, but the income from theatres remains below 2010 levels. The number of Italian films distributed is on the rise, but there has been a fall in the average takings and the average number of copies. For Cappuccio, cinema and TV are increasingly interconnected today, and she cited Vision Distribution’s participatory model (Sky with Cattleya, Wildside, Lucisano Group, Palomar and Indiana Production) as well as the bigger independent producers that have a presence in both film and television production.