Italian cinema’s international sales worth €50m in five years
€50 million was the revenue generated during 2006-2010 from the sale of rights of new Italian film titles on foreign markets - that was the finding of the meeting Cinema: The Challenge of the Foreign Markets", promoted by ANICA and Cinecittà Luce, which took place during the Venice Film Festival.
Authors’ renown, the selection of films at international festivals and co-productions are the factors that lead foreign dealers to buy Italian products, but the value still tends only to be concentrated in a few titles - a figure that is still too low and needs to grow with the support of appropriate policies.
"The foreign market needs to become increasingly central to Italian film projects," said ANICA Vice President Giampaolo Letta, who is also a.d. of Medusa in opening the meeting – and we must do so by 360 degrees, both in internationalizing our product and by participating in varying degrees with international co-productions."
Roberto Cicutto, Cinecittà Luce President, underlined the urgency of improving the co-ordination of public and private participation: "Italian cinema is and must become an increasingly significant element of the Made in Italy, and the other sections of Italian industry must understand the importance of cinema and the audiovisual industry for circulating the country’s image around the world." According to Cicutto, the few funds available have to be merged for international promotion in order to create a network of referees for Italian cinema in the world, so as to stabilize its promotion in various countries.
International sales expert Cristina Cavaliere spoke about the potential of the Video On Demand platforms to promote cinema at a global level - supply is reaching considerable proportions across Europe (with a turnover of €770m in 2009, €200m in France alone) via disparate actors, such as editorial groups, independent distributors and internet providers. Despite the problems linked with piracy and the difficulty of salvaging rights, a great opportunity remains to make national films known to possible foreign buyers.
Gianluca Curti, producer of Minerva Pictures, which with Rarovideo USA broadcasts low budget titles through digital platforms said: "We have noted that there is a great hunger for made in Italy abroad. We just need to satisfy it."
(Translated from Italian)
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