25/06/2013 - The government has cut fiscal incentives for the film industry by 50%. “We will react with all our strength and means, including blocking festivals”

Film industry organisations including Anica, Agis, 100Autori and unions have asked the government to re-establish the previous level of financial tax credits, threatening to “react with all our strength and means, including blocking all events and festivals,” they announced in a statement released yesterday.

"The government has cut fiscal incentives for the film industry by 50%,” the statement explains. “Contradicting programming declarations and public commitments undertaken by the Prime Minister himself, a disproportionate cut has been administered to the most modern and competitive form of support to production and digitalisation of Italian cinema. These cuts add to cuts already administered to the Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo (entertainment fund), which was the least publically funded entity in the film industry last year. This will result in the crumbling of production: only comedies and low-budget films will be made. With essential job loss immediately amounting to 2,500, as well as peripheral positions which are vast.”

“We want to believe that all of this happened because of a lack of understanding and that the government will redress this situation immediately. But if this does not happen, the entire culture industry will react with all its strength and means, including blocking events and festivals.” 

(Translated from Italian)