14/07/2016 - The production figures put together by DG Cinema and ANICA show an increase in average costs and the number of co-productions. State aid grew as did the use of tax credits

(Read part one here)

Public funding
Of the 141 admissible films produced in 2015, 35 feature films of cultural interest were granted public funding for a total amount of almost €14 million. 37 first and second works produced in 2015 were allocated approximately €7 million in total. More first and second works were produced than in 2014, thanks to state aid, whilst the same number of feature films of cultural interest were produced in 2015 as 2014, despite the funding for films produced in 2015 being slightly lower than it was for those produced in the previous year. 

Funding from abroad granted to admissible films produced in 2015 remained steady, on a par with the amounts granted the previous year. With regard to funding received from Creative Europe as part of its MEDIA sub-programme, both the number of films granted funding and the total amount of funding remained the same, although there was a slight increase if you take the Eurimages Fund into account, which benefited nine co-productions with approximately €3 million in total. 

Tax credits
Looking at admissible films in 2015, there was an increase in the number of projects for which tax credits were requested for investors outside the sector and tax credits for distribution. The number of films requesting tax credits for production remained stable, confirming that this is a measure mostly used by films with medium-high budgets. All films of Italian initiative with costs superseding €1.5 million requested credits for production. The percentage drops in cases of works costing between €200,000 and €1.5 million, and falls to just a third of low-budget films (those costing less than €200,000). 

The tax credit for foreign productions made in Italy saw a slight decline in the number of films being made, which fell from 30 in 2014 to 24 in 2015, but for amounts that were a lot higher than in the first five years of operation of the scheme, whilst the number of countries of origin of the production companies concerned grew slightly. 

Audiovisual
Also new for this year was the extension of the analysis to the audiovisual production sector, which is supported by special types of tax credits, introduced in March 2015, for the production of works made in Italy for Italian or foreign television or websites. 104 works were deemed admissible in 2015. Only nine projects were made primarily for the Internet, whilst most of the works (95) were made primarily for television. There was a clear prevalence of fictional projects (84) over documentaries (13) and animations (7). Credits requested totalled €54.2 million, representing a total investment of just under €360 million.

(Translated from Italian)