01/12/2003 - The appointment for Italian professionals starts tomorrow and continues until December 5. Christmas box office hits will be featured, as well as premieres, debates and a foretaste of the 2004 film season

There will be many guests, Italian premieres and a whole host of debates about the state of the market at the 26th edition of the Sorrento Screenings. The event starts tomorrow with a discussion about audiovisual piracy and the role of the cinema operators. The Screenings are organised by ANEC, the Italian Association of Cinema Operators, in collaboration with distributors from UNIDIM and operators from ANEM. There will be around 1,500 cinema professionals attending the event, which continues in the Italian seaside town until December 5, and their ranks will include operators, distributors, producers, representatives from the various cinema associations as well as artists.

The programme includes a presentation of the films being released in 2004, with around 10 trailers being shown. There will be a foretaste of some of the upcoming offerings in the world of cinema, as well as debates on themes pertinent to the film industry. These include the first results of the survey into the Cinema Going Audience, carried out by the Department of Sociology and Communication at the La Sapienza University in Rome (Wednesday, at 09:30); facts and figures about the current state of the cinematographic market outlined during the end of year press conference held by ANEC, UNIDIM and ANEM (Thursday, at 13:30) and the exhibition of cinema technology, Magis, which is being held throughout the Screenings.

Some of the main players of this 26th edition include the stars of the Italian box office, Christian De Sica, Massimo Boldi, Biagio Izzo and Enzo Salvi for a preview of Natale in India by Neri Parenti (Thursday at 22:30), Leonardo Pieraccioni (Wednesday, at 16:00), Vincenzo Salemme (Thursday, at 12:30) for a preview of his new film Ho visto le stelle and Giovanni Veronesi for Che ne sarà di noi?.

The Screenings will be featuring lots of premieres, including Il Tramite by Stefano Reali, Il Paradiso all’improvviso by Leonardo Pieraccioni and La grande seduzione by Jean-Francois Pouliot (Friday, December 5).