11/10/2006

Over 200 professionals, producers, distributors, international sales agents, television industry representatives, promotional and financial bodies and public institutions will participate in the second edition of the French-Italian forum in Rome tomorrow.

Organised by Unifrance, the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), General Direction for Cinema (DGC) and Cinecittà Holding, the event will be opened by Unifrance president Margaret Menegoz.

Gaetano Blandini (director of the DGC) and Alessandro Battisti (President of Cinecittà Holding) will begin with a detailed report on two film markets. This will be followed by the first debate, "French-Italian co-productions: how to strengthen them?". Speakers include Riccardo Tozzi (Cattleya), Andrea Occhipinti (Lucky Red), Rosanna Seregni (Sintra Film), Nathalie Bloch Lainé (StudioCanal), Frédéric Brillion (Epithète Films) and Yves Marmion (UGC YM).

Two discussions will be held on Thursday afternoon. The first, "The distribution of non-national films: the French-Italian experience", will be held by Filippo Roviglioni (01 Distribution), Osvaldo De Santis (Fox), Valerio De Paolis (BIM Distribuzione) and Alexandre Mallet-Guy (Memento Films), among others.

There will then be an analysis of "Regional funding in France and Italy", with speakers including Stefano Della Casa (Piedmont Film Commission), Federico Poilucci (Friuli Film Commission), Luciano Stella (Campania Film Commission), Giulia Rodano (Lazio Region), Gregory Faes (Rhône-Alpes), Patrick Lamassoure (national commission at Film France) and Olivier-René Veillon (Ile de France).

With an opening speech by Francesco Carducci (Vice President at Cinecittà), Friday morning will be devoted to the "Role of television in cinema". Participants include Stefano Passigli (Istituto Luce), Giancarlo Leone (RAI Cinema), Tullio Camiglieri (Sky), Remi Burah (Arte France), Mihai Crasneanu (Glowria), Daniel Goudineau (France TV) and Laurent Hassid (Canal +), before leaving the floor to Blandini and Véronique Cayla (Director General of the CNC) to draw conclusions on the two days of talks and workshops.

(Translated from French)