Piedmont Region gives €25m for cinema
This September, the Piedmont Region will activate a €25m equity fund for film production through a new investment firm, the Piedmont Film Company, made up of the region and private investors (along with US company Endgame).
The regional fund was presented last Friday in Rome, along with the Turin Piedmont Film Commission’s new offices in the capital.
"The equity fund will cover 25% of the overall budget of each project, whose budgets will range from €4m to €16m", explained the head of the Piedmont Film Company, Andrea Bairati. "Support to film projects will be allocated either as a guaranteed loan or as direct financing to the production company ".
The invested capital will have to be repaid by the beneficiaries within five years. "Eligibility requirements stipulate that a film’s remaining budget already be covered and that 25% of the total cost is spent in the Piedmont territory”, added Bairaiti. The selected films will have to be made for an international market and works will be favoured by young filmmakers made or distributed using digital technology.
The selection committees, made up of independent industry professionals, will begin evaluating the first submissions in September. The region’s technical partners are the Turin Piedmont Film Commission and the Virtual Reality Multimedia Park.
Twenty-five million Euros is undoubtedly a significant amount – considering that the Italian government sets aside only €90m a year for cinema – and establishes Piedmont at the forefront of the country’s film commissions.
Recently, numerous directors have chosen the territory to make their films, including Dario Argento, Marco Tullio Giordana and Wilma Labate. The latest are Giuliano Montaldo, who set his San Pietroburgo in Turin (which will be released next September and was produced by Elda Ferri’s Jean Vigo and RAI Cinema for €6m) and Mario Martone, who chose Turin for his new feature, Noi credevamo (lit. “We Believed”), which tells the story of two young revolutionaries during the Risorgimento, scripted by the Neapolitan director together with judge-writer Giancarlo De Cataldo (Romanzo Criminale).
(Translated from Italian)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
