05/02/2008

Stealing from the headline French daily Le Figaro used last year in regards to the film My Brother Is an Only Child [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniele Luchetti
interview: Riccardo Tozzi
film profile], ANICA President Paolo Ferrari spoke of an “Italian renaissance” when presenting data on the domestic film market yesterday. And the figures of the umbrella association of industry companies seem optimistic indeed (download the PDF report).

There was a 12% increase in box office in 2007 over the preceding year, 11% of which came from Italian films. "Currently, the market share of Italian product has risen to 32%," said Ferrari.

In particular, 11.4 million more admissions were registered in 2007 than in 2006 with a growth in box office of €70.5m (based on Cinetel data, which covers 90% of the national box office). This translates to 12.31% more admissions and a 12.9% rise in gross. Admissions to Italian films came in at just under 10 million, with an overall increase from 2006 of 43.2%.

"Italian cinema has gone back to being an industry,” commented Riccardo Tozzi, president of the producers’ arm of ANICA. "This is not a sudden turnaround. It began in 2000, unfolded in 2006, extended in 2007 and we predict even more growth for 2008. Before this development, money was made only from comedies, now both Italian commercial and arthouse films make money.”

Consequently, foreign distributors have renewed faith in Italian cinema. “The RAI Cinema-Medusa duopoly has slackened," stressed Tozzi. "Today, Warner, Universal, Disney, and even Eagle invest in Italian films.”

In particular, the number of domestic films produced in 2007 rose by five, all of them co-productions, to reach 121. Of these, 90 were entirely Italian productions and were certified for public screening. The remaining 31 films (25% of the total) were foreign co-productions, mostly majority. Overall investment in all films produced and co-produced in 2007 rose €55m to a total €312m (21% more over 2006).

However, foreign promotion is still a problem. According to Tozzi, promotion needs to be concentrated in a single structure that focuses on more recent films . The resources are there – and amount to €8.5-10m – but are too fragmented amongst various organisations.

(Translated from Italian)