26/02/2009

"The risk of seeing ghost films multiply is real,” Riccardo Tozzi told Italian trade paper Giornale dello Spettacolo. The president of the producers of ANICA is referring to those films that, independent of their quality, are released theatrically without obtaining significant box office results.

"The problem,” he says, “is that despite efforts the Italian distribution circuit is still under-developed and the distribution of domestic films is still overly concentrated in a few months of the year".

According to ANICA data, in 2008, 154 feature films were produced, 33 more than in 2007, of which 29 were made for under €200,000 as opposed to five in 2007. The quick rise of these films, facilitated by digital technology, is good because it helps debut filmmakers, yet simultaneously increases the problem of their visibility.

According to Tozzi, "Italian films are all under-distributed, including those that do well, as proven by the fact that the overall increase in admissions for domestic films registered in the past year is the result of the improved performance of medium-sized films, whereas the ends of the spectrum are decreasing. In these situations, if big films suffer, small ones suffer even more and risk being literally squashed by the market".

Angelo Bassi of AB Film, which specialises in distributing small arthouse films, agrees, adding: "It would be opportune for the state to invest more money in distributing films made with public funds. Today, distributing a film theatrically requires a significant investment and the funds set aside are a mockery".

Tozzi announced that ANICA was "conducting a study on how many of these films there are and where and how they’re presented to audiences, with the aim of finding a concrete solution to the problem".

(Translated from Italian)