Interview with Veneto Film Commission director, Jacopo Chessa
Venice and new worlds, a €5 million fund and a team of young cinema experts
In 2022 the Veneto region welcomed 30 productions of feature-length films and TV series. International productions included the 3D documentary Anselm (Das Rauschen der Zeit) about artist Anselm Kiefer directed by Wim Wenders (Germany), produced by Road Movies and presented at the Cannes 2023 Film Festival, which shot in Germany, France and Italy (Marghera, the Ducal Palace in Venice) making use of the location scouting fund offered by the Veneto Film Commission. The region welcomed popular, long-standing series; including Season 7 of Rai’s Un passo dal cielo, whose setting in Cadore and the Belluno Dolomites has made those landscapes very famous. The range of genres supported also included animation, such as the successful children’s series Leo Da Vinci produced by Gruppo Alcuni in Treviso.
The irresistible charm of Venice
In addition, an infinite number of international productions have shot in the region in the past years: attracted to its wide choice of landscapes, which range from sea to mountains, with lakes, rivers, and hills in between, and, of course, its cities of art. Venice’s irresistible charm has long beguiled world famous stars and directors such as Woody Allen, who followed his love for Julia Roberts along canals, alleyways and Tintoretto masterpieces in Everyone Says I love you (1996, all the locations here). The city has offered a setting for every type of love, from Alida Valli’s tragic infatuation with Farley Granger in Luchino Visconti’s Senso 1954 (Venice and all the locations here), to the vintage inflected romance between Licia Maglietta and Bruno Ganz in Bread and Tulips directed by Silvio Soldini in 2000 (all the locations here), and the various versions of Casanova, the most famous “Latin lover” of all time. Venice has also inspired adventure: from Spider-Man: Far From Home directed by Jon Watts to Inferno, featuring Professor Robert Langdon, created by Dan Brown and played by Tom Hanks; and a number of James Bond films that have shown their love for the lagoon city and Italy (read the itinerary James Bond in Italy). The Venice Lido is also the setting for one of the most famous and celebrated film festivals in the world.
Youth is a strength of the Veneto Film Commission
Everyone speaks cinema in Veneto, even if the Film Commission was only established a few years ago: “Age is a great strength at the Film Commission, which is three years old – says director Jacopo Chessa. – The team is all under forty, except for the “aged” director of 49. Age is always pivotal, a harbinger of potential interpretations – as an aging Reagan quipped about his opponent Mondale: “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.” – In our experience it is an exceptional tool that helps us work with the productions, understand their needs, keep up with their pace. Furthermore, the Veneto Film Commission team are all cinephiles with significant international experience, who are always up to date on the world of Italian and foreign production”.
Why should productions choose the region?
An annual fund of €5million, location expenses cover, unique locations and professionals
Because Veneto has the most varied landscapes in all Italy. The region encompasses sea and hills, lakes and rivers, mountains (hosting the Winter Olympics in 2026) and cities of art, and last but not least, the most famous Italian city in the world: Venice. And because the assistance offered by the Veneto Film Commission includes covering scouting expenses and in-depth consultancy on locations and available professionals. Additionally, the Region has an annual production support fund of €5million and a selective rebate of 30% on eligible spend in the territory, up to €320k.
We’ve mentioned Venice, already an iconic location for international productions; there are also surprising and undiscovered locations in Veneto…
Discover new worlds in Veneto
The most unusual set in my memory was the Brion Tomb in the Altivole Cemetary (province of Treviso) – now managed by FAI - FondoAmbienteItaliana for Dune 2.
[He is referring to the film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin. The second instalment of the film, set in the future on a planet named Arrakis, used the futuristic funeral monument commissioned by Onorina Tomasin-Brion in honour of her late husband Giuseppe Brion in the 1970s from architect Carlo Scarpa. Read the news about the Italian locations of Dune Ed.].
The stone quarries in the province of Vicenza are also atmospheric, they are a world apart, one that is cinematic in the true sense of the word, especially when one considers Cocteau’s masterpiece, Le Testament d’Orphée, shot in a stone quarry!
What are your projects for the future?
One of our most interesting productions at the moment is La vita accanto. Shooting right now, this is Marco Tullio Giordana’s most recent film and one we’re sure will be selected for prestigious festivals.
[The film is a Kavac Film and IBC Movie production with Rai Cinema and support from the Veneto Film Commission. Based on Mariapia Veladiano’s successful novel of the same title, La vita accanto is set between the 1980s and the 2000s and focuses on an influential family of Vicenza which comprises Maria (Valentina Bellè), her husband Osvaldo (Paolo Pierobon) and his twin, Erminia (Sonia Bergamasco), a famous pianist, whose life is upturned when Maria gives birth to a baby girl with a large purple birthmark on her face. Ed.]
There is great expectation for the third instalment of Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot, made for 20th Century Fox and based on Agatha Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party, whose exterior locations are all in Venice, and whose international distribution will probably be the most extensive of all the upcoming productions.
‘A Haunting in Venice’ is the third instalment in the Hercule Poirot series, following ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (2017) and ‘Death on the Nile’ (2022)
Teaser trailer for A Haunting in Venice