A panel organized at the Italian Pavilion, the Cinecittà-MiC professional meeting space, discussed the internationalization opportunities for Italian companies and works with Roberto Stabile, Head of Special Projects for DGCA-MiC/Cinecittà, Nicola Borrelli, General Director of Cinema and Audiovisual and Francesca Giamattei, Head of the Works Office-Cinema Funds Management for Cinecittà and an audience of industry professionals.
“Internationalization is one of the strategic objectives of the Cinema and Audiovisual Law, which increases the possibilities for Italian operators to grow their business outside our borders” noted DG Nicola Borrelli.
One of the successful tools that has provided immediate results is the € 6 M call for proposals from minority co-productions which – it was announced during the panel – will be published by September.
Francesca Giamattei illustrated in detail the following internationalization funds presently available:
The film distribution fund supports the global distribution of Italian films. The 2023 call for proposals achieved its objectives, with 194 beneficiaries (128 in 2022).
The 2024 call for proposals contains some changes: the most significant being the exclusion of digital distribution, a decision made following a lukewarm response from the market: very few applications were submitted for the last call for proposals so the decision was made to divert the resources to theatrical distribution.
It has an endowment of € 1.6 M (€ 2.1 M last year) in 2 (formerly 3) sessions of € 800 K each, dedicated entirely to theatrical distribution.
Other important news is that the call is aimed not only at independent foreign local distributors, but also at broadcasters.
The exporters fund is a € 330 K fund allocated in 2022. The call is still active although funds are nearing the end.
Roberto Stabile explained that the producers fund has been closed because of problems mainly related to the difficulty of monitoring outcome. The decision was made to transform it into a fund for system missions where the projects are submitted to the evaluation of the local counterpart.
Finally, Stabile announced the imminent reinstatement of the Ministry-ICE working commission.