This is a difficult moment for the cinema and audio-visual industry as it manages the effects of the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers (DPCM) of 9 March 2020 whose measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic in Italy limited gatherings and included the closure of cinema theatres. This lead to the postponement of several film launches including Carlo Verdone’s latest work, Si vive una volta sola produced by Filmauro and shot in Salento and No Time to Die, the eagerly-awaited 25th instalment of the James Bond saga directed by Cary Fukunaga, which marked the first time the production had shot in Southern Italy with locations including Matera and Gravina in Apulia. Since the start of the emergency, seventy films have been blocked and will increase to one hundred if the containment measures are extended to the end of April.
The suspension has unfortunately not only affected the distribution sector. Several productions have suspended or postponed their shoots in Italy. The most high-profile being Mission Impossible, seventh instalment in the saga of Ethan Hunt played by Tom Cruise, whose shoots scheduled in Venice and Rome were cancelled with consequent damage to the industry both directly and indirectly through the lost publicity. Netflix followed Paramount’s lead by postponing the shoot of the series Zero and cancelled the production of the film Notice (an investment of €50 million in Italy). Showtime, HBO, Amazon, Disney had scheduled location scouting for TV series, CBS was about to shoot a series on art thieves in Florence. It is estimated that at least 40 Italian sets have shut down, although it is difficult to calculate the exact numbers given the multiple phases of the production process.
The present situation represents a 360° crisis for the industry which the government is attempting to assist with the introduction of the Fondo Emergenze Spettacolo, Cinema e Audiovisivo (Emergency Fund for Entertainment, Cinema and Audio-visual industry) which has a budget of €130 million (ph: Gianni Fiorito).