News

Rome’s iconic Cinecittà Studios is drowning in red ink.

The Hollywood Reporter Roma has learned that the studio’s losses in the first half of 2024 amounted to 13.5 million euros ($14 million), while Cinecittà’s share capital stands at just 22.7 million euros ($23.8 million). Sources close to the studios report that the shareholders’ meeting, scheduled for Thursday, will formally acknowledge the errors made by the previous management and may pursue legal action against former CEO Nicola Maccanico, who signed off on the 2023 accounts.

The dramatic financial turmoil engulfing Cinecittà has escalated in recent days, setting the stage for a potentially explosive resolution in the next chapter of this ongoing financial thriller on Thursday.

On Monday, it was revealed that Cinecittà president Chiara Sbarigia and other board members were informed on Aug. 1 of alleged irregularities in the studios’ financial statements. An independent audit uncovered a potential shortfall of approximately 6.7 million euros ($7 million). Sbarigia...

Citing 19th Century patriotic poetry and Mussolini-era writers and philosophers, the freshly appointed culture minister of Italy’s new right-wing government has promised a new era for the country’s cultural sector and revealed he wants to reform state funding for the performances arts.

Gennaro Sangiuliano is among 24 ministers in the new government of Giorgia Meloni, who was sworn in as Italian prime minister on Sunday, three-and-a-half weeks after her far-right Brothers of Italy party (Fratelli d’Italia) swept to victory in general elections.

Sangiuliano arrives from state broadcaster Rai, where he worked since 2003, rising through the ranks to become editor-in-chief of news programming at Italian state channel Rai 2 in 2018.

He replaces Dario Franceschini of the centre-left Democratic Party, who was Italy’s longest-serving minister of culture, and the TV and film worlds are now waiting to see what this means for the sectors.

The new minister told Rome...

Details of government scheme to be announced in next 30 days.

The Italian government has unveiled a plan to provide a further €40m in support to cinemas, theatres, museums, libraries and cultural institutes that are struggling with high-energy costs.

The funds will be available within 30 days, although the government did not provide details of how they will be distributed or allocated. The government said these would be announced within the 30-day period.

In a statement, Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini said: “As happened during the [Covid-19] pandemic, the government is seeking to provide concrete and immediate help in support of the activities...

Exhibitors are set to receive €73.4m; distributors will receive €24.3m.

The Italian government is to give €73.6m to the country’s struggling exhibition sector to help cover running costs in a support measure over and above the recent €4m unveiled by the culture ministry earlier this year, according to a government source.

The funds are understood to have already been earmarked for the measures, with the decree that officialises to be signed in coming days by culture minister Dario Franceschini.

Additionally, distributors are set to receive support through the fresh measures, as the decree will contain a further €24.3m to...

Exhibitors are set to receive €73.4m; distributors will receive €24.3m.

The Italian government is to give €73.6m to the country’s struggling exhiibition sector to help cover running costs in a support measure over and above the recent €4m unveiled by the culture ministry earlier this year, according to a government source.

The funds are understood to have already been earmarked for the measures, with the decree that officialises to be signed in coming days by culture minister Dario Franceschini.

Additionally, distributors are set to receive support through the fresh measures, as the decree will contain a further €24.3m to...

Dario Franceschini talks exclusively to Screen.

Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini has called for the country’s film and TV tax credits to become a permanent measure, saying the growth of its production sector can only be achieved if the industry is provided with certainty over time.

Franceschini, speaking exclusively to Screen, also said the government is evaluating additional measures to lengthen cinema release windows to support struggling exhibitors.

Film and television productions in Italy have soared in recent years thanks to the nation’s generous tax credits, which were increased from 30 to 40 following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

CEO Nicola Maccanico aims to turn facility into continental Europe’s top filming hub.

Italy’s Cinecittà Studios is running at full occupancy levels and is on track to post a 2023 profit after breaking even this year, according to CEO Nicola Maccanico.

Speaking exclusively to Screen, Maccanico said Italy’s largest production hub is starting to reap the benefits of a €260m (279m) investment from the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund.

The former Sky Italia and Warner Bros. senior exec joined Cinecittà in 2021 with a brief from Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini to use the EU funding to...

CEO Nicola Maccanico aims to turn facility into continental Europe’s top filming hub.

Italy’s Cinecittà Studios is running at full occupancy levels and is on track to post a 2023 profit after breaking even this year, according to CEO Nicola Maccanico.

Speaking exclusively to Screen, Maccanico said Italy’s largest production hub is starting to reap the benefits of a €300m (320m) investment from the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund.

The former Sky Italia and Warner Bros. senior exec joined Cinecittà in 2021 with a brief from Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini to use the EU funding to...

Italy’s iconic Cinecittà Studios turn 85 this year and it’s never looked so young.

The famed facilities, which in their Hollywood-on-the-Tiber heyday hosted sword-and-sandals epics such as William Wyler’s “Ben-Hur” and were later home to Federico Fellini, are undergoing a major overhaul that now sees Europe’s largest LED wall situated on the lot near Fellini’s huge Studio 5.

Known as Cinecittà’s T18 Virtual Production Stage, the 412-square-meter semicircular screen made up of hundreds of high-def displays that serve as interactive backdrops for actors on a smart set, is one of more than a dozen state-of-the art soundstages being built there thanks to a multimillion-euro cash injection provided by the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund.

The revamp is being spearheaded by Nicola Maccanico, managing director of Italy’s Istituto Luce-Cinecittà, the state film entity that operates Rome’s expanding Cinecittà Studios. He has ambitions for Cinecittà...

Exhibitors are not happy with the new ruling: “It’s a far cry from the support exhibitors receive in some other European nations like France.”

Italy’s government is introducing a blanket 90-day theatrical window for all films (Italian and non-Italian) that received state backing, overturning a relaxation of windowing rules brought in during the pandemic.

The government decree, which has already been signed by Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini, will come into effect as soon as it is published in the official Italian legislation gazette, or Gazzetta Ufficiale. No date is currently available for its publication, but industry insiders...

In a move that will transform Italy’s relationship with Netflix, the Italian government has set a firm three-month time window between a movie’s theatrical release and when it can drop on a streaming platform.

The announcement was made by Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini during a Rome confab on the state of the country’s film industry held by the country’s motion picture association Anica.

The minister said he has signed a law that will extend the existing 90-day theatrical window for Italian films that had benefitted from government subsidies to now include all films, regardless of where they are produced or how they are financed.

Due to its having a more flexible windowing policy than France, Italy in recent years has been an interesting testing ground for the theatrical releases of Netflix titles, largely because the Venice Film Festival is a frequent launching pad for the platform’s original films.

Fremantle and Italy’s Cinecittà have entered a five-year pact involving the continuous rental of six sound stages at the iconic studios, which are currently undergoing a major revamp.

The deal “confirms Fremantle’s strategic decision to make some of its top international productions in Italy: a decision that finds the perfect and natural partner in Cinecittà,” Fremantle said in a statement.

A radical revamp of Cinecittà, which has been underway since May 2021, has been gaining traction with a rise in occupancy of its sound stages and backlot, realistic prospects for profitability, and new state-of-the-art filming facilities.

The Cinecittà revamp is being conceived and carried forth by Nicola Maccanico, a former Warner Bros. and Sky Italia senior exec who has a mandate from Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini to turn the Rome studios into continental Europe’s top filming facilities thanks to a €300 million ($339) million) investment from the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Monica Vitti in Red Desert (1964). (Courtesy of Janus Films)One of the most captivating presences in Italian cinema, actress Monica Vitti has died at age 90. She started as a stage and television actor before becoming known for her roles in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), La notte (1960), L'eclisse (1962) and Red Desert (1964). After the end of her professional and romantic relationship with Antonioni (the two would return for The Mystery of Oberwald in 1980), Vitti turned to lighter fare by international directors, including a small part in Luis Buñuel's surrealist comedy The Phantom of Liberty (1974). In the official announcement of Vitti's death, Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini wrote, “Goodbye to the queen of Italian cinema.”The groundbreaking artist James Bidgood, whose artistic output spanned from photography and music to films like Pink Narcissus (1971), has also died.

Vitti shot to international fame in Michelangelo Antonioni’s drama L’Avventura in 1960

• Monica Vitti – a life in pictures

Italian actor Monica Vitti, an icon best known for her starring roles in films by Michelangelo Antonioni, has died aged 90, the country’s culture ministry said on Wednesday.

“Goodbye Monica Vitti, goodbye queen of Italian cinema. Today is a truly sad day, we have lost a great artist and a great Italian,” the culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said in a statement.

Italy’s Cinecittà Studios has signed a preliminary agreement with state bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to acquire a plot of land adjacent to the Rome filming facilities. The land will give them space to roughly triple the backlot and build several new sound stages.

Under the deal Cinecittà, which is undergoing a radical revamp, will gain more than 70 acres of land that will allow for construction of eight additional sound stages on the new space and provide film and TV productions with more than 30 acres of additional open-air backlot to shoot on.

The vast expansion will allow Cinecittà to “fill a gap with its competitors in continental Europe,” according to a Cinecittà statement which called the long-gestating land expansion agreement key to giving Cinecittà “global attractive capacity.”

Financial terms of the Cinecittà-Cdp deal, which is expected to be finalized by October 2022, were not disclosed.

The Cinecittà Studios revamp...

The radical revamp of Italy’s Cinecittà Studios, which has been underway since May, is gaining traction with a rise in occupancy of its sound stages and backlot, realistic prospects for profitability, and new state-of-the-art filming facilities on the way, according to managing director Nicola Maccanico.

Maccanico, a former Warner Bros. and Sky Italia senior exec, came on board in April to run Cinecittà with a mandate from Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini to turn the iconic Rome studios into continental Europe’s top filming facilities thanks to a €300 million ($339) million) investment from the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund. He has since been busy overhauling several of the existing 19 sound stages and getting five new stages built, while also devising a five-year financial plan under which Maccanico expects Cinecittà to start turning a profit in 2023.

In roughly six months, the sprawling studios have reached almost 80% occupancy, having lured...

Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” kicked off its theatrical rollout with a gala event Tuesday evening in the director’s native Naples, the city to which he returned after 20 years to shoot his most personal film.

“I am as excited as I was at my wedding,” said Sorrentino ahead of the red carpet screening in the central Cinema Metropolitan attended by some 400 guests including Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini and players from the 1980s Ssc Napoli soccer team, once led by late great champ Diego Maradona who, as the film reveals, involuntarily saved Sorrentino’s life.

Sorrentino underlined that he was particularly pleased, and also anxious, about the Naples premiere — which was followed by a reception at Naples’ Teatro San Carlo opera house — because “here the film can be understood in all its nuances; a test that is not easy to face.”

The city of Naples also took...

Rome’s new concept Mia Market dedicated to international TV series, feature films, documentaries and more kicked off Wednesday in the Eternal City’s 17th century Palazzo Barberini with 1,700 registered industry execs – roughly 600 of whom have made the trek from abroad – and 350 new titles of various types, in development and production, on display.

At a press conference attended by Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini and all top Italian industry reps, organizers also boasted a 30% increase in completed films screening at the Mia film market where about 80 mostly European titles will be having their market – or, in some cases, even world – premieres.

While the Oct. 11-14 Mipcom market in Cannes is suffering a reduced presence, and the AFM this year has gone entirely online, Mia seems to be reaping the benefits of being conceived more congenially to how the global content industry is evolving.

“Mia was born as a challenge,” said...

Plans to overhaul Rome’s iconic Cinecittà Studios and potentially turn them into the top European filming facility were officially unveiled Tuesday at the Venice Film Festival with Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini and Stan McCoy, who is chief of the Motion Picture Assn. for Europe, on hand.

In June, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Italian premier Mario Draghi jointly visited the Cinecittà lot and held a press conference in its vast Studio 5 — known as the late, great filmmaker Federico Fellini’s second home — to announce a €300 million ($353 million) investment to “adequately meet the growing international demand” for studio space,” as Franceschini put it.

“The exciting thing about the €300 million investment that is being made in Cinecittà is they will have the opportunity now to be at the cutting edge of technology, which is absolutely critical in making the best international content,” McCoy said.

“My advice is: seize the opportunity.

Italy’s iconic Cinecittà Studios are set for a major overhaul involving many new state-of-the art soundstages, a bigger backlot and ambitions to become continental Europe’s top filming facilities thanks to a multi-million euro cash injection provided by the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund.

In June, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Italian premier Mario Draghi (pictured above) jointly visited the Cinecittà lot and held a press conference in its vast Studio 5, known as the late, great filmmaker Federico Fellini’s second home, to announce a €300 million ($353 million) investment to “adequately meet the growing international demand” for studio space,” as Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini put it.

“We will build five new soundstages, two of which bigger than Teatro 5,” says Nicola Maccanico the former Warner Bros. and Sky Italia executive who in April was appointed chief of state entity Istituto Luce-Cinecittà, outlining his two-step plan under...

The Italian film industry, which did not pause during the pandemic, is clearly a top priority within the country’s post Covid-19 recovery plan. The plan sees Rome’s Cinecittà Studios set for a €300 million ($358 million) cash injection earmarked by the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund for a radical overhaul of the famed facilities.

In June European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Italian premier Mario Draghi jointly visited the Cinecittà lot and held a press conference in its vast Studio 5, known as the late, great Federico Fellini’s second home. Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini announced still undeveloped plans to upgrade and expand the iconic studios “in order to adequately meet the growing international demand” for studio space.

Meanwhile Cinema Italiano will be out in full force at Cannes. Veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio will present his personal doc “Marx Can Wait” out-of-competition and be feted with an...

A new state-of the-art movie theatre called Cinema Troisi is set to open in a Fascist-era building in central Rome on September 30, an event rife with symbolic significance.

The projector is latest generation 4K; the sound Dolby 7.1 surround; the bar/bistro will serve gourmet food; and the venue’s plush 300 seats are the same shade of maroon as T-shirts worn by members of the collective of activists and film buffs known as “the Cinema America kids” who are running it. In 2019 they were attacked by neo-fascists, prompting an outpour of support from, among others, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón, Keanu Reeves, Guillermo del Toro, and Spike Lee.

In 2012 the kids occupied the Cinema America movie theater in Rome’s trendy Trastevere hood that developers wanted to demolish and turn into a parking lot and an apartment block. They were evicted by police in 2014 and subsequently started running outdoor summer arenas...

Italian singer, actress and TV personality Milva died on Saturday, at her home in Milan. The multitalented artist was 81.

Milva’s death was confirmed by Italy’s Culture Minister, Dario Franceschini, who called her “one of the strongest interpreters of Italian songs,” also noting that “her voice has aroused intense emotions for entire generations.” No cause of death was given.

Born Maria Ilva Biocalti in Goro, Italy on July 17, 1938, Milva enjoyed the height of her fame in Italy throughout the 1960s and ’70s, also cultivating a fan base around the world. Famously referred to as “La Rossa” (or “The Redhead”), given the color of her hair, she recorded 173 albums throughout her life, and ultimately sold some 80 million records, according to the the Lapresse news agency.

Milva appeared on stage, both in and outside of music, and all over the world. Between the 1960s and 1980s, she collaborated with such prominent...

Milva, one of Italy’s most popular singers in the ’60s and ’70s who was also beloved by many fans abroad, died Saturday at her home in Milan. She was 81.

In announcing her death, Italy’s Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said Milva’s versatile voice “stirred deep emotions in entire generations.” No cause of death was given.

Milva also starred as a stage actress, with a repertoire heavily based on the works of German playwright Bertolt Brecht. She often worked with Milan theater director Giorgio Strehler, who directed her in one of Brecht’s signature ...

Milva, one of Italy’s most popular singers in the ’60s and ’70s who was also beloved by many fans abroad, died Saturday at her home in Milan. She was 81.

In announcing her death, Italy’s Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said Milva’s versatile voice “stirred deep emotions in entire generations.” No cause of death was given.

Milva also starred as a stage actress, with a repertoire heavily based on the works of German playwright Bertolt Brecht. She often worked with Milan theater director Giorgio Strehler, who directed her in one of Brecht’s signature ...

A new commission will evaluate the correct classification of works by producers or distributors based on the four sections outlined in the 2016 Cinema Law of Italy. Many have wondered what the "abolition of cinematographic censorship," announced by the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, really means, after his signature of the decree establishing the Commission for the classification of cinematographic works, whose task is to verify the correct classification of cinematographic works by operators. With the establishment of this commission to replace the review commission — based on the model used in France — it will no longer be possible to prohibit the release of a work in theaters or on TV, or to impose cuts and changes. The commission will only evaluate the correct classification of the work by the production, which will in charge of "labeling" its film according to the four sections outlined in the 2016 Cinema...

The move ends state power to ban features and will see the creation of a new classification commission.

Italy has abolished film censorship, ending legislation that has been in place since 1962, and will instead allow distributors to classify their own features.

The decree will bring an end to the state’s power to censor scenes or ban films for moral, religious or political reasons, which was famously imposed on Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango In Paris in 1972 and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò Or The 120 Days of Sodom in 1975.

In its place, Italian film distributors will classify their own titles under various age brackets,...

Italy has officially abolished film censorship by scrapping legislation that since 1913 has allowed the government to censor scenes and ban movies such as, most famously, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris.”

The move — which is symbolically important, though censorship is de-facto no longer practiced — definitively does away with “the system of controls and interventions that still allowed the Italian state to intervene on the freedom of artists,” said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini who late Monday announced a new decree ending the government’s powers to censor cinema.

Hundreds of films from all over the world have been banned locally during the past decades for religious, “moral” and political reasons.

Under the new decree, film distributors will self-classify their own movies based on existing audience age brackets such as “over-14″ (or aged 12+ if accompanied by a parent) and “over 18” (or 16+ accompanied by adults).

Subsequently,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, BBC Two and BBC Music announce a behind-the-scenes Amy Winehouse doc; Netflix supports a new series development masters program in Italy; M6 commissions a French version of “Domino Effect”; and Red Arrow unveils its MipTV lineup.

Documentary

BBC Two and BBC Music have commissioned a documentary feature celebrating the life and legacy of musician Amy Winehouse. Working titled “Amy Winehouse: 10 Years On,” the film will exploit the benefit of a decade of hindsight to paint a more holistic picture of Amy Winehouse the person, rather than the troubled public figure which is often presented of her.

The special is told largely from the point of view of Janis Winehouse, Amy’s mother. Suffering from Ms, which threatens her long-term memory, Janis was motivated to show the world the Amy she knew, and immortalized her memories on film while she still can.

“I don’t feel...

Hotly anticipated pan-European drama “Leonardo” bowed in Italy Tuesday (March 23) to stellar ratings, scoring a more than 28% prime time audience share on pubcaster Rai’s flagship Rai-1 station and prompting plaudits from Italy’s Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, as well as a huge sigh of relief from its creators, according to showrunner Frank Spotnitz.

The lavish eight-part English-language retelling of the life of Italian master Leonardo da Vinci, played by Aidan Turner (“The Hobbit” franchise) is the first Italian production to receive backing from pan-European co-production initiative The Alliance, created last year by top European public service broadcasters. It is a joint effort between Rai, France Télévisions, Germany’s Zdf, and Spain’s Rtve. Shot during the pandemic, the show is also co-produced and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Television.

“Leonardo,” directed by Dan Percival (“The Man in the High Castle”) and Alexis Sweet (“Don Matteo”), is produced by Italy...

Italy’s arthouse cinemas are celebrating International Women’s Day by symbolically reopening to stage “closed door” screenings of films and documentaries directed by female filmmakers in empty venues across the country.

The symbolic initiative is being launched by the country’s association of arthouse cinemas, called Fice. In a statement, the org noted that besides being International Women’s Day, March 8, 2021, also marks exactly one year from the date in 2020 when Italian cinemas were forced to shutter due to the coronavirus crisis. Thus, the move is also a preamble of sorts to the hoped for — though still uncertain — real opening of some Italian movie theaters later this month.

Fice president Domenico Di Noia has launched an appeal to Italy’s 500-member arthouse cinema network to “symbolically” reopen for one closed-door screening at 8 p.m. of films either directed or co-directed by women directors. Titles being proposed include Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “Miss Marx,...

Italy is among the first countries in the world where film and TV production restarted after the peak of the pandemic and the country is now trying to become among the first in Europe to reopen movie theaters.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini in late February announced tentative plans to reopen Italian cinemas on March 27 in areas with lower Covid-19 infection and death rates, using new stricter social distancing norms. Though it remains to be seen whether Franceschini’s plan will pan out, what’s clear is that “Italy’s trade organizations and the government are engaged in a fruitful dialogue,” says producer Carlo Cresto-Dina, whose Tempesta Film is best-known for regularly shepherding pics by Cannes regular Alice Rohrwacher such as “The Wonders” and “Happy as Lazzaro.”

Cresto Dina points out that “right now in Italy it’s tough to find available crew, since they are all taken,” thanks to the...

A leaked report says this will be based on infection rates and could be pushed back.

Italian cinemas could start reopening from March 27, according to a leaked report from the Italian minister of culture Dario Franceschini.

However the date is dependent on a review of Covid-19 infection rates on March 12, with the next possible reopening date understood to be April 6.

As of March 1, Infection rates are on the rise in several Italian regions. Each region is colour coded from the highest red level, with a strict lockdown, through orange and yellow with relatively looser lockdowns to finally white, with no lockdown at all.

As Italy’s government wobbles, the country’s struggling film and TV industry is staying afloat thanks to beefed-up funding that in 2021 will provide a €640 million ($775 million) safety net for local exhibitors, distributors and producers.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte survived a crucial Senate confidence vote on Tuesday evening by a razor thin margin of just 16 votes (the vote went 156-140 in his favor), averting a crisis sparked by differences over how to spend more than €200 billion ($242 billion) earmarked by the European Union for a Covid-19 recovery fund to help revive its pandemic-plagued economy.

The president of Italy’s Motion Picture Association (Anica) Francesco Rutelli on Wednesday told Variety that the government now remains on track with its recovery plan for the film and audiovisual production industry, drafted by Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, which Rutelli called “a major achievement.” Funding for the industry is up 60% compared with last year and is...

Italy, the European country initially hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, is weathering the second wave well with film and TV production chugging along at a relatively healthy pace thanks to efficient safety protocols and government incentives.

Culture minister Dario Franceschini has just trumpeted a fresh injection of cash to support production, upping resources to fund the Italian tax rebate from €400 million ($474 million) to $652 million for 2021 while raising the incentive’s cap from 30% to 40% of a local production’s budget. The tax rebate is Italy’s main tool to combat the rise in economic costs and risks caused by coronavirus.

The Italian culture czar has also announced plans to double available backlot space at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios and to bring in millions of euros in new resources as part of a revamp of the famed facilities, where several substantial U.S. studio productions are expected to set up camp next year.

Theatres to be shuttered until November 24.

Cinemas in Italy have been shuttered for a second time in a bid to curb a second spike in coronavirus cases and avoid a full lockdown.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte announced on Sunday that cinemas, theatres, discos and gaming halls must close their doors from today (October 26), following a new daily record of 19,644 coronavirus infections in the country.

Conte stopped short of imposing a nationwide lockdown but stated that bars and restaurants will have to stop service from 6pm.

Cinemas will remain closed until November 24 – although an extension is expected – as the government...

Due to the organisational and infrastructural Covid-19 restrictions applied in recent months, Italy will now be the selected country at the 72nd edition of the festival. Update (12 October): Originally planned for the upcoming Berlinale and due to the organisational and infrastructural Covid-19 restrictions applied in recent months, Italy will now be the “Country in Focus” in 2022 at the European Film Market of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival. Italy will be the “Country in Focus” at next year’s edition of the European Film Market, unfolding within the Berlin International Film Festival 2021. An agreement confirming this decision has been signed in Berlin in the presence of the Minister for Culture Dario Franceschini, his German counterpart Monika Grütters, the Berlinale’s executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and, last but not least, the director of international relations at Anica and audiovisual desks coordinator at the Italian Trade Agency Ice Roberto Stabile. Through.

Veneto governor Luca Zaia is also board member of Biennale.

Luca Zaia, governor of Italy’s Veneto region, which encompasses Venice, confirmed on Sunday (May 24) the Venice Film Festival “will happen in September as scheduled”.

“I have talked with the Biennale president Roberto Cicutto … about the Film Festival and though there won’t be all of the productions we are used to see, because film shoots have been halted, the Festival will happen as planned,” read the statement issued by Zaia.

Although not official confirmation the festival will definitely take place - that is expected to come directly from the...

The ceremony was run from an empty studio with winners acknowledging awards via video-link.

Marco Bellocchio’s mafia drama The Traitor swept Italy’s top David di Donatello awards on Friday evening (May 8), winning six prizes including best film, director and lead actor.

The biopic, which premiered in Competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, captures the life of Tommaso Buscetta, the late infamous mafia turncoat who began his organised crime career in Sicily and died in Florida incognito under the Us witness protection programme in 2000.

It marked the first time Bellocchio has won best film at the awards although he...

Italian professionals have asked the Minister of Cultural Heritage for a relaxation on the decree on access to public funds so as to include films which can’t be released in cinemas due to the crisis. Italy's Anica, the National Association of Multimedia Film and Audiovisual Industries, has asked the country's Minister of Cultural Heritage for special inclusion within the Bonisoli Decree - the so-called "exemptions decree" – so as to ensure that films unable to be released in cinemas due to the Coronavirus crisis aren’t penalised. As it stands, in order to access the benefits of the Franceschini Law - tax credit and automatic and selective finance – films must already have been released in cinemas (read our article). The industry is requesting this exemption purely to cover the period during which cinemas are forcibly closed as a result of the crisis. Specifically, the letter addressed to Minister Dario Franceschini.

Francesco Rutelli, head of Italy’s motion picture association Anica (pictured), has said plans are in the works to modify Italy’s theatrical window regulations so that some of the blocked product from around 70 feature films can go straight to TV and streamers without producers or exhibitors taking too much of an economic hit.

“We have dozens of local and international films that can’t be released,” Rutelli said. This means that when the coronavirus crisis subsides “we will have a huge glut,” he noted.

That’s why “the business model as we knew it…the window between theatrical, TV and platforms will undoubtedly — very constructively, and not unilaterally — change,” Rutelli said, adding that he is in negotiations with Netflix and other streamers, as well as reps from the country’s distribution and exhibition orgs, to “try and find new balances” going forward.

At least 40 film shoots in different stages across Italy have been halted,...

Streaming services are offering audiences a two-month long free trial.

All of Italy’s 1,200 cinemas comprising approximately 3.500 screens are now closed until at least April 3 following the Italian government’s decision to quarantine the entire country in an attempt to halt the spread of the new coronavirus in a move that came into effect on Monday March 9.

New releases have been suspended and those few films that had still been slated to come out during the coming weeks have been postponed. No new dates had been confirmed as of March 11.

As the entire Italian population is being advised to stay...

The surge of coronavirus cases in Italy is taking its toll on theatrical box office returns which plunged this weekend by more than 75% compared to the same frame a year ago.

With nearly half of the country’s screens shuttered, the Feb. 28-March 1 weekend’s total intake was a measly roughly €2 million ($2.2 million), according to box office compiler Cinetel.

Italian box office during the previous weekend, when the virus crisis had already struck – but with a bit less alarm – had sunk to €5.5 million compared with more than €12 million during the same period in 2019.

As of Monday, over 1,600 cases of the virus have been confirmed and 34 people have died, making Italy the country with the world’s third-biggest outbreak after China and South Korea.

Worst affected are Italy’s Northern regions such as Lombardy and Veneto and others were cinemas have been closed. On Monday roughly 850 Italian screens had been closed out of 1830 in total.

He will be responsible for finding an eventual succesor to Venice film fesitval chief Alberto Barbera.

Roberto Cicutto, CEO of Istituto Luce Cinecittà, has been named president of the Biennale, the organisation that runs the Venice Film Festival, by Dario Franceschini, the Italian minister of culture.

He takes over from Paolo Baratta who has been president since 2008.

As president, one of Cicutto’s responsbilities is to appoint the director of the Venice film festival, presently Alberto Barbera. After a stint as festival director between 1999 to 2002, Barbera returned to the festival in 2012.

Barbera has been in position since 2012 ad there is...