Italian promotional body Film Italia will be fused with Cinecitta Holding, the parent company of Cinecitta Studios, after a unanimous vote by its board last night.

But the impending change has sent a chill through the film community that has come to rely on the streamlined and efficient organisation of Film Italia that many worry could be smothered if absorbed into the bigger group.

The fusion has prompted almost 50 of Italy's producers and directors with films normally traveling abroad (Domenico Procacci, Lionello Cerri, Roberto Cicutto, Andrea Occhipinti, Ferzan Ozpetek, Paolo Virzi, Gabriele Muccino and Nanni Moretti and others) to write a letter calling the fusion 'a big risk,' and the work on behalf of Film Italia 'the best guarantee' for success of their films.

It is unclear what changes the eight-year-old Film Italia, says Irene Bignardi, who has headed the organisation for the past two years. Cinecitta Holding's Alessandro Battisti has said there will be 'no firings' and claims the move is to synergize the two groups, and create one promotional body.

Among other things, Cinecitta Holding promotes Italy's classic cinema.

Holding's website states 'We believe in the professionalism of the group (Film Italia) and intend to better value the promotion of (films) abroad with stronger resources,' it says.

But, Bignardi says their strength lies in being a small but close group.

Of her 15-person staff she says, 'We operate with the speed of a private company. The fear is that we would have to work more slowly because decisions could have to be reached going through more complicated stages.'

Significantly, she says they have operated just fine on their slim budget of $3.1m (Euros 2m) and they actually closed 2007 with funds to spare.

By way of example Bignardi mentions the Italian Cinema Festival of Tokyo: 'We work, but it is almost entirely sponsored by Japan's biggest news paper Asahi Shimbun.' Bignardi says the festival has virtually paved the way for Japanese distribution of Italian films.

Film Italia also looks to the nation's future film-makers with initiatives like The Best of Youth where 20Italian film-making debuts since 2000 were selected by an external critic for an exhibit and book, and Doc-Doc a multi-themed documentary showcase picked up by the La Cinemateque Francaise this year, with great success.

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