In an unprecedented move, 21 unions as well as leading figures from the Italian cinema industry joined forces on Friday (April 5) to voice their concerns about challenges in accessing public funding that have brought film and high-end TV production to a standstill in the country.
“Never have I seen in my long career a unity such as this in the Italian industry,” veteran director Marco Bellocchio said on stage at a crowded event that filled several screening rooms of the Cinema Adriano in Rome. Directors such as Paolo Sorrentino, Paolo Virzì and Fabrizio Gifuni also attended, alongside several actors and producers. The unions taking part included writers and directors organisation 100 Autori, agents body ASA, producer and distributor union ANICA, actors union UNITA and Writers Guild Italy.
Productions have been waiting since the start of the year for the government to issue forms and guidelines for obtaining Italy’s audiovisual tax credits for 2024.
The delay has caused many Italian and international productions to postpone principal photography or to abandon plans to shoot in Italy altogether.
The delay in opening up funding to productions has been blamed on bureaucracy and understaffing at the office that deals with cinema in the Ministry of Culture. It has also been caused by the Italian government working on reforms to its audiovisual tax credit, which offers a headline 40% for productions and has been hugely successful in attracting film shoots.
Uncertainty
In recent years, the Italian audiovisual industry has been operating at full capacity on both local and foreign productions thanks to its generous tax credit. Recent Netflix titles such as Ripley and The Beautiful Game are among dozens of international shoots to film in the country.
But, given the uncertainties around the tax credit, international productions are steering away from the country, according to the production union representatives, and many workers are now without a job. In addition, the global production slowdown has contributed to a contraction in film shoots in Italy.
Fandango head of business and legal affairs Carlotta Ca’Zorzi reminded attendees that “the Italian industry is made of 9,000 companies and 65,000 employees, it accounts for 10% of the whole European sector with €13bn in revenues per year,” citing data from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, a subsection of the Ministry of Economy.
As well as the Italian tax credit, Italian productions and co-productions can be granted both automatic and selective funds from the government. Automatic funds, worth €5m in 2022, depend on the commercial and artistic performance of previous titles by directors and production companies; selective funds, worth €25m, are judged on their screenplay.
“We’re waiting for the new framework, and most of all to know how much will the government grant in the next year,” said Andrea Occhipinti, CEO of Italian producer and distributor Lucky Red, during the event.
Lucia Borgonzoni, who is in charge of the cinema department at the Ministry of Culture, has said that €700m will be the maximum that the government will spend on tax credits in 2024. Tax credits worth a total of €768m were granted in 2022. (Italian film productions benefited from €175m, TV productions from €254m and international productions and co-productions shot in Italy from €338m.)
Independent producers also promoted Friday’s industry gathering as an opportunity to ask the government to curb the power of some of the country’s biggest media companies.
Producers loudly lamented that media companies have too much power when it comes to investing in film production. Simonetta Amenta, president of Italy’s Independent Producers Association (AGICI), noted that “Italian films count for 24% of the 2023 total box office and yet 80% of these revenues are made by only three distributors: Medusa, Vision and 01 Distribution.”
Medusa is owned by the Mediaset TV network, home to three of Italy’s biggest free TV channels; Vision is part of Sky Italia; and 01 Distribution is part of public broadcaster RAI.
Occhipinti said: “When a small producer negotiates a contract with a broadcaster that also is a distributor and can buy world sales rights, it is forced to accept whatever is on the table.”
International streaming platforms as well as the three Italian major companies are the focus of the producers’ concerns as they have the power to close a budget and therefore lay down conditions.
Independent producers have asked for regulation to prevent these companies from being a distributor as well as a broadcaster, or at least to be more transparent on the amount of money they reinvest in films.
The ultimate aim for indie producers is to be able to retain rights for the intellectual properties they develop and sell. “We don’t want to become executive producers,” added Occhipinti.
No comments yet