MIA: another day is in the books. The 4th day started with a panel to promote film literacy which aims to build the audiences of tomorrow and to prioritise the circulation of films in Europe.
Gianluca Giannelli, artistic director of Alice nella Città highlighted the importance of establishing new legislature referring to Dario Franceschini’s new Film Law, presented at MIA these last days. At the heart of the debate the education about film within schools and strategies to find common lines throughout Europe so that quality films can make their way into schools and generate the audiences that don’t exist today. All this, working with Universities and Academies, entities that mainly allow Italy to maintain its strong relationship with Europe. By the way, Maryanne Redpatch, Head of the Generation Section of the Berlinale spoke about the “Berlinale School Project” explaining that Film Literacy is an experience of learning not only targeted towards children.
For MIA CINEMA, on stage Cinema, we are Serial! Pinpointing the subject of the presentation, the Cattleya Producer, Riccardo Tozzi highlighted the differences between film and TV series: while cinema is going through a moment of decline, TV series on the other hand are increasingly popular with audiences.
The director Gianni Amelio stated: “kids have a vision which depends on having an open mind which, for us, those from another generation, it’s very difficult to reach: we were still so connected to film. But film begat the current series, even silent films were in serial form.” Also the actor Maria Pia Calzone, known for her unforgettable performance as Donna Imma in the series Gomorra, and the director and producer of “Smetto quando voglio”, Matteo Rovere, attended this panel.
An evaluation of data from the Rai, Mediaset, Sky offerings and Italian television productions 2015/2016 was presented at MIA, too. For the occasion Marco Follini, APT President joined the meeting. Worthy of mention, the growing phase of the Italian series demonstrated by what we can see on a national level but even more so internationally. TV series remain a mainstay of Italian television programming.
Another main event of the day is Italy joins Ibermedia: strengthening the bonds with Latin-American and Iberian countries. Italy became officially a member of the pan-regional Ibermedia Programme, funded by 18 CACI members and observers and established to promote the development and co-production of films originating in the member territories, within their own markets. Signing the agreement, Nicola Borrelli, General Director of Cinema Mibact said: “This is the culmination of a journey which started years ago and which will allow us to work even more closely with our South American friends, with a simple and fruitful dialogue. Today, what we are signing is a start, a beginning. We hope to be able to celebrate in a few months the first successful productions.” The meeting was an opportunity to explore the cinema and support of funds of the Latin American and Iberian countries, too.
