Italian Film Business Lashes Out at Political Delay

Italy’s film industry is fighting to stay vibrant amid disruption caused both by politics and market forces.
After reaping the rewards of a protracted growth spurt, local producers are facing a forced slowdown as the country’s right-wing government dithers with modifications they plan to make to several key regulations, most significantly to the country’s currently stalled tax incentives for film and TV production.

At a packed protest event held in early April at Rome’s Cinema Adriano multiplex, industry figures from all sectors – including producers, writers, actors and big-name directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Marco Bellocchio – lashed out against having to wait endlessly for the culture ministry to approve new guidelines so production companies can apply for the 40% tax credits that basically drive the business.

“We are waiting for the new regulatory framework, and more importantly we need to know how much money the government will grant,” said producer and distributor Andrea Occhipinti, chief of prominent Italian indie Lucky Red, during the Rome event.

In mere monetary terms, Italy’s culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano has assured that the government plans to only shave off some €50 million from the 2024 tax credit pot that is expected to end up totalling about Euros 700 million ($744 million) this year. The problem is that it’s still unclear when this tax credit money will actually become available as the government – which appears to be divided on this crucial matter – continues to keep the industry on standby.

Italy’s motion picture association chief Francesco Rutelli has repeatedly underlined that the Italian industry is contending with fierce international competition from countries such as France, the U.K. and Spain, that, in various forms, are dishing out way more public funds for film production than Italy.

As several Italian industry observers have pointed out, Italy’s 40% tax credit has been the crucial factor in luring back Hollywood productions to Italy on a scale comparable to the 1950s and ’60s glory days, when the now radically revamped Cinecittà studios were known as Hollywood on the Tiber. Recent international productions shot entirely in Italy include HBO’s Sicily-set “The White Lotus” Season 2, Steven Zaillian’s “Ripley” that recently dropped on Netflix, and Amazon Prime’s upcoming gladiator series “Those About to Die,” which was made entirely at Cinecittà.

Among bones of contention holding things up is the fact that the right-wing government, installed in September 2022 wants to promote production of movies and TV series with a nationalistic narrative, so they are planning to allocate some €52 million ($55 million) of the tax credit pot for film and TV products about stories and characters “tied to Italy’s national identity,” as Sangiuliano has put it.

“Our film industry is growing, but within the international arena we are still small,” said producer Raffaella Leone, head of Leone Film Group — the production and distribution company founded by her father, spaghetti Western master Sergio Leone — speaking during a panel on Italy’s tax credit held in Ortigia, Sicily.

“As a producer, to have €52 million earmarked for products that highlight Italian characters is not what our country needs,” Leone added. “I think we need to make more movies for the international market, which doesn’t mean demeaning ourselves or losing our identity.”

Meanwhile, Italy’s top producers of the younger generation, Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani, who are behind two films in this year’s Cannes competition – respectively Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” and Russian auteur Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Limonov” – have amicably parted ways with Fremantle and re-partnered on a new still unnamed shingle, details of which remain under wraps.

Then there is another new high-profile player called Be Water, active both in production and distribution, that has just entered the Italian industry arena. Former Warner Bros. Italy chief Barbara Salabè is on board as its president and Mattia Guerra, a former top exec at Lucky Red, is managing director.

Key titles on Be Water’s debut distribution slate are Paul Schrader’s Palme d’Or contender “Oh Canada,” Nicolas Cage horror movie “Longlegs,” directed by Osgood Perkins, and Victor Kossakovsky’s Berlin doc “Architecton.”