The alliance between the Bollywood colossus and the Lazio Region audiovisual industry continues to grow stonger as a new Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the 2008 International Rome Film Festival by the Filas General Manager, Stefano Turi, and the Director General of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Chandrajit Banerjee. The Director of the European Commission Media Programme, Aviva Silver, was present at the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding which was held at the conclusion of the international ‘Silknet’ workshop organized by Filas and dedicated to tools promoting co-financing and co-productions between Europe and Asia.
Lazio Region Councillor for Culture, Giulia Rodano, underlined the significance of the new alliance: “Cinema is a strategic industrial sector for the Lazio Region and its significance looms even greater in this period of economic crisis affecting the entire country and our region. The Lazio Region and Filas work towards providing an international drive to this sector and promoting the creation of new productions on our territory.”
CII has more than 90.000 members and 380 national and regional trade associations as well as a Media & Entertainment Division actively involved, through a vast range of activities, in promoting the growth and development of the Indian entertainment industry.
This bilateral agreement that follows other important agreements in the Audiovisual sector between Filas and Asia, including the MoU signed with the Federation of Indian Commerce Chambers (FICCI), aims to strengthen cooperation between the respective industries in the audiovisual sector and provide new opportunities for business between the two countries. The main objectives of the MoU include promotion of co-productions, creation of a network amongst sector operators, the exchange of know how and ideas through meetings and co-participations in the most important events the two countries host in the audiovisual sector.
The agreement between Filas and CII consolidates an important alliance: with more than 1000 movies produced per year and a turnover exceeding US$2 billion in 2006 and projected at US$4.4 by 2011, India is the greatest global producer of cinematographic products. Only in 2007, the Indian Media and Entertainment industry fell just short of US$13 billion.
The cinematographic and audiovisual industry in Lazio represents 69% of the national total and provides employment to more than 65,000 individuals. Tradition, high-tech and highly skilled workers are the bulwarks of a highly dynamic sector that boasts 15,000 filming days per year on 40 open sets. The area of the Municipality of Rome alone hosts 2200 companies and 48,000 employees in the cinematographic and audiovisual sector, which in 2007 exported products for a total value of €234 million.
On behalf of the Lazio Region, Filas has been very active in developing and promoting the central role of Lazio in the national Italian audiovisual industry. Besides providing support to international cooperation, financial tools have been created such as a venture capital fund to support SMEs in the Lazio audiovisual sector and a fund for the early reimbursement of VAT credit to extra-European productions. To date, Filas has financed 26 films with funds that provide on average coverage for 10% of the total project value and a total allotment of ca. €5.3 million
Films produced with the financial support provided by Filas include: “Colpo d’Occhio” by Sergio Rubini, “Milano-Palermo, il Ritorno” by Claudio Fragasso, “L'ultima estate” by Eleonora Giorgi, an Italian, French and Finnish co-production entitled “Il prossimo tuo” by Anne Rita Ciccone (that will be projected at the International Rome Film Festival on October 30th) and the Italian, French and Iraqi co-production entitled ‘I Fiori di Kirkuk’.
Moreover, the results of the first agreements with Asia are already tangible. Many agreements have been signed between producers and two co-productions are already underway between Rome and Singapore: “La stella che non c'è” by Gianni Amelio, which participated in the 63rd Venice Film Festival and the 31st International Film Festival of Toronto and the TV movie “Ovunque tu sia” with Lucrezia Lante della Rovere, which was recently broadcast on Italian Public Television channel Rai Uno.
In order to illustrate this and the many other initiatives implemented by the Lazio Region and Filas, from October 22 through to October 31st, Filas representatives will be present at the Greenhouse/International Film Market to provide further information on these measures.
Tomorrow, the third international INNOMEDIA workshop will be held. This is a Filas action launched in the context of two European projects and networks: Cine-Regio (the European Regional Network of Audiovisual Funds, in which Filas has recently become a member) and the Innodeal Project (Analysis, Diagnosis, Evaluation, Pilot Actions and Learning processes for Joint Innovation Programmes, a project coordinated by Filas). A series of innovative financing schemes and support mechanisms existing in various European regions for the audiovisual sector will be presented during the course of the workshop.
For further information: Filas and the International Rome Film Festival