30/08/2003

Six feature films that were made thanks to the support of the EU’s MEDIA Programme’s will screen at the Mostra. The announcement was made at the Venice Film Festival by the EU Commissioner for Cultural and Audiovisual Affairs, Viviane Reding.
The films Mme Reding was referring to are Segreti di Stato by Paolo Benvenuti, Il miracolo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Edoardo Winspeare, Code 46 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Michael Winterbottom, Raja by Jacques Doillon, Twentynine Palms [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Bruno Dumont and Un film falado by Manoel de Oliveira. MEDIA titles screening out of competition are Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bernardo Bertolucci
film profile] and AbdelKrim Bahloul’s Le soleil assassiné.

“The MEDIA Programme is an important intiative,” said Viviane Reding, “especially for our young people as it allows them to get to know the immense treasure of European cultural diversity. It is thanks to MEDIA that so many films found slots in territories where they would not have otherwise been distributed. In 1996, one in every seven films was released outside of its country of origin. Today that number stands at one in three. Our immediate goal is to reach the 100%-mark as soon as possible. To that end Italy’s minister for culture, Giuliano Urbani, organised this meeting in Venice about the issue of distribution, for his counterparts from the enlarged 25 EU member states.”

(Translated from Italian)