09/12/2008 - Nicola Giuliano has been running Indigo Film with Francesca Cima since 1999 while their collaboration with Paolo Sorrentino began in 2001 on his feature debut One Man Up

Nicola Giuliano has been running Indigo Film with Francesca Cima since 1999 while their collaboration with Paolo Sorrentino began in 2001 on his feature debut One Man Up [+see also:
trailer
film profile] , which screened in competition at the Venice Film Festival. In 2004 Indigo co-produced, with Fandango,  Sorrentino’s second feature, The Consequences of Love, in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and winner of five David di Donatello awards.

In 2006, the director’s third film, The Family Friend, was also selected in official competition at Cannes, and this year Sorrentino’s Il Divo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicola Giuliano
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
interview: Philippe Desandre
film profile] won the Jury Prize at Cannes while another Indigo production, Andrea Molaioli’s debut feature The Girl by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], picked up 10 David Di Donatello awards.

Il Divo has sold throughout all of Europe and is coming out in France. What are the most intriguing elements of Sorrenti’s film for European audiences?
Nicola Giuliano: An 18-year-old cannot remember recent Italian history. Giulio Andreotti is well-known but it is hard to place him in a contemporary political context. Audiences, therefore, do not search for documentary elements in the film but discover the metaphor of power and Paolo’s filmmaking, which is what allowed us do so well at Cannes and at the box office. Sorrentino has great directing and screenwriting talent.

Quiet Chaos [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antonello Grimaldi
interview: Domenico Procacci
film profile] has just come out in France,  Gomorrah [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Domenico Procacci
interview: Jean Labadie
interview: Matteo Garrone
film profile] is reaping success everywhere and a small film like Mid-August Lunch [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has been picking up prizes and acclaim. It is undoubtedly an exceptional year for Italy. What are the winning elements that today allow for greater circulation of Italian films in Europe and the world?
Until a few years ago there was a huge limit in circulation, because the market is strangled by the type of distribution that imposes few titles on numerous screens, in numerous cinemas. The moment that less “other”, not national, product is distributed, we see that Italians start circulating. It simply means that the level of quality has risen, which is also proven by the films of Vincenzo Marra, Emanuele Crialese and Saverio Costanzo.

Making 150 films per year has given producers and directors the possibility to make mistakes and grow, to arrive at their third or fourth film and, finally, success. But if resources are just as quality is increasing, there will be fewer films, a narrower and weaker cultural terrain and fewer possibilities to truly mature. Great moments such as this one are built over time, are the result of what has been sown previously. But if budget cuts continue in a few years we risk no longer being the phenomenon that we are today on the international market.

How does Indigo choose its projects? What is your company’s philosophy?
We let audiences decide on a film’s quality. We have no family tradition of producing, we’re film lovers who want to produce the kinds of films we’d like to see as viewers. We don’t exclude any genres. Our films definitely have a set path, they pass above all through festivals, but I certainly wouldn’t mind one day earning €30m with a film produced by Indigo!