10/05/2012 - Marco Müller will direct the festival from November 9 - 17. The BoD's ratification puts an end to the dispute with the Turin Film Fest

Green light for Marco Müller at the Rome International Film festival. In a majority vote the Board of Directors last night approved the decisions previously taken by assembly of members. The Rome Film Festival will therefore take place from November 9-17 in the Auditorium Parco della Musica and, for 2012, it will have a budget of just over €11M. The BoD also approved Müller's contracts, for a three-year period and with the same salary of the previous artistic director, Piera De Tassis, and that of the DG Lamberto Mancini.

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The dates are therefore those requested by the artistic director, in spite of protests from the Turin Film Festival, which should start on November 23 and end on December 2. "Unfortunately we don't have much flexibility", explained Fondazione Cinema's president Paolo Ferrari. "If we started earlier, we would have the problem of overlapping with the American Film Market. Many wouldn't come to Rome, whereas we really care about 'Business Street', we want it to grow and become even more important". The situation was explained yesterday in a meeting with the organisers of the Turin Film Festival at the Directorate General for Cinema MiBAC. "I think they understood that we didn't want to dictate or take a decision against them", Ferrari added.

(Translated from Italian)