30/07/2014 - The decision, announced by minister Franceschini, would be a first step towards the ministry becoming a partner in the Rome Cinema Foundation. “But let’s make it a popular celebration”

MiBACT (the Italian ministry for cultural heritage and activities and for tourism) will contribute to financing the next Rome Film Festival, the 9th edition of which will take place from 16 to 25 October under the direction of Marco Müller. This was announced yesterday by Minister Dario Franceschini in a letter addressed to the mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino,and to the President of the Lazio Region, Nicola Zingaretti. This would be a first step towards the ministry becoming a partner in the Rome Film Festival, alongside the Rome Municipality, the Lazio Region, the Province of Rome, the Chamber of Commerce and the Rome Music Foundation. MiBACT, the letter reads, "with a medium-term vision in mind, is carefully evaluating the hypothesis that Istituto Luce Cinecittà could become a partner in the Rome Cinema Foundation".

In the letter the minister underlined that the new partner will have to have "the same prerogatives and the exact same rights compared to the other partners to influence strategies and proceedings for determining governance". This also serves to orientate the festival in the direction of a "real cinema celebration", one that is popular and urban-friendly and notably different from more traditional festivals like the Venice Film Festival. In its attempt to set itself apart from Venice and Turin, in a "systemic" vision of Italian festivals, Franceschini reiterated that the ministry is interested in strengthening the market sector and "appreciates integration between cinema festivals and other audiovisual production-related events, like the Rome Fiction Fest".

“I thank Minister Dario Franceschini for the economic effort, carried out in a period of public financial straits which we’ve experience firsthand in Rome", declared Mayor Marino. As for the ministry becoming part of the Foundation, stated Zingaretti: “It’s an idea that we’ve been working on for some time and that I am certain will allow us to strengthen and re-launch the Rome festival, giving it a clearer cultural identity too”.

We still need to determine the level of financial contribution: "Assuming that the 2014 edition of the cinema festival is already headed in the direction indicated”, the letter reads, the ministry will intervene “with a contribution that the General Directorate for cinema will see to quantifying according to the procedures laid out in the current legislation".

(Translated from Italian)