During the panel “Italian productions and new narrative languages”, organised by the magazine Box Office with Anica and Anec, new propositions to support the national cinema were discussed

A moment from the panel (© Ciné Giornate di Cinema)

New suggestions to support national Italian cinema emerged from the panel “Italian productions and new narrative languages”, organised by the magazine Box Office in collaboration with Anica and Anec, which opened the Ciné - Giornate estive di Cinema di Riccione (1-4 July). Taking part in the meeting were Rai Cinema’s administrative director Paolo Del Brocco; screenwriter Isabella Aguilar; Annamaria Morelli, administrative director of The Apartment; Giampaolo Letta, vice president and administrative director at Medusa Film; Marta Donzelli, producer at Vivo Film.

The organisers of the panel recalled data from early 2025 related to the Italian film market, which was mostly supported by national films (43% of the total money earned in the first trimester), with the success of titles such as Madly [+see also:
film review
film profile] (distributed by 01), Io sono la fine del mondo (Vision) and Diamanti [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Vision). The share of the market taken by local titles then dropped in the April-June trimester, although total earnings by Italian cinema almost reached €79 million in the first semester (+41% on the same period in 2024).

Isabella Aguilar - who confirmed her talent with the recent success of Madly, directed by Paolo Genovese (€6 million in profit) and co-written by Aguilar with Lucia Calamaro, Paolo Costello and Flaminia Gessi - opened the debate by claiming that the general public “who we are lucky to reach with our stories” is the sum of more niche, smaller groups who like different things. “Madly was written with nuanced jokes in order to resonate with different sensibilities and ironies. When writing a screenplay, it is necessary to think about the ‘ideal spectator’ for that film. It isn’t simply about pinpointing a core target, but rather acting in a vital way to build stories that can raise interest in a stratified audience”. Aguilar cited the authors at Pixar and DreamWorks Animation as “masters” of that vision: “their animated films are never just films for children but instead take care of adults with ‘gifts’ conceived specifically for them in their writing”.

Paolo Del Brocco highlighted how necessary it is to take risks in screenwriter and production, going beyond the confines of genre. “One has to connect narrative depth with emotional impact. To put together authorship and popularity. Today, content is created to last a few seconds; cinema must differentiate itself to create impactful stories that move people. We have to be more responsible in our choice of projects, taking more time to let the potential of a film fully mature.”

Del Brocco, who in recent years has followed the Oscar campaigns for Io capitano [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Vermiglio [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maura Delpero
film profile] and is aware that awards at the big international film festivals are powerful promotional tools, suggested investing mostly in order to make films become one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, allocating a fixed contribution of €10 million for each Oscar campaign that could be provided by the Cinema Fund of the Ministry of Culture and from private partnerships.

Annamaria Morelli from The Apartment, a company from the Fremantle group “focused on great auteurs, in order not to produce standardised films”, also agrees on the importance of investing in experimentation with new languages and in the search for new auteurs. “Investing in new directors is crucial for the future of cinema, even if not all the films by new authors are successful at the box-office”. For Morelli, it is necessary to “rationalise the number of films to produce, but without forgetting that cinema is an industry that creates work, a strategic asset with a high multiplier: for each euro invested into the production of a film, €3,54 are generated”. Morelli, who has co-produced Paolo Sorrentino’s new film, La grazia, which will open the Venice Film Festival, has also highlighted “the fruitful change of perspective” that occurs when a great auteur is also the producer of their own film.

Giampaolo Letta added how important it is to give films an international breath, “forging alliances with European partners to give our productions major visibility”. Marta Donzelli, who with Vivo Film gave their starts to the multi award-winning filmmakers Laura Bispuri (Sworn Virgin [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Laura Bispuri
film profile]) and Maura Del Pero (Maternal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maura Delpero
film profile]) shared the perspective that investing in young people, in languages and research are “fundamental for an industry that wants to move forward. On first and second features, it is important to guarantee a degree of freedom, making sure that these auteurs aren’t too self-referential; investing in these auteurs also on their second and third film, inserting them into an industrial mechanism, even if their debuts didn't make big numbers at the box-office.” For Donzelli, the public should be challenged. “Vermiglio and The Great Ambition [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] are two films that impressed us with their results at the box-office. Cinema must train spectators’ gaze and even if that training is at times more tiring, in the end, it is useful, it has a social function.” As in the case of There is Still Tomorrow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paola Cortellesi
film profile].

“The films that have been successful in the past few years had a cinematic specificity, that extra je ne sais quoi that prompted spectators to see them in the cinema. They also had a social aspect, they asked questions about our society.”

Regarding the problems related to distribution, Donzelli recalled the 149 Italian films, decidedly too many, that had a very limited release last year. “Us producers must create an alliance with distributors in order for films to find a place in cinemas and get some visibility.” Donzelli appreciated the obligation of a binding agreement with a distributor recently inserted into the tax credit regulations, a fundamental instrument solicited by Del Brocco and Letta in order to support the promotion of films and their release in cinemas.

(Translated from Italian)