30/03/2012 - Kick-off on April 16 with the presentation of Antonacci’s new record. New features include a newsreel preceding each screening and space for new directos

Cinemas are not restricted to films in The Space. The cinema circuit born from the merger of Medusa Cinema and Warner Village, which counts 35 multiplexes in Italy and 20 million viewers a year, opens its doors to concerts, documentaries, sporting and cultural events to be aired simoultaneously in all its facilities, but it will also give space to new directors, who, thanks to a competition, will be able to see their works distributed to the big screen.

Presented in Milan yesterday, The Space Extra will start on April 16 with the presentation of the new record by singer-songwriter Biagio Antonacci, an event which will be filmed in the capital of Lombardy’s Odeon and aired live in all the circuit’s cinemas, with a repeat on May 2. This will be followed by the ice-skating show Opera On Ice with Carolina Kostner (19 April), the opera Madama Butterfly in 3D (May 3) and the Italian Cup final between Juventus and Napoli (May 20). The documentaries on show include Project Nim by James Marsh (April 26), winner of the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, If a Tree Falls by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman, nominated to the 2012 Oscars for Best Documentary and Marina Abramovic: the artist is present by Matthew Akers (pictured – May 10).

"We are staking a lot on this project which we have already tested with the success of the World Cup in South Africa, but cinema remains our company’s main business", said The Space’s President, Giuseppe Corrado. "That is why we are promoting a competition for best new directors, who are invited to propose their films to The Space. The audience will be the jury and at the end of the year we will award the young talent who will have won the greatest appreciation". Next week will also see the launch of The Space Cine News a news bulletin before each screening which will cover cinema, music and gossip, newsreel-style.

Meanwhile, good news also on the occupational front: after a long negotiation coordinated by the Anem (Associazione nazionale esercenti multiplex), The Space Cinema and Italy’s other leading chain of multiplexes, Uci Cinemas, have reached an agreement together with the unions to safeguard the work of projectionists, who have been penalised by the digital evolution and the progressive disappearance of film. The agreement guarantees employment, albeit with different qualifications and placements, for over 300 projectionists.

(Translated from Italian)