04/03/2015 - Sustainability in production was the key topic at the European Cinema and Audiovisual Days in Cagliari

(l-r): The Duel of Wine producer Gabriel Pujia, Enrica Anedda, Valentina Argiolas, The Duel of Wine director Charlie Arturaola and Nevina Satta

At the European Cinema and Audiovisual Days event in Cagliari, Sardinia, around 100 producers, filmmakers, funding and festival representatives, and experts from other industries introduced sustainable approaches, projects and methods related to film. While the Flanders Audiovisual Fund in Belgium requests that producers report their carbon footprint in order for them to receive their final instalment of production grants, there are not yet any ecological criteria enshrined in other European countries’ guidelines. “This will be just a matter of time,” stated Joanna Gallardo, co-ordinator of French organisation Ecoprod, which launched a green charter in order to sensitise key players and encourage strategic investment. The CNC in France supports studios and audiovisual service providers with 40-60% of the costs for environmentally friendly investments. 

“Sustainability has an economic impact on our industry because it is about efficiency,” underlined Gianluca Della Campa, who represents the European energy company Edison in Italy and France. The firm gives out the Edison Green Movie protocol for film productions that cut up to 20% of their emissions. Among the movies that were able to minimise their energy consumption is Human Capital [+see also:
trailer
interview: Paolo Virzì
film profile] by Paolo Virzi. Instead of using a traditional 12-ton generator, the production opted for a power supply that was provided by a temporary electricity-grid connection. While a generator costs about €3,600 per week, the energy consumption costs via a grid were reduced to €750 per month. “We can save money when we reduce emissions,” said Della Campa.

While festivals such as Drap-Art in Barcelona demonstrate the creative ways in which material can be recycled, the CinemAmbiente Festival in Turin not only presents shocking films about climate change, but also organises public events to bring subjects such as food waste to people’s attention. At an open-air lunch in Turin, more than 3,000 people got the chance to taste what could be cooked with food that ended up being wasted by supermarkets. Taste is also a big issue when it comes to wine: in Cagliari, sommelier Charlie Arturaola showed the trailer of the new comedy The Duel of Wine, the sequel to El camino del vino (The Ways of the Wine), which premiered in the Culinary Cinema section at the Berlinale in 2011.

Nevina Satta, director of the Sardegna Film Commission, who organised the conference, is convinced that the symbolic seeds that are sown now will bear healthy fruit. “These three days have changed us: from now on, we can change things together.”