31/08/2005

"The Italian cinema is lucky to have three famous filmmakers such as Pupi Avati, Cristina Comencini and Roberto Faenza who make films that people like". The managing director of Cinecittà Holding Alessandro Usai, has commented with great satisfaction on the Venice International Film Festival’s programme . "The Italian cinema has to attract the section of the public that does not only represent the commercial aspect of cinema, i.e. those two or three films which alone make a box-office success. But Venice is also a worldwide festival and Müller is a global citizen : this year the USA and Asia are very well represented, two continents where cinema is in full expansion".

This year, in Venice Cinecittà Holding organized, in conjunction with the Italian Ministry for Cultural Goods and Activities, the Luce Institute, the Aip-Filmitalia and the CSC, an area called Cinema Encounters, located in the Excelsior Hotel, to which many prestigious guests will be invited, such as David Cronenberg, Dante Ferretti, Emir Kusturica, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Ridley Scott, Luca Zingaretti, Margherita Buy, Tony Renis, Pupi Avati, Franco Battiato, Cristina Comencini, Willem Dafoe.
The Italian Minister, Rocco Buttiglione, will inaugurate the area and meet the journalists during a press conference in order to illustrate the changes created by the Urban Order and by the new initiatives to collect extra funds for the cinema. Cinecittà Holding will announce the official report on Italian cinema for the 2000-2004 period, which analyses the data given by the Siae and the Ministry for official data on financing, as well as a major initiative on product placement, financing consulting and on co-productions in the French territories.

(Translated from Italian)