Blandini: "69m only certainty for 2006"
"For 2006, the only certainty for the cinema is the availability of 69.3m euro, i.e., 18 percent of the 385m that comprise the FUS (Visual Arts Fund). As for the rest, we know nothing." This was the response of Gaetano Blandini, head of Cinema Direction at the Ministry of Culture to questions set forth yesterday by daily paper Il Sole-24 ore on public financing cuts.
Blandini explained that, in 2005, "we were able to count on 83m, 18 percent of the 464m of FUS. Another 17m from Lotto proceedings must be added to these funds. Other resources, of approximately 12m, came from other funds and by projects financed by ARCUS [the cultural development company subsidized by the Ministry of Economy)." Cultural Minister Rocco Buttiglione also told the aforementioned newspaper that he is relatively hopeful in being able to "recover funds for the FUS, even though it will be less than what is necessary. But we have to restructure the system in order to pursue public goals through private means."
(Translated from Italian)
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