€8.5m more for cinema
After the heavy state budget cuts of the past several years, cinema can breathe a sigh of relief. The Committee for cinema problems of the Ministry of Culture has approved dividing an additional €50m for the Visual Arts Fund (FUS) among the various sectors of the Italian entertainment industry (through Decree Law No. 223 of 2006). Of this amount, €8.5m has been assigned to cinema.
"With this financing," said Vice Minister of Culture Elena Montecchi, who oversees the matter, "we wanted to increase resources for entertainment. These resources must go to production, not for management expenses or fixed institutional expenditures. Entertainment associations have asked us not only to invest, but to make better investments. We are staring now, with a new and more equal apportionment".
"A political victory for Minister [of Culture] Francesco Rutelli", is how Alberto Francesconi, president of AGIS (the umbrella group for the majority of Italian companies within the film industry) defined it, before going on to express his "absolute appreciation over these measures".
(Translated from Italian)
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