09/10/2002

For the second consecutive year the Italian Federation of Arthouse Cinemas - FICE is organising its annual Meeting in Ravenna on 15-18 October. This important annual event promotes and creates awareness about quality films and the network of film theatres throughout Italy that screen them.
FICE president, Domenico Dinoia announced the programme that includes the Italian premieres of eight films, including Roman Polanski's Palme d'Or-winning The Pianist and Patrice Leconte's L'Homme du Train. He also presented a new book edited by FAC president Franco Montini entitled "Cinema in the Third Millennium", a painstaking analysis of recent Italian quality films and their protagonists. The book is complimentary to the Meetings in that both encourage and support arthouse films, a genre that has in recent years lead to the discovery of some fifty new Italian film directors.
Dinoia also announced two interesting round-table discussions about art house film distribution and promotion in a pan-European context.
“We must continue creating the space and a taste for quality films,” said Dinoia. “We know that we are headed in the right direction because in recent years, the number of arthouse cinemas has grown from 300 in 1994 to 500 in 2002. There are also several new producers and distributors who help cinema improve itself by encouraging audiences to return to seeing quality films. These kind of films need a proper infrastructure and a different kind of promotion that is not limited to the usual trailers we see in our TV ministrone.” Dinoia said he was optimistic about recent results although he concluded his speech with an appeal to the Italian government to “concentrate on the bits that function well instead of throwing away what we have already achieved.”

(Translated from Italian)