Managing Director of the Roma Lazio Film Commission Cristina Priarone has seen her position as President of the Board of Directors for the IFC Italian Film Commissions Association confirmed for a second term. It was decided by the Association’s Assembly during the Italian Film Commissions’ annual training event in Rome. Paolo Manera of the Film Commission Torino Piemonte and Maurizio Gemma of the Campania Region Film Commission have both been named Vice President, the former for a second term, while Tina Bianchi is likewise returning as Secretary General.

"The Board will continue to strengthen the role of the Italian Film Commissions in order to promote the region’s resources and to enhance the driving force that is the Italian audiovisual sector”, Priarone insisted while thanking fellow board members for their ongoing trust. “The growth of our regions and of their professionals and talents, thanks to the audiovisual sector, consolidates this precious source of growth for our country on the global stage”.

Maurizio Gemma declared himself “extremely proud of playing a role on the IFC’s Board, having been its president ten or so years ago. It’s important that a Film Commission from the South represents the needs of these highly attractive regions, who have already proved their dynamism, which now needs to be consolidated within the national policies impacting our sector”.

For his part, Paolo Manera was “happy to be able to continue the work we started three years ago and to work alongside all the Film Commissions and the various sector players on a huge, wide-ranging, high quality and socially responsible growth and development plan for the regions, within an ever more inter-national mindset”.

The event organised by the Association of Italian Film Commissions saw representatives from the various Italian Film Commissions coming together for their annual training and updates session. This year’s sector-focused panel discussions involved the likes of Vice President and CEO of Medusa Film Giampaolo Letta,; CEO of Vision Distribution Massimiliano Orfei; Director of the Locarno Film Festival Giona A. Nazzaro; Director of RAI Fiction Maria Pia Ammirati; Supervising Location Manager Ben Firminger; President of Women in Film, Televison & Media Italia Domizia De Rosa; DEI Specialist Marzia Macchiarella; and Ministry for Culture Undersecretary Lucia Borgonzoni, alongside critic Enrico Magrelli and documentary-maker Francesco Zippel who both moderated the talk.

The IFC’s next international stop will be the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market, by way of the Italian Pavilion, an institutional space made possible with the backing of the Italian Ministry for Culture, the MAECI, the ICE Italian Trade Agency, Cinecittà and ANICA. The international networking event “Cappuccino with the Italians” is set to unspool on 18 February, in collaboration with leading regional funds from Germany, Austria and the Basque Country.