We enjoyed a telephone conversation with Francesco Giai Via, head of industry at the Bellaria Film Festival (BFF) which is unspooling 7 to 11 May. The Romagna-based gathering’s industry events will take place between 8 and 10 May, involving over 120 Italian audiovisual professionals. Giai Via took us through the main additions to this year’s edition.

Cineuropa: Could you explain to our readers the aims of BFF Industry and the (In)Emergenza initiative?
Francesco Giai Via: Historically, the BFF has been intertwined with so-called independent Italian cinema. The notion of “independent” has become increasingly complex and hard to define in the modern-day production landscape, whether in global, European or Italian terms. That said, in some sense we’re driven by the desire to lend greater visibility to the kinds of films which have aligned with Bellaria’s approach over the years, and to create a place for exchanges and opportunities. The support lent by Cinecittà is fundamental in this respect; it served as a catalyst for the creation of (In)Emergenza, our programme which falls half-way between a mentoring, work-in-progress and financing initiative. Cinecittà provides a significant award for (In)Emergenza: full post-production services worth €20,000 and a cash prize of €5,000.

We launched a call and selected six projects which aren’t far off completion— realistically, they are still quite far off, especially the independent productions as opposed to the self-produced projects. There’s huge variety between these six projects: there are three documentary feature films, two fiction feature films and one short fiction film. The production companies themselves are also wonderfully diverse, both geographically and in size terms, too: there are more established firms like Zalab, for example, but there’s also a young and entrepreneurial Lucan company which is involved in a minority co-production project with Poland and which has previously taken part in various labs around Europe. Which isn’t always very common and which it’s important to highlight…

How many projects have you received?
I’d say just over thirty, but we do have one stringent condition: their budget has to be under €400,000. It’s something that really needs to be thought about, especially when it comes to Italian fiction films which might be self-produced. They have to be real indie films. We do have to go looking for them, but we find them eventually...

You’ll also be hosting Itineranze Doc.
Yes, we’re hosting the first of the development labs organised within Itineranze Doc, an initiative involving a network of festivals which also includes Bellaria. This first step will mark the beginning of Itineranze’s work and will mainly consist of a brief presentation of the participants’ profiles.

In terms of the panel discussions, what are the main topics they’ll be covering?
As a participant in lots of industry events, the panels I like the most are the ones where I take something away with me at the end: an idea, an incentive, an experience… I believe that events like Bellaria are opportunities for panel discussions which provide spaces to reflect upon good and bad practices and which can tackle the themes I feel are vital when we’re thinking about our country’s films and future films.

“Development” is definitely a key word; it’s a fragile yet decisive phase which is often undervalued. If it’s well structured, it can have a huge impact on a film’s success. For the panel discussion on development, we invited representatives from the Emilia-Romagna Film Commission and the Film Commission Torino-Piemonte, which was one of the first bodies to invest in development by way of the Doc Fund, which came about before Paolo Manera was the director and which has supported an entire generation of documentary makers. I’ve also invited three female producers from the new generation who are very competent and fully aware of the importance of development for a project’s success.

A good development process can really help foreground powerful and significant stories, in fact, we often ask ourselves which should be the ones we tell. Mauro Delpero, Valia Santella and Annamaria Granatello from the Solinas Prize will take part in the panel dedicated to stories. These are three figures who play an active role in finding, writing and developing stories for themselves and for others in very different ways. I have no doubt it will be fascinating event.

Another key theme is the work carried out by distributors and cinema operators. After various ups and downs where we thought cinema was dead, then it took off, and then it hit crisis point again, we might now be finding a new balance. It’s a continual sinusoidal movement. That’s why I decided to invite people who I feel have been protagonists in these processes and who can tell concrete success stories. The aim is to work out whether these positive aspects can be turned into a system and then a kind of “formula”.

The panel discussion will involve big names like Gian Luca Farinelli, who’ll be talking about his experience with Modernissimo, and Andrea Occhipinti, who got the season going again with Wenders, Miyazaki and several first and second works, and who’s also starting to move within production circles. There’ll be Anastasia Plazzotta from Wanted: she proved that documentaries could also draw in crowds by way of No Other Land [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]. There’ll also be Dario Bonazelli of I Wonder, who was one of the first to understand the importance of adopting a particular marketing approach. Ultimately, it’s an agenda full of key figures who can really help draw out good ideas for the future.

What are the long-term objectives for the industry section? Do you plan to keep it in its present form or will you expand it?
This year I managed to pull together the programme as I’d imagined it to be, but also as the people supporting the festival and the participating institutions had imagined it. I tried to make every choice significant, rationalising and simplifying things. The aim is to offer up a balance in terms of our content, which should only make appropriate demands on people’s attention levels and be easily absorbed by those taking part.

As for possible future developments, it will all depend on the choices made by the festival and by the entities supporting it. Personally, I think this year’s programme aligns with the current identity of the BFF, which has already opened itself up globally thanks to the recent introduction of the international competition. And internationalisation will be an interesting theme to reflect upon in future, a process which requires a clear identity. These days, all festivals have an industry section. But those that are worth going to boast a certain dynamic, well-defined projects, a strong identity... I think Bellaria has found a recognisable identity of its own this year, and that’s the starting point for building the future, regardless of its size.