“For a year now, the cinema and audio-visual sector has been living in uncertainty regarding its future. This is work on which entire families depend, yet more than 70% of the workforce, actors and authors, are jobless, many for more than a year, almost all without job prospects in front of them. Every additional day of delay is a piece of the sector that disappears forever.”

The sector’s organisations – about twenty of them, including 100Autori (Associazione dell'Autorialità Cinetelevisiva), Aic (Autori Italiani della Cinematografia), Air3 (Associazione Italiana Registi), Aitr (Associazione Italiana Tecnici di Ripresa), Aits (Associazione Italiana Tecnici del Suono) e Anac (Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinematografici) – are raising the alarm and asking the government to “hurry up” and to promptly pass the corrective decrees for the tax credit and the documentation requested by the judges of the TAR - Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale del Lazio regarding the legislation, in order to "have clear and constant rules that can allow all the subjects involved to operate democratically in conditions of certainty and stability”. “We can’t allow ourselves to wait any longer: the sector needs concrete and timely answers to avoid collapse”, continues the press release.

According to the organisations, the rules of the new tax credit and selective funding, with an abrupt interruption for the evolution of the sector, have made access impossible for the majority of small and medium productions, relegating the possibility of production only to a select few. “Independent cinema is at risk of extinction, that cinema from which new authors arise, through which is built and preserved the cultural future of our country, which is also inspiring for the rest of the world.” Professionals of the sector are talking of a jobs crisis that has quickly transformed into a cultural crisis.

Lucia Borgonzoni, undersecretary of state for culture, has responded to these accusations, affirming that there are currently 37 active productions in Italy and clarifying that the TAR hearing has been moved to May and that the latest correction to the tax credit will be published soon. Chiara Sbarigia, president of APA - Associazione produttori audiovisivi, has also addressed the topic during the presentation of the Global Series Festival. “I understand the preoccupation but sets are open, there are 38 active ones. I would keep the alarm lower and look to de-bureaucratise the tax credit”, she commented. “We are hoping and praying to move forward with the tax credit, we have followed the reform process, we have given suggestions. I think the problem concerns cinema and smaller productions, however, not the audio-visual sector,” she added.