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THE FUND/The Second Call to be announced in Cannes
The fact that Jonas Carpignano is at Cannes this year, this time as a member of the jury for the Semaine de la Critique, is grounds for satisfaction for the Italian movie industry but, above all, for Calabria and its Film Commission which, together with the director of “A Ciambra”, inaugurated the work of its new team three years ago.
With “A Ciambra” for the first time Carpignano brought to the cinema of his homeland two David di Donatello awards, the Quinzaine award at Cannes 2017 and, in the same year, an Oscar nomination.
For the Calabrian film commission it was the beginning of a series of acknowledgments: best short at the David di Donatello awards 2018 for “Bismillah” by Alessandro Grande and a Silver Ribbon (Best Actress) for Il “Padre d’Italia” by Reggio Calabria’s Fabio Mollo.
Plus, the short “Penalty” (already a Golden Globe winner in 2017) by the director from Crotona, Aldo Iuliano, and winner of the “I Love Gai” Award organized by the SIAE (Italian Society of Italian Authors and Publishers) and “The Millionairs”, the directing debut of Claudio Santamaria which won the SIAE’s Talento Creativo (CreativeTalent) award.
Launched with a € 1 million budget in 2017, from this year until 2021 the Fondazione Calabria Film Commission can count on resources amounting to € 5 million.
It does not limit itself to local talent: the Film Commission has managed to intercept big international productions like the Fox series “Trust”, directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle, and the successful Sky series “The Miracle” by Niccolò Ammaniti.
It has supported theatrical projects whose message is the fight for legality like the Rai 2 docu-film “Lo Squadrone” and Giacomo Campiotti’s latest success on Rai 1 “Liberi di Scegliere”.
Last summer La Sila was the location of the second film by the director- revelation Gabriele Mainetti: “Freaks Out”.
And filming has just come to an end on “Ad Africo” , an “epic” story about this land’s desire for redemption by the Calabrian Mimmo Calopresti starring another illustrious fellow countryman: Marcello Fonte, Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival 2018 for Best Actor in “Dogman”.
Convinced that films should not be made in beautiful places but in the right places, i.e. the ones that are the most functional to the stories and economically advantageous, the staff of the film commission is working to boost the services provided to productions: from location scouting to permits, to interventions on hotel tariffs, to finding qualified workers, to expanding the location database.
Having selected the recent protagonists of its film sets (Camigliatello Silano for “Freaks Out”, Orsomarso and Civita for “Trust” and Fiumefreddo for “Il Nostro Sangue”), the Fondazione Calabria Film Commission continues to carry out a census and cataloguing of sites, buildings, areas of monumental interest, villages and places of worship that give a sense of the variety of the region’s artistic-historic and cultural patrimony.
In parallel with its efforts to promote the region’s attractions – with the relevant direct and indirect economic spin-offs also linked to tourism – the Fondazione Calabria Film Commission continues its commitment to strengthening the Calabrian audiovisual sector by creating opportunities for local workers and launching training courses for young independent producers.
“By virtue of the new course undertaken” comments the President of the Calabria Film Commission, Giuseppe Citrigno “national and international productions have started looking at our region again with extreme interest. Above all our choice to back young emerging filmmakers has been rewarded: so we will continue to support the new generations of Italian cinema”.
