“The largest part of the Fund was concentrated on national and international bids, a single “over-the-counter” bid with a maximum contribution limit of € 150,000.
This was joined by the bid for regional productions which has a lower maximum limit, a de minimis regime, that involves a maximum of € 200,000 over 3 years of contributions,” explains Massimo Mezzetti, the councilor responsible for culture, youth policies and legal policies at the Regione Emilia Romagna.
“We are finally starting off with all the bids in line because, up until now, we have been in a running in phase: the law arrived halfway between two legislatures and each had a slightly different time schedule.
Things will be easier for members of the trade even though, at this time in Italy, the market is rather at a standstill since we are still waiting for the decrees implementing the new cinema law which would release the part related to tax benefits.
It seemed as though they were going to come out in December, now they are talking about March- April. It is possible that the larger part of the production will arrive in the second half of the year”.
However Mezzetti is confident that the figures for 2016 will be surpassed, “that was what can validly be considered the first year because in 2015 (Ed: the year the law came out), there was an incredible rush to get the engine running. In the end, a total of 60 works funded out of the 184 applications received seems like a good result to me”.

Looking at the figures in more detail and pulling them apart, we can see that the documentary genre received the most support (29 titles including “100 anni di Caporetto” by Davide Ferrario, produced by Rossofuoco, and “Il mondo in camera” produced by Apapaja ).
This confirms the region’s age-old vocation as it has always backed this genre, and events held in the region include the Biografia Film Festival, at which the programming of documentaries predominates and which also features the Bio to B market rendezvous.
Support was also provided to 15 feature movies, 7 films or TV series, 6 web series and 3 shorts. The total cost of the projects presented was € 19,220,743, of which € 2,485,120 came from Fund bids, with an estimated direct regional spin-off of around € 9,509,667.
“So far we have mainly dealt with national productions, but there has also been some interest from important international projects that are now waiting to see the evolution of national legislation, in particular with regard to the tax credit”, states Mezzetti.