To incentivize coproductions between Italy and Israel: this is the aim of the protocol for carrying out actions for the development of screenplays that support Italy – ISRAEL coproductions, which will be signed on May 18th in the Italian Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival by the Roma Lazio Film Commission and the Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts, Tel Aviv, one of the main funds supporting cinema in the Israeli system with the participation of the Cinema Department of the Israeli Ministry.
“The Roma Lazio Film Commission puts a constant effort into the development of opportunities for coproductions” comments the President of the Roma Lazio Film Commission, Luciano Sovena “starting with the work carried out in the area of Morocco and Tunisia which resulted in the recent coproduction “Cuori, quadri, fiori, picche” directed by Giuliana Gamba -an Italy-Morocco coproduction which is being filmed in Lazio, right up to the development of coproductions with countries in the Balkans of which the movie “Nonostante la nebbia ” directed by G. Paskaljević, a coproduction between Italy-Serbia -Macedonia-France, is one of the first results, filmed entirely in Lazio around Campagnano and Lake Vico”.
The signing of the protocol is the fruit of a series of collaborative actions which began in early 2018 when the coproduction agreement between the Governments of Italy and Israel came into force. Israel is very active in the field of theatrical and audiovisual production and has a very well developed industry especially as far as TV series are concerned. The collaboration was then brought forward by the Roma Lazio Film Commission which took up the invitation of the Israeli Film Council and the Cinema Department of the Israeli Ministry of Culture to take part in various initiatives for the development of coproductions, the first during the previous edition of the Cannes Film Festival and subsequently in Tel Aviv in December 2018 at the conference of Israeli theatrical producers – “International Conference of Israeli Producers”.
Finally, the meeting at the Berlinale 2019 with Eti Cohen, the Director of the Cinema Department of the Israeli Ministry of Culture was decisive.
As the Director General of the Roma Lazio Film Commission, Cristina Priarone, states “expanding coproduction opportunities for Italian producers and the Lazio region and building reliable institutional partnerships are among our objectives. Director General Cohen enthusiastically suggested this collaboration starting with joint resources, considering our structure and our regional instruments which are particularly strategic for new international coproduction developments.”
The activities of the Roma Lazio Film Commission at the Cannes Festival Marché focused on the support and development of coproductions also includes the customary promotion of the Bando Lazio Cinema International Open Call with the announcement of the opening of the second window (May 30th – July 31st), in which € 5 million will be made available to producers.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the Roma Lazio Film Commission will be participating with 5 locations in the European Set of Culture awards organized by the Italian Film Commissions, the winners of which will be announced on May 22nd in the Italian Pavilion. The locations in Lazio, each corresponding to a different category, are: the Castle of Santa Severa; the Ponte di San Francesco in Subiaco; the Devil’s Bridge in Vulci; Piazza Navona, Rome; Villa Adriana,Ventotene.
