Focus – the Meeting Place for International Production – the event that targets the proposals of Film Commissions from all over the world, returns for its fourth edition at Islington’s Business Design Centre in London, on December 4 and 5.

This year there will be a strong participation of Italian film commissions assembled in the Italian Film Commissions stand.
They are: Apulia Film Commission, Film Commission Torino Piemonte, Film Commission Vallee d’Aoste, Genova-Liguria Film Commission, Lucana Film Commission, Roma Lazio Film Commission, Sardegna Film Commission, Sicilia Film Commission, Toscana Film Commission, Trentino Film Commission and Umbria Film Commission.
Also participating with their own stands are the production company Mammotty and the service production company Locations with Groove.

“We have high expectations for Focus: we believe that it is an event to be monitored which shows a well articulated regional network”, says Stefania Ippoliti, president of the Italian Film Commissions. “Italy” continues Ippoliti “is once again part of a circle of ambitious international productions whether they be theatrical films or TV series and is at the center of big stories from “Medici” to “My brilliant friend” to “Gomorra”, to “I bastardi di Pizzofalcone” to “Suburra” to “Dogman”. 2018 has registered a remarkable increase in foreign productions choosing to film in Italy. These occasions do not just valorize the Italian locations as sets, but also our professional skills: all the cinema industry crafts dominate the spotlight, from the set designers to the costume designers to the make-up artists. Basically: we are able to offer beauty as well as knowledge.”

In order to promote networking, at 5 p.m. on December 4, the Italian Film Commissions will announce the winners of the Set of Culture Awards competition devised in collaboration with the European Film Commission Network as part of the European Year of Culture. A drinks reception will be held the next day, December 5, at 12.00 mid-day.
The Set of Culture Awards proposes to help European citizens learn more about and promote their region’s heritage through the places used in cinema and television which every film commission preserves in its database of locations.
Each European film commission nominated the five locations in its own region that best represent the spirit of Europe, from the viewpoint of the cultural heritage, traditions and historical events that led to the building of the European Union. Five categories were identified: Castles, Bridges, Squares, Archeological Sites and Sites of European historical events.
The locations selected were promoted through the Cineuropa platform to the general public who were called upon to vote, for each category, the location that best represents the spirit of Europe in terms of European identity or memorable moments of a shared European history.

The Europeans were joined by already well-established partners like the European Film Commission Network and the European Federation for Commercial Film Producers, as well as the European Coordination of Independent Producers, the European Women’s Audiovisual Network, The International Federation of Film Distributors’ Associations and the European Documentary Network.

Focus will offer a packed program of panels, workshops and case studies in which over 150 industry leaders will share their experiences and reflections on cinema, television, advertising, games and animation. Returning to Focus, the new European entries include Portugal which,
some images of last year’s edition of Focus-the Meeting Place for International Production this year, is attending with the stand of the Portugal Film Institute that has recently launched a new cash rebate system which it has just presented at the American Film Market in Los Angeles.
A Portuguese film commission, Loule Film Office, was responsible for ‘opening up’ the country’s path to Focus. Its far-sighted director, Manuel Baptista, started frequenting the London rendezvous in 2016, the year in which Portugal hosted the filming of “That good Night”, John Hurt’s last movie.
“I found Focus to be an efficient and productive opportunity for encounter, to such an extent that last year I returned with the Loule Film Office stand” says Baptista “and on that occasion the scriptwriter of “That good Night” Charles Savage contacted us for the new project he is directing, a co-production between England (Cloud 9), Portugal, Germany, Belgium and a Norwegian investment fund, that will be filmed in Loule in 2019.”