2009 was an exceptional year for Apulian cinema: for the first time a movie generated and filmed in the region “” “Cado dalle nubi” “” dominated the domestic box office and was one of the top ten movies of the Christmas season. 2010 opens with a “frenetic” January which sees the launch of the Circuito delle Sale di Qualità  [Circuit of Quality Movie Theaters], the opening of the Cineport in Bari and Bif&st “” the international film festival directed by Felice Laudadio .
Everything began in 2007 with the creation of the Apulia Film Commission which, over the last two and a half years, through its Film Fund, has supported around 100 audiovisual productions, more than triple the number of movies previously filmed in Apulia in the space of sixty years (30 movies between 1935 and 1995).

The catalyst for this exponential growth was the Apulia Film Fund which, with less than 2 million Euros, has generated expenditure in the territory around ten times higher than the resources utilized.
“When I am asked what Apulia means, I use just one word: light”, says Silvia Godelli, Councilor responsible for Culture.
Godelli continues:
“We started with two ideas: to exploit local potential “” the places, stories, as well as the professional skills and methods of representation used “” and to aim for a European and Mediterranean type of intervention”.
“We decided to put the pieces together and try to create a system”. The instrument was the Apulia Film Commission.
Created with multiple “souls” “” interpreted by the president, Oscar Iarussi, journalist and movie critic, and the director, Silvio Maselli, a creative young executive “” and a traditional mission, to provide services to production companies working in the territory, the young Film Commission has a strong cultural vocation.