What are the new changes for granting and allocating selective funding? The latest legislation on the subject introduces several innovations. Following, are the details that will impact the audiovisual sector.
The new legislation that controls the public funding in support of the audiovisual sector has introduced major changes. First of all, the destination of the funding has been extended, as it won’t be limited only to feature films for movie theaters but also to the writing of long films, television or web works lasting more than 52 minutes – and for web products the length can be even shorter – in the manner specified in the new law 220/2016. As a further requirement, at least one of the authors needs to be an Italian citizen or a citizen of the European Economic Area, fiscally resident in Italy.
Another important change concerns the criteria for the allocation funding. Funds will no longer be allocated according to ‘the recognition of cultural interest of the film’ but following the evaluation of the project by a team of five experts chosen among internationally renowned personalities with highly-proven expertise in the sector.
Moreover, in contrast to the previous provisions, no scheduled auditions will take place and there will be a maximum number of projects financed for each sector, as specified in the annual calls.
Starting from 2018, there will be three sessions to submit the application and, in order to guarantee the work is supported throughout its entire life cycle, for each session there will be six lines of intervention (scriptwriting, development and pre-production, production, domestic distribution of feature films for theaters, international distribution of films and television works, exhibition).
The maximum amount allocated for selective funding is 20 thousand euros – 15 thousand for short products for the web – and the funding is provided in two stages: the first, after the publication of the ranking and the second after the delivery of the developed screenplay that must take place within 12 months from the down payment.
