Feature: Sino-Italian cinema co-production has big potential: experts

Cinema co-productions between China and Italy are still at the initial stage, but there is huge room for development, and efforts are being made to exploit such potential, Italian experts said.

Since three years ago, ANICA, the umbrella organization for Italian film, audiovisual and multimedia industries, in collaboration with Italian trade agency ICE has established a Chinese desk in Beijing, which has allowed for starting a fruitful dialogue with China and sign a co-production agreement, ICE president Riccardo Monti said.

Based on the agreement, with a minimum contribution of 30 percent from one of the co-producers, it is possible to make dual-nationality movies, the ICE head said. The first of such movies was Caffe by Italian director Cristiano Bortone.

"This year I expect a change of pace especially driven by cinema entrepreneurs from the two countries, and we will support their collaboration projects," Monti highlighted. Besides the creation of the Chinese desk, ICE has planned to present 10 Italian movies during a "tour of Italian cinema" in China starting from the end of April, and will launch a Chinese section on its website with all the information about the Italian film industry.

Other upcoming initiatives involving ANICA and supported by ICE include an agreement with Chinese magazine Movie View, initiatives to attract Chinese productions into Italy, maintaining dialogue with China's main film festivals, and new partnerships with Bridging the Dragon, a Berlin-based association connecting European and Chinese film professionals, and with the Far East Film Festival in Udine, in city in northeastern Italy, according to Monti.

"The co-production agreement recently signed by Italy and China will open up new opportunities," confirmed Sabrina Baracetti, director of the Far East Film Festival and president of Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche (CEC) public cultural association.

The Far East Film Festival, whose 18th edition will be held from April 22 to 30, is organized by CEC and aims to promote East Asian popular filmmaking amongst European audiences and to create bilateral exchange between filmmaking companies.

"Our festival has always explored genres, of which China is a great producer, so that we have a lively dialogue with Chinese international distributors and producers," Baracetti explained. But at the same time, she also added, Sino-Italian co-production is not an easy field yet.

Baracetti cited the example of the "romantic comedy," a genre which she observed was the most popular in China at the moment. "The romantic comedy is also common in Italy, but this genre is traditionally strongly linked to the territory where it is produced, therefore it is difficult to export or co-produce," she noted. "The Sino-Italian co-production is a very open scenario, we still have to find a way to work together especially as regards content," she pointed out.

In her view, many good movies have come out of China, yet Western audiences still often have a sort of prejudice towards Asian cinema. "They imagine they cannot understand these movies or even recognize the faces of protagonists. But these worries can be quickly overcome, as shown by our festival which year after year has attracted growing audiences," she said.

"This is a confirmation that there is large space for co-productions. We just need to enhance dialogue with China's world of cinema, like other European countries have done," Baracetti said.

She said that presently the Far East Film Festival counts around 60,000 viewers including many international journalists and buyers. This year the festival has also launched, in partnership with the International Audiovisual Market (MIA), a new business platform called Focus Asia, to strength relations between Europe and Asia in the genres cinema market.

"We are very interested to host international productions, they bring inestimable value to our territory," said president of the Lombardia Film Commission, Alberto Di Rubba, adding that the filming of Chinese drama So Young took place in Milan and other cities of the Lombardy region.

Di Rubba said drama was very much appreciated in Italy, citing the results of surveys. "I have found that Chinese producers are very attracted by Italian locations," he said. Endit