This year, the Turin region hosted two Hollywood blockbusters, Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” and Louis Leterrier’s “Fast X,” This is the 10th Movie of the Year “Fast & Furious” As well as franchises and major TV productions like HBO series “My Brilliant Friend.” Local productions featured at the Cannes and Venice film festivals, and at this week’s Torino Film Festival six local titles are in the lineup. Variety caught up with Film Commission Torino Piemonte’s president Beatrice Borgia, and its director, Paolo Manera, at the festival to discuss the health of the region’s production sector.
“Choosing Piedmont is not just a matter of locations, incentives or our work as mediators. […] We have created a structured system with thousands of highly specialized professionals, many actors as well as service producers and post-production companies,” Borgia declared.
Italian series “Il Nostro generale” The Torino Film Festival plays (Courtesy Maria Vernetti).
Borgia stated that Piedmont has, after Lazio and Milan, the largest number of audiovisual professionals. More than 200 productions are shot annually in this region, including commercials and music videos.
Manera said that there is a need for more stories from the area. Groenlandia’s crime series is one example of such a project. “La legge di Lidia Poet,” starring Matilda De Angelis as Italy’s first woman lawyer and set in Turin in 1880, and Laura Luchetti’s “La bella estate,” based on Cesare Pavese’s novel of the same name, which wrapped filming a few days ago.
Torino Film Festival is a platform for local production. “The movies the festival picked reflect the great variety of our works, as they include auteur films such as Mirko Locatelli’s ‘La Memoria del mondo,’ several documentaries, and one series, namely Lucio Pellegrini and Andrea Jublin’s ‘Il Nostro generale,’ starring Sergio Castellitto,” Manera said.
“La Memoria del mondo” Plays at the Torino Film Festival. Courtesy of Stranifilm
Borgia was added: “This festival is the perfect ending to a successful year that started in Cannes with ‘The Eight Mountains,’ and continued in Venice [with Carolina Cavalli’s debut ‘Amanda’ among the local productions] and Rome.”
Speaking about how the film commission aims to grow in the medium to long-term, Manera listed three pillars: internationalization, quality and responsibility. This third pillar is more than just a responsibility to the environment. It also implies. “a 360-degree attention to the choices which can bring change within the territory and globally.”
Carolina Cavalli’s “Amanda” Premiered at Venice Film Festival
Charades
Manera and Borgia disclosed that the film commission’s production support will be boosted, and new grants will come to the rescue of the exhibition sector.
Challenges ahead included strengthening the region’s production infrastructure, and forging stronger links with other sectors, such as tourism and education, and the audience, the duo said.
Additionally, the film commission wants to improve its connections with other local film agencies. “It’s time to join forces with the Museo del Cinema, the Torino Film Festival, Torino Film Lab and all the players who represent Turin’s film scene nationally and internationally,” Borgia declared.
Salone del Libro (Turin International Book Fair) is also being used by the body to promote relationships between publishers and those who are interested in adapting novel ideas.