Giancarlo Di Gregorio
Italy For Movies is the Italian web portal for professionals in the audiovisual sector and film tourists launched in September 2017 by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities. “It’s a site in two languages, Italian and English, that allows to consult the funding opportunities and incentives provided at regional, national and international level, and a catalog of Italian locations, included in a geolocated database, complete with practical information, environmental details and organizational contacts,“ said Giancarlo Di Gregorio, Director of communications of Istituto Luce-Cinecittà and Italy for Movies to Señal News.
From September 2019 Italy for Movies is also an app that puts cinema venues within smartphone reach. The complete and updated guide allows travel in a curious and innovative way to discover the Peninsula and the places that make films. Available for free for iOS and Android on the Apple Store and Play Store, the app has a simple and intuitive interface, with double access for tourists and film operators who have the possibility of being geolocated and discovering the most beautiful films shot nearby or best locations available nearby. So producers, location managers and directors can immediately find other settings not far away, access the relevant sheets accompanied by technical details and consult the incentives available for that area.
The purpose of Italy for Movies is to provide Italian and international workers a unique consultation tool that brings together all the information useful for their work in a single portal: a tool institutional information and communication coordinated between the State and Regions, aimed at promoting Made in Italy on an international level. “It’s the only portal that combines production and creative needs with the immense vastness of beauties of our country, filling a gap for too long considered not a priority,” affirmed the executive.
Talking about the italian locations, Di Gregorio said that Italy is full of wonderful or unusual places, varied and semi-unknown to the world of cinema that can turn into potential sets. “It is no coincidence that the third objective of the portal is to increase the degree of attractiveness and visibility of our territories,” asserted. “Italy for Movies has the particularity of being a unique showcase for the whole Italian territory. With the ‘Location’ section (constantly updated), it intends to give the same visibility opportunities of the most famous settings to the lesser known ones, be they villages, towns, museums, archaeological areas, libraries, landscaped areas,” he completed.
For the Director of communications of Italy for Movies the foreign investments are fundamental for the survival and internationalization of the sector since their provide economic returns and formidable effects on the territories and the efforts of the legislations in this sense have therefore been very important. “The main instrument is that of ‘foreign’ tax credit, which provides for up to 30% tax credit on production costs carried out on Italian territory and up to a maximum of 20 million euros per year per company provided that the expenses of production in Italy do not exceed 75% of the global budget (any expenses incurred in another EU Member State must be treated as expenses incurred in Italy up to a maximum of 1/6 of this 75%). To benefit from the ‘foreign’ tax credit are Italian executive production companies and technical industries (taxable in Italy) on commission from foreign production companies", explained.
In the current time, the Italian audiovisual sector is one of the hardest hit by the ongoing pandemic, but even with cinemas and productions shut down, Italy for Movies is continuing the work of attracting productions and their investments in the territories, intensifying editorial and communication of activities and highlighting the initiatives of the individual Regions and Film Commissions. “Now more than ever, the portal cannot fail in one of its missions: to promote and increase the knowledge and attractiveness of Italian cultural and landscape heritage through film and audiovisual production. Only by continuing to support the territories with the revival of Italian sets of films, series and games as travel destinations could we say that we have really helped them when we can go back to touring and visit the country again,” he opined.
By Romina Rodríguez
It’s the only portal that combines production and creative needs with the immense vastness of beauties of our country,” Giancarlo Di Gregorio Director of communications of Italy for Movies
