There is a conflict between Sangiuliano and Franceschini over funds for Cortellesi – Cinema

There’s still tomorrow Paola Cortellesi, the actress’ directorial debut with a ‘feminist’ film that has reached the hearts of the public, as shown by over 21 million euros exceeded on November 23 at the box office thanks to the spontaneous darkness. they did not have access to the ‘selective contributions’ that are part of the public funding of cinema.
The fourth subcommittee of experts rejected the blockbuster film, which preferred three other titles, again with a budget of more than 4 million euros: Rapito by Marco Bellocchio, Comandante Edoardo De Angelis and the still unreleased Confidenze by Daniele Luchetti. The controversy surrounding the exclusion immediately became political between the current minister Sangiuliano and the former minister Dario Franceschini – under whose direction 15 experts appointed four subcommittees that evaluate the works proposed by the producers for access to the funds – certainly not diplomatic words flew.
Sangiuliano wanted to repeat that the commission was appointed by the previous minister, Franceschini replied that “the task of the minister is only to protect the autonomy of the technical commission and to respect its decisions, including those, as in this case, which are not shared. A minister who interferes in it is a crime to make commission decisions that provide funds for personal or political reasons. It may be worth remembering that.” Sangiuliano used the soccer metaphor of “throw the ball into the stands” and then snapped, “I know the rules and regulations well, I don’t take lessons from anybody about it. If there’s anyone you should direct your valuable suggestions to on what’s legal and what’s not it’s not, about what the minister can and can’t do, it’s not the undersigned but the one who tried to blame me and Meloni’s government for the decision on the lack of public funding of Paola Cortellesi’s great film”.
Support for Sangiuliano came from Gasparri of Forza Italia and Fratelli d’Italia. Sama Cortellesi, producers of Wildside (Fremantle group) and Vision, which is also a distributor, did not comment on the issue, while the polemic that pointed to complex economic mechanisms heated up between producers and operators in the sector, including on social networks.
“We are changing the entire tax credit by introducing new rules, which will have greater protection for all films and on the other side of the access criteria. If you want to be a commercial film, you can make a mistake once, twice, three times, so if none of your films work, you are no longer commercial film. The same applies to the commission. We are changing it. I am not taking anything away from the commission that was before, everyone has their own taste and because there is always a subjective part, but we will change them because we want to do them with fewer people, paid, who they dedicate their time to that, who have time to read what comes to them, which is a little more complicated today”, repeated the concept expressed by the Minister, Undersecretary for Culture Lucia Borgonzoni.
In addition to the tax credit (from which Cortelles also benefited over 3 million euros) there are also lines of intervention that are subject to evaluation by 15 experts appointed by the Minister of Culture divided into 4 subcommittees, as stated in the ministerial decree of March 14, 2022. In the fourth – the one for which the producers of There’s Still Tomorrow requested funds – the production of difficult films with modest financial resources is evaluated and includes films with a budget of more than 4 million. Of the five films presented in the second session of 2022 – Kidnapped by Marco Bellocchio, Edoardo De Angelis’ Commander, Daniele Luchetti’s Confidence, Silvio Soldini’s The Tasters and Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow – only the first three got the green light and automatically the other two finished at the bottom of the list . Inserting films with a budget of more than 4 million euros into a tender – in which the producers legitimately participate, choosing to access that financing, and not the first or second production for which Margherita Buy and Micaela Ramazzotti went for example to unravel this affair after the case of Cortellesi’s ‘slapping’ ‘.

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