Milan, 17 July 2007

Cinemamondo:
The new MEDIA Salles’ project debuts at Filmvideo Montecatini
and awards the French "Ricochet"

"Ricochet", a short film by V. Sarah Gurevick, won the "Cinemamondo" Award, which valorizes and signals works that promote intercultural dialogue.

The awarding of this recognition, on 14 July, was an occasion to present the "Cinemamondo" project, recently launched by MEDIA Salles, the initiative that since 1991 has been operating in the cinema exhibition sector, with the support of the MEDIA Programme and of the Italian Government.

The "Cinemamondo" project, which has the support of the Italian Ministry of Social Solidarity, combined the analysis of the viewing habits of audio-visual products by immigrant communities in Italy - a field as yet unexplored - with the realization of educational activities aimed at secondary school students, using films as a territory for knowledge – sharing and meeting between different cultures, which are ever more present in schools.

The initial phase of these initiatives, which was carried out with the collaboration of the Vigorelli Professional Training Centre of the Province of Milan, involved three Milan-based high schools in a first series of workshops titled "Faraway, so close! The world gets together in the cinema".

The same students who participated in these workshops were also the jury of the Cinemamondo Award on its debut. Their work of selection, which was hosted by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Lombardy Department seat, worked with the short films of the new section of Filmvideo Montecatini "Lo sguardo d’Europa", whose theme this year is dedicated to "Migranti".

The awards ceremony was opened by the screening of the "Cinemamondo" video presentation, created from photographs by Rosa Celorio, a student of the Bauer Professional Training Centre, with the collaboration of the Vigorelli Professional Training Centre.

Jens Rykaer, the MEDIA Salles President, in his message destined to the participants of the awards ceremony, expressed his «great satisfaction for the interest shown towards this new MEDIA Salles initiative, which saw the collaboration of traditional and prestigious institutions in the field of professional training and cinematography».

Rykaer also reminded how the aims of "Cinemamondo" represent an ideal continuation of the goal that MEDIA Salles posed itself at the beginning of its activity, synthesized by the campaign "Europe gets together in the cinema", that had involved thousands of European screens. «Since then, 15 years have passed, that not only saw the enlargement of the European Union from 12 to 27 members, but also the multiethnic and multicultural transformation of European society: cinema, thanks to the force of its language of images and its capacity of representing new realities, constitutes an extraordinary instrument for reaching the goal of unity in diversity».

Sincerely Yours,

Elisabetta Brunella
Secretary General

MEDIA Salles, a project operating since 1991 within the framework of the European Union's MEDIA Programme, with the support of the Italian Government, fosters theatrical distribution of European audiovisual products, both by high profile campaigns involving Europe's cinema exhibitors and by initiatives to raise the visibility of European productions with industry players and potential audiences, creating specialized information channels on a global scale. Thus the current initiatives from MEDIA Salles dovetail in a program with a triple focus – training, promotion and information – and maximum combined effect.

The "Vigorelli" Professional Training Centre, promoted by “Provincia di Milano”, plans and varried out permanent and continuous day and evening higher education courses, enabling occupation and re-qualification in the following sectors: IT, Media Literacy and Technology (filming, sound, mounting, special effects, tv-cinema production), Chemistry and Environment (analysis techniques, environmental issues), Business Services, Quality, Management and Human Resources (topics include prevention and management of workplace risks, quality management, new work organization models, business creation and development and human resources).

The "Vigorelli Professional Training Centre" is also involved in training and career orientation projects, research on emerging professional competencies in the workplace and in anticipating new training needs.

FilmVideo 2007 is organized by the Montecatini Film Association (whose President is Giorgio Sabbatini), with the support of the Pistoia Province and its Culture Town Council, of the Tuscany Film Commission, of Montecatini Terme and its Entertainment Town Council, of Montecatini Terme’s Tourist Board (APT), of the Italian Republic’s High Patronage and with the Carlo Collodi National Foundation’s sponsorship.

The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre Foundation) is the most important Italian institution for training, research and experimentation in the field of cinema, intended in its widest sense, of films, documentaries, fiction and animation. Among its goals, are the development of the cinema and audio-visual art and techniques to levels of excellency, through distinct sectors of the Foundation itself, the National Cinema School and the National Cinematheque. The National Cinema School, founded in 1935, has its main headquarters in Rome, with triennial courses of acting, screenplay writing, production design, set design and costuming, photography, sound engineering, production and mounting. Furthermore, there are two outlying seats, the Piedmont Department, located at Chieri, near Turin, founded in 2001, that oversees the School of High Specialization in the Arts and Crafts of Animation and the Lombardy Department, located in Milan, that was founded in 2004, from an agreement between the Foundation Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and the Lombardy Region, the European School of Fiction, the European School of Corporate Cinema Productions and the Academy of Digital Knowledge, with the goal of forming new talents in Television Fiction, in Advertising and in Corporate Cinema Productions.