An initiative of the EU MEDIA Programme with the support of the Italian Government
Since 1992 MEDIA Salles has been promoting the European cinema and its circulation at theatrical level


Italian Cinema Worldwide

 

 

 


 

Milan, 26 October 2005

PRESS RELEASE

ITALIAN CINEMA WORLDWIDE
MEDIA Salles at SHOWEAST 2005
(Orlando, United States, 24 October 2005)

A selection of trailers of the most recent Italian productions, soon to be released in theatres in North and South America: this is how MEDIA Salles chose to take part in the International Day at ShowEast 2005. US exhibitors, but also those coming from Latin America, the Caribbean area and Canada, gathered at the Orlando World Center Marriott, were thus able to watch scenes from films such as Private (Saverio Costanzo), Once You’re Born (Marco Tullio Giordana), Come Into The Light (Roberto Faenza), Good Morning, Night (Marco Bellocchio), The Days of Abandonment (Roberto Faenza), Persona Non Grata (Krzysztof Zanussi), The Keys to The House (Gianni Amelio) and The Tiger and The Snow (Roberto Benigni).

And if the moderator at International Day, Paul Hanneman, Executive Vice President of Twentieth Century Fox International, quoting a recent survey on American audiences, commented that “young people are demanding that the cinema be capable of telling stories”, Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles, remarked that the Italian films presented are, above all, “rich in stories, some of which invented, whilst others taken from real life, often the rawest of it, such as the kidnapping and assassination of the Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro (Good Morning, Night) or the murder of Don Puglisi by the mafia (Come Into The Light). All with a narrative development that cannot fail to attract the spectator”.
The stories based on real life also include Private: commenting on the decision by the Academy Awards Committee to exclude it from competing for the Oscar as best foreign film because the acting is not in Italian, Brunella commented: “this exclusion has the limit of failing to recognize that a film does not belong to a country because of the language spoken, but because it gives expression to talents and brings into play ideas and people who do belong to that country”.

The “Networking Lunch” following the screenings, provided the opportunity for operators interested in the circulation of Italian films to meet. Participants included Cine Colombia and Procinal, the Colombian distribution and exhibition company which will be taking The Keys to The House to the big screen in December, as well as Caribbean Cinemas, which, with three screens already operating and 6 under construction in Puerto Rico, is keeping a particularly watchful eye on independent cinema.

The next stage of Italian Cinema Worldwide will be CineAsia in Beijing, from 13 to 15 December 2005.

In the page http://www.mediasalles.it/journal/ecj4special_05ing.pdf of the MEDIA Salles’ website, the “Special ShowEast” issue of the MEDIA Salles’ Newsletter “European Cinema Journal” no. 4/2005, which includes the fact cards on the films screened as well as an overview on Italian films to be released on the whole American continent.
The trailers of the films screened in Orlando are available in the page http://www.mediasalles.it/orlando05/trailer.htm.

We take the opportunity to announce that the Center in the North of Florida where ShowEast is taking place has not suffered damage from the passage of the hurricane Wilma.


MEDIA Salles, a project operating 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.
Italian Cinema Worldwide is a MEDIA Salles’ initiative, held thanks to the support of the Italian Government.

MEDIA Salles
Via Soperga, 2 – I-20127 Milan
Tel.: +39.02.66984405 – Fax: +39.02.6691574
E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it