Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli had promised it at the Venice Film Festival: “I will respond in due time,” he said. The reference was to Nanni Moretti and the harsh attack he had reserved for the government by withdrawing the award for best restored film (to Ecce Bombo): “To my fellow producers and directors, I would like to say that we should be more responsive to the terrible new law on cinema.” And today's moment has come with its second question time in the House. The question posed by the Democratic Party was specifically about the concerns of industry workers about the reform of the film law and the so-called tax credit.
The new cinema law
The new law, the last act of Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, given the many (too many) titles financed but never brought to the screen, provides for a control function by the ministerial commission and, above all, a 40% advance on private investments, with a certain number of mandatory screenings at the cinema. Many directors, producers and actors have complained that the most experimental works or small works would be penalized in this way. Maura Depero, for example, director of Vermiglio, now nominated for an Oscar for Italy and winner of a Silver Lion, explained that with these criteria, her work would never have seen the light of day.
Giuli's answer
But nothing to be done. Today, Giuli explained that these criteria will not change. The reform, he said, comes to correct the distortions of recent years. “However, we must avoid two false representations. The law on cinema is not a superbonus, a citizen's income for artists. But there is no punitive intention at the Ministry of Culture.” Thus Moretti's quote, slightly modified: “Let's not continue like this, let's not hurt ourselves.” (In the film Bianca, 1984, Moretti said: “Let's continue like this, let's hurt ourselves” ed.)