THE FIRST SHOWCASE OF CANDIDATES FOR THE DAVID DI DONATELLO AWARD IN ITALIAN FILMS
ITALIAN SCREENS, the festival that will showcase the best of Italian cinema in the name of a cause high artistic and cultural value program, was founded on the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), Cinecittà for the Ministry of Culture’s Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual (DGCA-MiC), and the Academy of Italian Cinema – David di Donatello Awards.
Following the initial dates in Miami and Atlanta (7-9 October 2022), the initiative will travel to India from 12 to 15 October 2022, focusing on six films nominated for the David di Donatello, an award established by the Academy of Italian Cinema in 1955 to honour the best Italian and foreign films released each year.
The display will be inaugurated on October 12 in New Delhi with a special screening of Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore in the gardens of the Italian Embassy, about the great film composer Ennio Morricone.
All screenings will take place concurrently, until October 15, at PVR cinemas in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Kolkata’s iconic New Empire cinema, in the presence of the institutions and some of Indian cinema’s most prominent celebrities.
Among the films shown are Il Buco by Michelangelo Frammartino, Sulla giostra by Giorgia Cecere, Qui rido io by Mario Martone, L’Arminuta by Giuseppe Bonito, and Ariaferma by Leonardo di Costanzo, all in Italian with English subtitles.
The initiative is part of a larger project to promote cultural links between Italy and India, which Cinecittà is organising for the MiC’s DGCA in order to negotiate a rapprochement with Bollywood and facilitate meetings between producers, distributors, and creatives from both countries.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has traditionally prioritised strategic considerations.significance of audiovisuals as one of the greatest methods to portray Made in Italy abroad and promote Italian quality,”
said Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni, Director General for the Promotion of the Country System (MAECI).
As a result, we have chosen to expand Italian Screens in India to commemorate the spectacular ‘Nation branding be IT’ campaign, with special promotional activities related to screenings in four Indian cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru.
The ‘be IT’ campaign, launched in November of last year, promotes a new way of promoting Italian quality and Made in Italy using digital and social platforms, and this occasion with Cinecittà and our diplomatic consular network is an essential exhibition of visibility.
“It is a project that has been strongly desired by the DGCA of the MiC and entrusted to Cinecittà, that finally makes the oft-abused concept of ‘working as a system’ effective and the oft-quoted ‘cultural diplomacy’ a reality.” The goal of this action is to promote our cinema at ad hoc gala events in some of the world’s most important and iconic cities as part of the support activities for the internationalization of the Italian audiovisual industry by leveraging the capillary diplomatic and consular network, the prestige of the Academy of Italian Cinema – David di Donatello Awards, and the excellences of the national audiovisual industry. At the same time, we will host ‘business-oriented’ events in which we will present all of the benefits that Italy has to offer to foreign operators who want to co-produce, shoot with us, or distribute our films in foreign cinemas, so combining cultural and commercial promotion. The project, which is launching in many places, will result in a tenfold increase in appointments across all continents over the next two years.”
explains Roberto Stabile, Head of Special Projects of the DGCA of the MiC at Cinecittà,
“We are honoured to be a partner of the Italian Screens project, which emphasises and enriches the effort of study, support, and selection of the best Italian cinema composed during the year and ending in the David Awards night.” Today, it is critical to support our skills and to propagate our cinema culture and cultural specificity throughout the world. Italian Screens appears to best interpret one of the Academy’s most essential missions: the teaching of new audiences in the cause of broad inclusiveness.”
adds President and Artistic Director Piera Detassis,
