11/02/2007

With no less than a dozen feature films screening at the market and the unique documentary films collection Cuban Memories by Italian journalist Gianni Mina screening in the Berlinale Special, veteran Italian sales agent Adriana Chiesa had just 10 minutes to relax in her comfortable and spacious stand at the EFM while waiting for buyers’ reactions and queries..

“Berlin is very well-organised, at the centre of Europe and a key cultural centre”, she says. “The market, run professionally by Beki Probst, has always been key for us. Now that MIFED is gone, it is probably at the same level as Cannes and the right place to promote our European films. Although it’s too early to say how business will be, everyone is here”.

“Latin America is coming back for Italian films and there is movement in Mexico. Asiatic territories (Japan and Taiwan in particular) are also very good for us. Unfortunately, it is still quite difficult in some European territories such as the UK and Germany, where broadcasters are not acquiring Italian films”, she told Cineuropa. “As vice president of the European Film Export Association, I think this is something we have to tackle seriously and we have to coordinate our action in Europe”, said stressed.

Adriana Chiesa Enterprises’s Berlin line-up includes the world premiere of Mario Monicelli’s comedy The Roses of the Desert; Giuseppe Tornatore´s The Unknown [+see also:
trailer
film profile], sold almost everywhere (including to Senator in Germany) with a few territories remaining to be closed, such as Spain; Viaggio segreto [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Roberto Ando; the Greek musical comedy Dying in Athens by Nikos Panayotopoulos; and Jimmy della Collina by Enrico Pau, winner of a European Art & Essai Prize at Locarno.

In Berlin, Chiesa is also negotiating potential Cannes contenders such as Silvio Soldini’s Elsa and Riccardo Milani´s Il disco del mondo (Piano, solo) [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Kim Rossi Stuart.