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Marco Müller • Artistic director of the Rome Film Festival

"We have set the bar quite high"

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- Marco Müller, the new artistic director of the Rome Film Festival, describes his relaunch strategy for the event

Cineuropa: What is the main goal of your first edition as artistic director of the Rome Film Festival (November 9 to 17, 2012)?
Marco Müller: To build a more realistic film festival. And, without renouncing to the dimension of a folk festival with accessible great films about to be released in the next few months, to show to what extent the festival needs other expressive languages. We have invented a competition, CinemaXXI, which both means cinema from the 21st century and "expanded cinema", to show that cinema can allow itself to include all the latest trends in art, fine art, architecture, theatre, music, and dance. The main idea is to move forward 360 degrees. But one clearly needs to start from a reality, that of the Italian market. Less and less Italian distributors can now allow themselves to buy the great Anglo-American films that might make their world premiere at a festival. We therefore had to make choices according to the needs of filmmakers, producers, and sales agents.

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And what of your world premiere strategy?
The three lines of the competitions are entirely made up of films making their world premiere, a good 60 films in total. We have set the bar quite high to check to what extent sales agents, directors, and producers could be interested in a festival that happens bang in the middle between the end-of-summer festivals (Venice, Telluride, Toronto) and the mid-winter ones (Sundance and Berlin). Our aim is to be able to show that there might be a need for a new platform as long as it slots in well around mid-November. In some countries, the films might be released in the few weeks after the festival, and in those countries where the procession of Christmas films already starts towards the end of November - early December, there is talk about releases probably from the second week of January onwards.

How did your battle for a nomination influence your work?
We had to hurry to invent a selection of world premieres in only four months and a bit, which was not easy. For some films, it obviously depends on the budget, dates, and strategies for their release and promotion. These had been well fixed before my nomination was made official just before Cannes. The real work was not able to start before the beginning of June.

Do you have the impression of being under pressure?
I'm quite used to that, if one remembers some editions of the Venice Film Festival. Nobody would ever ask the directors of the Cannes or Berlin film festivals if they are supported by the right or the left. In Italy, it's the first question, whereas a festival can only be judged by its selection and strategies in defending films.

How can one lessen the gulf between the festival and the Business Street market that marked during previous editions?
All the festival's important films will also screen at the Barberini cinema so that buyers can take advantage of the selection without having to travel to and from the Auditorium each time. I also pushed back the market to be held during the second week of the festival. This way, the films that are screened from the first weekend will benefit from great visibility, which allows the works to exist for a differentiated market like the European one. When I see the names of accredited professionals at the market, I am delighted to see that there are decision-makers and that they are also coming for the festival's films. This is a great change from previous eras when the films screened at the market had often come from Venice-Telluride-Toronto.

You have spoken of a "make-or-break" edition.
It's the number zero of a formula that is the only one to be able to justify an investment of €12m. A rebound festival, and some are very good, only costs a third of that amount.

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