08/09/2005

The first edition of "Cinema – Rome's Festa Internazionale" will take place in Rome from October 13th to October 21 th 2006. Created and promoted by the Music Foundation of Rome, the event was presented today at the Venice Lido during a press conference attended by the Italian Minister for Cultural Heritage, Rocco Buttiglione, The Venice Biennale's President, Davide Croff, Venice's Mayor, Massimo Cacciari, Rome's mayor, Walter Veltroni and the Music Foundation's President, Goffredo Bettini. During this event, the agreement between the Venice Biennale Foundation and the Rome Music Foundation was presented.

Rome's Festa Internazionale, which will be granted a budget totaling between 7 and 8 million euros is being promoted by the City of Rome as well as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and will take shape thanks to the financial contributions of the Lazio Region, the Province of Rome and public and private partners. The screenings will take place in the Auditorium designed by Renzo Piano. The organizers have considered "a structure divided into four main sections: the first one will be aimed at actors, the second will be designed for competition and will select 12 to 14 films; another will be open to new international talents; and last but not least, the fourth one will be devoted to long awaited international premieres. An area dedicated to the screening of children’s films will also be provided".

The Italian capital's mayor Walter Veltroni talked about the competition with a view to the Venice Film Festival: "Rome's initiative will be 'different' compared to that of the Mostra. We will try to go ahead with our own local finances without asking for State grants which will probably have to provide the Venice Lido with a new Palazzo del Cinema. It is however positive that Rome is providing itself with a cinema event as it has already done in other sectors: all this will only have the slightest of influences on the excellence of Venice's cinema”.

Davide Croff, the President of Venice's Biennale does not seem worried at all: “the fact that we presented today the agreement between the Venice Biennale Foundation and the Rome Music Foundation shows that these two institutions will still collaborate.
However, according to Venice's mayor Massimo Cacciari, the competition between the Venice Film Festival and that of Rome is obvious: “If, on the one hand, Rome wants to create a metropolitan event (which does not represent any contradiction to Venice which has a Film Festival), on the other hand, Rome is creating an event with a competition, a jury, films and actors to invite: which obviously represents a contradiction. But I feel very positive regarding a competition that could be beneficial and useful for the entire film system. I however would like Venice to be able to compete against Rome and this will only be possible when the new Palazzo del Cinema is created”.

(Translated from Italian)