The Many Enemies of Co-productions in Italy: Moviegoers, Broadcasters, Policy-Makers and Half-Hearted Producers

Abstract

The chapter investigates the reasons why Italy plays a marginal role in international co-productions. The author identifies four stakeholders that discourage co-productions: (a) moviegoers, who basically prefer 100% national films or US movies; (b) broadcasters, who are unwilling to finance-release-schedule risky films; (c) policymakers, who are more interested into attracting film shoots and promoting Italian executive producers for foreign films (through local funds & tax incentives) than into favouring co-productions; and (d) Italian producers themselves, who are not brave enough to explore new production patterns. For all these reasons, the number of international co-productions with Italy is stable and has not been influenced by the evolutions of national/local laws of the past few years. Of course, virtuous exceptions exist, as Paolo Sorrentino’s films demonstrate.