by Maurizio Ermisino
It’s a poker of women that he presents himself with the 7th edition of Filming Italy Sardegna Festival, created and directed by Tiziana Rocca, which will be held from 20 to 23 June in Cagliari and at the Forte Villagewhich was presented last Friday in Rome, at the Senate of the Republic at Palazzo Madama. Brie Larson, the Captain Marvel actress, will in fact be the honorary President of the Festival; Ambra Angiolini will be the godmother, Paz Vega the president of the jury of the short films section and Claudia Gerini the ambassador of the Festival. Obviously this poker must be added Tiziana Rocca, the organizer of the Festival. A woman entrepreneur who in just a few years has managed to organize not only festivals (together with Filming Italy Sardinia we remember Filming Italy Los Angeles which takes place in California in February), but something more. Filming Italy is an ecosystem, a world, a perfect machine that manages to bring together, twice a year, an enormous number of Italian and international talents. In Los Angeles, in the heart of the Mecca of Cinema, or in Sardinia, in a place of relaxation and holiday, Filming Italy is a party, a showcase, an opportunity to meet. And there is still a woman who has passed away and who is in our hearts, among the symbols of the festival: it is Sandra Milo, to whom this edition is dedicated, in whose honor the restored version of Juliet of the Spirits will be screened . Also this year the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival will take place in collaboration with APA – Association of Audiovisual Producers, with the patronage of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, the Municipality of Cagliari, the Costa Smeralda Consortium and with the collaboration of Forte Village. Senator Antonella Zedda did the honors. “Thank you for the way you value young people, the environment and culture” she began, addressing Tiziana Rocca. “Thank you so much for how much you spend and how much you love Made in Italy”
Tiziana Rocca: “I created this event from scratch and I’m trying to make it grow”.
Thus began the organizer of Filming Italy Sardegna, a festival characterized by the promotion of Italian audiovisual products, the valorization of female art and attention to the environment. In this sense, there will be 10 Italian previews at the Festival, and we will see many films that are in theaters during the days of the festival, given that Filming Italy supports the Cinema Revolution initiative, for a total of 80 titles. Among the previews there will be Cult Killer, a thriller with Antonio Banderas, Max Nardari’s comedy Amici per caso and the Japanese animated film by Netflix, The Imaginary. And then Katie Holmes will present her latest film as director, Rare Objects. Bella Thorne will be presented with the Filming Italy International Award for her short film, her directorial debut, Paint Her Red, which will be screened during the Festival.
“The festival supports women directors.”
Tiziana Rocca confirms this, turning to Claudia Gerini, dressed in green and sitting next to her. “When she was godmother of Filming Italy I told her: you have to be a director, you have to be a director. And she did. We need more women directors.” “I have seen this festival grow in the last 4-5 years” she intervened Claudia Gerini. “I have done masterclasses with young people, and the nice thing is that there is this exchange with the public. Here female presences are protected. Tiziana always told me that I had to be a director and now I’m also working on projects as a producer”. “These festivals are nurseries for future collaborations, it is a way of being together and exchanging ideas on cinema” she continues. “It is not always a given to be able to combine ideas and launch future collaborations. I hope to grow together with the festival. Because there are still margins for growth.”
APA has been collaborating with the festival for seven years and organizes a moment dedicated to Industry.
On Saturday 22 June at 12, there will be the panel “Filming Italy: Made in Italy in international challenges with cinema and audiovisual, for the consolidation of a global audience”. Moderated by Simone Gialdini, Director General of ANEC, the panel will include, among others, Senator Lucia Borgonzoni, Chiara Sbarigia, President of APA, Mario Lorini, President of ANEC and Luigi Lonigro, President of the Anica Publishers and Distributors Union, Iginio Straffi, President of Rainbow Group and Vice President of APA, Matteo Zoppas, President of ITA – Italian Trade Agency and many others. Simone Gialdini of ANICA said that an agreement was signed in Cannes between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture to promote Italian products abroad also through embassies. Iginio Straffi will also be awarded for his creation, The Winx, which turned 20 and which started a production reality that is today of an international level.
The strength of the event is also in Tiziana Rocca’s ability to attract sponsors.
Intesa Sanpaolo, Enel, Cotril, Montegrappa and Guess are the main sponsors. “It is the sixth year that we have supported this festival” explained Nicola Corigliano of Intesa Sanpaolo. “It was a great satisfaction: step by step we saw the growth of this festival. For us it is an important moment that crowns the commitment we have throughout the year to support the audiovisual sector”. But the partnership with another region, the Marche Region, is also interesting, geographically not close to Sardinia, but close in intent, those of enhancing the territory and the Italian product. And here a particular discussion opens up, that of film tourism, a trend that has been developing a lot in recent years. Filming Italy Sardinia is an environmentally friendly festival, completely plastic free. The prizes are made of recycled materials, the backdrops are made of recycled paper, the red carpets are made of ecological material that can be recycled.
This year too, the closeness to women is confirmed.
And it’s not just for the many authors and performers present in Sardinia. But also because it renews the collaboration with Women in Film, Television & Media Italia, a non-profit association founded in the Seventies in the USA and arrived in Italy in 2018, where it has become a point of reference in the audiovisual and media sector. On this occasion, Women in Film, Television & Media Italia will present three short films to the Festival audience: Switch by Daniela Giordano Castorina, We should all be futurists by Angela Norelli and Corpo unico by Mia Benedetta. “The three shorts, through the lenses of fantasy and horror, take us into stories about gender violence and desire” explained Domizia De Rossi, president of the association. “Our hope is that the authors can continue to create and contaminate us. We must do the exercise of imagining beyond, as our authors do.”
