Cinema and Economic growth - A Summary report

CINEMA AS A TOOL TO FOSTER THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF A REGION Brussels, June 6, 2012

On Wednesday 6 June 2012, the Cultural Association Argonauti, in collaboration with Giommaria Uggias, Member of the European Parliament in the Transport and Tourism Committee, organised a seminar on the opportunities that cinema can offer as a vehicle to promote tourism in a region. The event also an occasion to present the 2012 edition of the Film Festival of Tavolara, Una Notte in Italia, and the circuit to which it belongs, Le Isole del Cinema.

The seminar saw four distinguished speakers representing various stakeholders interested in cinema: Giommaria Uggias MEP, Emanuele Degortes, Member of the Cultural Association Argonauti, Antonello Grimaldi, Film Director (Caos Calmo) and President of the Film Commission of the Sardinian Region and Isabella Tessaro, Policy Officer in charge of the Media Programme in the Directorate General for Education and Culture in the European Commission.

The Sardinian MEP kicked off the debate expressing his pleasure in hosting the meeting to internationally launch the Film Festival of Tavolara. This festival, according to Mr Uggias, “since the early nineties has filled the summers of the North-East of Sardinia with magic”. “The aim of today’s event” explained Mr Uggias “is to encourage a debate between different actors involved in cinema, politics and tourism with the intent of creating cultural and economic development in Sardinia, Italy and Europe through the promotion of similar events to the Tavolara Film Festival which acts as a powerful attraction for tourists. More and more people, in fact, chose their holidays depending on the cultural events offered in their preferred geographical locations. Combining the spectacular landscape of Sardinia with the organisation of festivals and events related to the film industry is therefore a winning strategy for our region.”

Emanuele Degortes’ intervention used the Festival of Tavolara as a case study to analyse, with concrete data, the economic impact of similar events on the territory that hosts them in terms of tourism, media coverage, direct investments and networking opportunities for local businesses. Each year the Festival of Tavolara attracts 15000 tourists to its charming screen in the middle of a deserted island and the event works closely with the Marine Reserve of Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo to educate them on the importance of environmental protection. To show the impact of sustainable tourism on the surrounding area, the Marine Reserve conducted a study in 2011 to check how much the scuba-diving tourism within the reserve was worth. Using the “travel method” and on the basis of 20000 dives, the result came to the astonishing sum of 19 million Euros.

Mr Degortes then looked at how media coverage for festivals works as a publicity instrument for the territory and gave the example of Panorama (one of the main Italian weekly magazines) placing Porto San Paolo (one of the locations of the festival) among the 5 trendiest summer destinations in the world or Carolina Crescentini, an upcoming young

Italian actress, stating “Don’t go to the Caribbeans, come to Sardinia”. Emanuele Degortes then looked at how the events’ sponsors often work with local enterprises to create new business ventures. BMW, for instance, launched three of their new car models in Sardinia in the ten years they sponsored Una Notte in Italia while L’Oreal used the event to build their relationships with local distributors.

During the presentation, a few previews of the 2012 edition of Una Notte in Italia were given. The festival will take place from the 18th to the 22nd of July on the deserted island of Tavolara, the charming village of Porto San Paolo and San Teodoro. Among the confirmed movies we have: the Manetti Bros’ “L’arrivo di Wang”, Vicari’s “Diaz” and Ozpeteck’s “Magnifiche Presenze”.

Antonello Grimaldi looked at cinema from the industrial perspective and explained the role of the Sardinian Film Commission in attracting cinema productions for the benefit of the whole region.

According to Mr Grimaldi “Sardinia, although not the first region to adopt a Film Commission, has been a pioneer in launching one of the first regional legislations targeting the audiovisual industry”.

The Director of “Caos Calmo” emphasised the need to exploit not only the beautiful Sardinian landscapes but also interiors to ensure the biggest possible return to the region from an initial investment. He would also like the film commission to encourage various professionals, from electricians to builders and tailors, to join the audiovisual industry and bring their expertise for the successful making of movies. Grimaldi also reminded the public that the European Commission offers interesting opportunities in funding terms for Film Commissions. The Sardinian Film Commission intends to work with it to find ways of helping each other in the achievement of common objectives. Mr Grimaldi finished his presentation by explaining the philosophy behind the circuit of Sardinian Film Festival, Le Isole del Cinema. This circuit brings together four events, each focusing on one of the four thematic fields characterising cinema: script writing, the work of the actor, music and the role of directors. “These events take place in the smaller island of Sardinia (Tavolara, Carlo Forte, L’Asinara and La Maddalena) ensuring that the public is an enthusiastic one.

In times when we often assume that the modern audience is lazy and only willing to watch movies on TV it is extremely encouraging to see thousands of people get on a boat to reach the open air arena!”

Isabella Tessaro concluded the seminar with a broad overview of the European Commission’s Media Programme and by analysing the state of European cinema. In her presentation she explained that each year 1200 movies are produced in the EU, too many for the current number of European cinemas for them all to be productive. In order to solve this problem the Commission is currently working on the digitalisation of many cinemas that would otherwise be forced to close down.

Another word of warning from the Commission was related to the recent proposals from the Directorate General in charge of Competition policy which might cap the amount that Public Bodies will be able to give to Film Commissions and Film Festivals as part of their objective to regulate Member States’ state aid strategies.