A Forum of experts, a body for consultation and monitoring of public policies on the cine-audiovisual sector, and an Agency, a body with full organisational, patrimonial, financial and management autonomy which will take on the management functions now attributed to the Mic other than those of political direction, strategic supervision and inspections. The final approval for the law on cinema arrives: the Senate, without any votes against or abstentions and with the Pupi brothers and Antonio Avati sitting in the gallery applauding, gave the green light to a text unchanged compared to the one adopted by the Chamber.
A procedure that has disappointed the associations representing authors, directors and screenwriters now united in a Coordination to give more strength and a unique voice to their representation. They say they are very "perplexed" by the withdrawal of all the amendments, transformed into agendas accepted by the government, to allow the measure to be approved in the Senate without changes compared to the text approved by the Chamber: "A choice that leaves the critical issues unresolved" about the reform they say.
"A system law should arise from a shared vision of the future of Italian cinema. Not from the assembly of different proposals, nor - protests the Coordination - from the postponement of unresolved issues to subsequent measures". But from the Chamber of Palazzo Madama the undersecretary Lucia Borgonzoni replied to him and promised: "we will ensure that this law does not block the sector in any way and that the implementing decrees are made in the shortest time possible".
With the delegation, in fact, the government will reform the sector policies and above all the public economic intervention, trying to balance automatic and selective support, tax incentives and non-repayable contributions. The measure, approved unanimously, is however the rather rare result of the unification of the opposition's proposals, with that of the Democratic Party which launched the Agency and which saw secretary Elly Schlein as the first signatory (today at Palazzo Madama to witness the launch of the measure) and that of the majority, with the proposal to delegate the government for the reform of the sector.
"We are doing the right thing, we have often pressed the government and the majority by collecting questions that came from this world. We will continue to do so for the implementation of the law", promises dem senator Cecilia D'Elia. Even for the 5 Star Movement, "a first fundamental step for the future of Italian cinema" was taken. For Italia Viva it is a result that "strengthens what is an Italian business card in the world".
FdI MP Federico Mollicone, author of the majority delegation proposal, also welcomes the bipartisan convergence with satisfaction: "Parliament has demonstrated that it is capable of overcoming ideological barriers and freeing the creative energies of the Nation". The dem Francesco Boccia hopes that "the unified spirit that brought us here" will also become "a method for the follow-up: in implementation, in resources, in comparison" with those involved in the sector.
Overall, the reform envisages an intervention with the Forum which will replace the Superior Council of Cinema and Audiovisual and the Agency which will take over the operational functions currently carried out by DG Cinema. Once the law comes into force, the government is delegated to adopt, within two years, one or more legislative decrees for the reform, coordination and reorganization of the regulation of the sector.
With these decrees, a National Cinema and Audiovisual Center will have to be established in which Cinecittà and the Experimental Cinematography Center will also be present; introduce a three-year planning for the sector; provide for the establishment of at least two annual time windows for the disbursement of contributions; entrust the treasury management of the Fund for the development of investments in cinema to a banking intermediary; introduce the figure of the "tax credit manager". The delegation also reforms the incentives for cinemas, provides support for independent production, but above all identifies a reform of the sector's welfare. The delegation also provides for the establishment of a Commission for the evaluation of cine-audiovisual works and projects to which contributions can be granted from the Cinema Fund.
