Supporting innovation and audiovisuals in Rome and Lazio

Stefano Turi, General Manager

Filas SpaLAZIO @ CANNES

May 21st, 2008

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The film industry in Lazio is amongst the oldest in the world (first studios set up in 1937) and is renowned for its creativity, skills and high-quality resources.This makes Lazio region a natural destination for international co-productions thanks to:

• award winning key creative personnel• technicians and production personnel experienced with international productions• world-class skill services• wide and unique range of locations

Up to 80% of Italian audio-visual productions (including sub-sectors) are carried out in Lazio region. Here, the largest sector enterprises are located covering the whole value-chain, providing services from pre- to post-production.

Lazio is a “land of cinema”…

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…but of innovation, too!

LAZIO is acknowledged as having a good position in Italy and in the EU concerning innovation, with respect to:

• large quota of high-tech exports • high-level specialization of research personnel • presence of a high-quality university system • significant public expenses in R&D • high ICT expense per worker • high number of technical-scientific graduates • presence of important structures providing innovative and technological services • growing investment quota in the regional budget

According to the European Cluster Observatory, the joint ICT, entertainment and publishing cluster of Lazio, rated as “strong” in innovation, employ more than 100.000 persons.

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Filas’ Audiovisual Fund

The aim of Filas’ Audiovisual Fund is to support the production of "Made in Lazio" feature films and to facilitate collaboration between Lazio film producers and producers in Europe and beyond.

It is part of the Filas' Filming In Lazio Makes Sense (FILMS) programme.

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Eligibility criteria

• Film companies should have at least an operative office in Lazio

• Projects submitted must be intended for public commercial release

• Productions companies must be SMEs - according to EU definition (ie less than 250 employees; independent; less than € 50 mln sales/€ 40 mln total activities)

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Key evaluation criteria

• Strength of technical and artistic cast• Potential for territorial promotion of the Lazio region• Potential for critical acclaim• Potential for commercial success• Track record of filmmaker/company and his/her/its

growth potential• Track record of the foreign co-producer(s), if

applicable• Extent of financial share by applicant(s)• Extent of budget spent in Lazio• Extent of Lazio manpower and skills involved in the

project

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Financial conditions

• The project must spend in Lazio at least 50% of the under the line (i.e. excluding cast and director costs) budget (or at least 30% of the Italian budget in the case of international co-production)

• The fund will provide a financing of up to 50% of the production budget spent in Lazio region

• There is a minimum limit of 200,000 € and a maximum limit of 600,000 K € per application (for films)

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Some background about the fund

• Born as a specialisation of a VC regional fund established in 2001

• Opened to AV financing in a pilot phase in September 2006

• 33 requests in one year for a global financial request in excess of 16M €

• Average 400K €, min 50K € max 1.5M €• Remarkable “scouting” phase (average requests for

all other sectors is 22 p/y)

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End of pilot phase

At the end of the pilot phase (Sep 2007):

5 projects approved for an investment of 2M €

Plafond reserved to AudioVisual fund about 7M €

3 identified and formally defined subcategories: movies, audiovisual works, first works

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Next steps

As per today:12 projects approved, about 3.5 M €

Some of them already in theatres

Challenges:- favour take up of Digital/New Media projects

- favour int’l co-productions and co-investments

We count on INNOMEDIA and SILK-NET initiatives to exchange knowledge and strike agreements with

our partner networks in the EU and outside