by Caren Davidkhianan
Roberto Stabile, Head of Special Projects of Directorate General of Cinema and Audiovisual-Ministry of Culture at Cinecittà, is the man behind ANICA’s renewed drive to revive and expand Italy’s international film markets, from bringing new luster to the historical relations with the movie industry in France to cracking new markets open in China and other southeast Asian nations. Stabile is one of the key figures at EFM’s Italian pavilion. He has also been in charge of the cinema and audiovisual department of the Italian Ministry of Culture’s Special International Projects at Cinecittà since 2022. His efforts have been rewarded with improved sales numbers, and a more permanent presence through dedicated offices in important film markets worldwide, including Berlin, Buenos Aires, Hanoi, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Miami, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Toronto. Here, The Film Verdict talks to him about the current state of the Italian cinema and audiovisual industry.
TFV: ANICA stats on the international distribution of Italian films show a perfect pyramid that reaches its peak in the 60s, 70s, and 80s and then goes into free fall. What would it take to get back to those numbers?
Roberto: It’s a pyramid that starts in the postwar years when there was great optimism in Italy and a strong desire to tell stories. That desire to talk about wartime sufferings exhausted itself in the 80s, and from then on, Italy started making films that did well at the box office, mostly comedies and genre films. Meanwhile, the profits helped fund the production of art house movies. After the 80s, perhaps because of certain laws that were not well thought-out, we started to see a downward trend. Many of the films that were being produced didn’t consider what the general public wanted, but were instead a means of self-expression for the movie director. In the peak years, we produced spaghetti westerns and B-movies that are still enjoying strong sales. Not many national film industries can live off old productions like Italian cinema does.
TFV: What were the effects of the pandemic on the industry?
Roberto: We must make a distinction here between the movie theatres and production. The pandemic turned out to be an opportunity by sparking a marked increase in demand for audiovisual material – maybe even an “excessive” consumption. As a result, there wasn’t a crisis in the production world. In Rome, the production sector flourished with many new sets. The movie theatres, on the other hand, suffered a lot. Post pandemic, we have lost the habit of going to the movies. We are still wary of strangers. I must say though that the measures taken by the Italian government greatly helped the audiovisual sector. For example, the redundancy funds, the financial aid to cover the losses, or the tax credits. We ended up even producing too much. It’s a good thing to spend money, but it’s also a good thing to not rush things. Much like good wine, production shouldn’t be rushed. I think financial aid must be divided in two parts: one part should be automatically allocated to funds that allow everyone to be creative; the other part should go to important productions.
TFV: Speaking of the movie theatre crisis, what do you think the solution is?
Roberto: The movie theatres must obviously be protected. Nothing compares to watching a movie in a theatre. But in order to compete with the increasingly sophisticated home theatres, they must offer all sorts of novel technologies and comfortable settings. Yet, it’s not possible to keep all the theatres open when they are operating at 40% capacity. We must carry out a research and help the ones that we think can survive and assist those that can’t survive to gradually convert to other uses. In the digital era, for instance, we have fewer newsstands. That’s normal. We don’t keep them open as venerable monuments. The same should apply to movie theatres. We must help them, but at the same time show them possible alternatives if we think they can’t make it. We can’t stop the owner of a theatre that’s not doing well from using the structure for other purposes. We must help them through the red tape so they can convert to other uses. But we must also be careful not to encourage those who can improve their theatre to give up on it.
TFV: Historically, Italian and French cinemas have often been very close to each other. Is this still the case?
Roberto: The great films of the past have mostly been coproduced with France. We must be careful not to produce films that are too local to sell abroad. France and Italy were pioneers of film co-productions. We can say that they invented coproductions. Together, we conquered important markets. They are also an important market for our films as we are for theirs, although this has slowed down a bit over the past few years. But now we are working with Unifrance to develop winning strategies for difficult markets like China and India, or Southeast Asia, where France was doing very well previously.
TFV: How about Russia? How is the war in Ukraine affecting the industry in Italy?
Roberto: Before the war, Russia was the largest market for European films, which were enjoying a greater success there proportionately than Hollywood productions. The war brought everything to a standstill, including the co-productions that were agreed upon right before the war.
TFV: Two years ago, you held the first Audiovisual Producers Summit in the southern Italian city of Matera. What was the reasoning behind the creation of that event, and will we see future editions of it?
Roberto: We did an experimental edition because we came to realize that the world of audiovisual production lacked a sort of a Davos meeting where we tried to understand the market trends and come up with strategies and solutions to ride those trends. There will most likely be a second edition in July. The idea is to bring together 10 to 15 brains from each of the participating countries so that we can develop new policies and strategies at the highest level for the audiovisual sector.
TFV: Governments in Italy come and go more frequently than in most other Western countries. Does this affect your job?
Roberto: As a technician, I work with everyone, and I’ve never had problems. I must say that regardless of political color, our government always works toward promoting Italian products. This support has always been unwavering. None of the projects have ever come to a halt because of a change in government. Even today, in spite of all that has been said about the right, I haven’t had any issues whatsoever with them.
TFV: Lastly, what would you do if you had unlimited power?
Roberto: Fortunately, I have great freedom of action. I want to create a space for Italian cinema in every audiovisual market in the world. Italian Screens helps me a lot in this, along with the help I get from Italian embassies and cultural institutes around the world. We bring to the international markets productions that have already won the David di Donatello awards in Italy and have subtitles, which also help promote the Italian language abroad.
