Cinema and TV series, a 700,000-euro fund for new talent working in Piedmont

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A Fund specifically designed to facilitate the emergence of new ideas and projects in the audiovisual sector, but with an important specificity: the support of a private foundation. This is the virtuous case of the «Piemonte Film TV Development Fund», the initiative that is part of a two-year agreement between the Piedmont Region, the Turin Piedmont Film Commission and the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, a new key partner. The Fund is in fact aimed at guaranteeing 700 thousand euros for the two-year period 2023/24 and is intended for new talents in independent productions, with two calls useful for the making of feature films and TV series.

The banking foundation has therefore identified in the regional Film Commission a strategic partner in which to invest, first of all for the confirmed ability to generate economy in the area. “We have recognized in the Piedmont Cinema System the ability to be a driver of development with an important economic impact,” explains Francesco Profumo, president of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation. «It is in fact a sector which, much more than others, is capable of activating resources and financing, generating significant repercussions. The new intervention in support of the Development Fund is part of the Foundation’s strategy of producing strong and high leverage effects on the territory. Acting on the production phase, in fact, determines a high qualified expenditure on the territory and a consistent multiplier, with a ratio of 1×20 which can even reach 1×40».

The perspective pursued is that of ecosystem development, or rather that of making cultural concepts evolve into solid production projects that can be distributed on the film market, also going to attract new funds and co-financiers. An approach fully shared also by the president of the Turin Piedmont Film Commission Beatrice Borgia, who states: «We have worked with the Region to increase production resources and this Fund represents a sort of start-up incubator, in our case identified in sustainable projects and virtuous. The Piedmontese supply chain is by now consolidated, therefore the new partnership is very important and ambitious, with a banking foundation that for the first time enters in support of our cultural foundation. It is a paradigm shift for our sector, which is almost always supported by public institutions».

In the last year, the Turin Piedmont Film Commission has in fact supported as many as 217 productions in its territory, with over a thousand shooting days, but the «Piemonte Film TV Development Fund» can establish itself as an ideal support tool for independent production companies, particularly attentive to the dynamics of innovation, professionalization and internationalization. The next step is to move towards internationalization within an increasingly complex, jagged and absolutely global market. «It’s not just a question of intercepting foreign capital, although they remain absolutely important, but of the ability to speak to a truly international audience. The audiovisual world is a world around which new players orbit and products are made available simultaneously in all territories. The case of Lidia Poët it is an example of this, given that at its launch it was the second most watched series on Netflix, and this type of funding is needed to raise the quality ever higher ».