ITALO-FRENCH SCREENWRITING LAB
An exchange of ideas and meeting point to recreate the capacity to work together.
19 October, Rome Film Festival
The laboratory Italo-French film writing is entering its operational phase
Ten months of collaborating to write three high quality screenplays. This is the goal set by the work group of the Atelier Farnese project – the first Italo-French screenwriting lab.
Sticking to the agenda, six screenwriters – three Italian and three French – have met in Sabaudia in the last few days. The collaboration got underway under the artistic direction of Ettore Scola, with the aim of writing screenplays destined to encourage film co-production between the two countries and marking a productive return to the type of collaborations of the legendary 1970s when together, Italy and France, made around 50 co-produced films a year.
Jean Pol Fargeau (screenwriter for Claire Denis) is at work on the project “The good company” with Marco Amenta; veteran screenwriter Giorgio Arlorio is collaborating with Marie-Agnès Viala on the adaptation of the novel “Lo spasimo di Palermo” by Vincenzo Consolo; Angelo Carbone (“L’aria salata”) and Daniela Ceselli (“Vincere”) are assisting Sandra Marti from France in drafting the screenplay for “Pardon”.
This first session of Italo-French writing produced extremely positive results, illustrated at the Rome Film Festival in front of a group of producers from the two countries, and a delegation of German producers who showed great interest in the initiative.
Over the next few months, the three pairs of Italo-French screenwriters will continue their work, arranging to meet in the spring in Paris (the Île de France Region is one of the sponsors of the “Atelier Farnese” project, along with the Lazio Region, the Roma Lazio Film Commission, the C.N.C., the French Embassy in Italy, SACD, and MIBAC).
3-5 July, Grottaferrata
Atelier Farnese: Italian and French producers at work in Lazio for there birth of Italo-French cinema.
"Atelier Farnese" is the first Italo-French screenwriting lab, originated from an idea of the French Embassy in Italy. It has been organised by Francesco Ranieri Martinotti and Aldo Tassone with the coordination of Sviluppo Lazio SpA, and made possible thanks joint effort by Lazio Region, General Directorate for Cinema of the Ministry for Cultural Resources and Activities, Centre National de la Cinematographie, Ile-de France Region and SACD, together with the collaboration of the “Roma & Lazio Film Commission” and “Commission du Film d'Ile de France”.
Attempts have been made for years to bring Italian and French cinema in a direction, which, in the past, had made them the protagonists of the great epoch of co-productions, which reached about a hundred in 1963 alone; now there are less than ten. While from the regulatory point of view the agreements to foster co-productions are improving, there is still a lack of initiatives to favour "co-creations".
Once the relationships between two countries were so close that screenwriters, producers and directors naturally tended to cooperate. Today, the "Atelier Farnese", the first Italo-French screenwriting lab, aims to be a driving force to recreate that climate of mutual acquaintance and dialogue.
The purpose of "Atelier Farnese" is first of all to bring the two worlds of cinema back into touch, starting from writing. For the authors, it will provide an occasion to meet one another and interact, with an exchange of ideas, places and suggestions that form part of a common heritage.
In order to recreate the capacity to work together, to stimulate the writing of stories fully immersed in daily life, to enable the participating authors to have the support of the great names of Italian and French screenwriting, to bring the producers closer to the stories produced and to contribute to the drawing up of rules to favour the forms of co-production, it has been decided to create an organised structure, alternating between Italy and France, for holding special half-yearly sessions.
Download project description
Download project regulations
July 2009 - Download Press Review
February 2010, 2nd session of the Atelier, Abbaye de Royaumont, Ile-de-France (tbd)
October 2009, 1st session of the Atelier, Rome (tbd)
3 and 4 July 2009, Grottaferrata: Italian and French producers meet (preparatory meeting)
Download Press Release
18 May 2009, Cannes Festival: Presentation Press Conference
Download Press Kit
Organisation secretariat
Via Pietro Tacchini, 12 - 00197 Roma
Tel.: 06. 80692120 – 06. 80692058
Fax: 06. 80666302
atelierfarnese@gmail.com
atelierfarnese@romalaziofilmcommission.it
Sviluppo Lazio S.p.A.
Via Vincenzo Bellini, 22-00198 Roma
Tel.: 06.84568387-379
Fax: 06.84568332
ROMA & LAZIO FILM COMMISSION
Via Caio Mario, 7 - 00192 Roma
Tel. +39 06 3260 0128 (Organisation)
Tel. +39 06 3265 6778 (Mktg & Coprod.)
Fax 39 06 9799 0817
info@romalaziofilmcommission.it
atelierfarnese@romalaziofilmcommission.it
