Interview with Luca Ferrario, Director of Trentino Film Commission

Clear criteria and regular funding grants, production assistance that begins at the writing stage, care of the environment

A territory that is identified with mountains, yet most of the projects supported had a different setting.  This demonstrates that Trentino is much more: it is efficient production assistance, clear funding distribution and timely disbursement.

In addition, there is the Green Film protocol and certification, a benchmark developed in the region in 2016 by the Trentino Film Commission as an incentive to make productions environmentally sustainable which has since spread internationally and been adopted by a network of Film Commissions and European national and regional funds.

Green Film, a regional benchmark used in many European territories

The application of the Green Film protocol results in an obvious reduction in emissions: it is proven that the use of renewable energy reduces CO2 emissions by 94% over fossil fuel; the use of water from the tap saves 97% emissions on single-use plastic bottles and recycling saves a further 15%. Following the protocol on set also has financial benefits because, against a 2% increase in renewable energy costs, water from the tap costs 29% less; recycling 12% less and not using paper removes that cost totally. The film fund’s points system to rate “green” productions does the rest; there are numerous Italian and European institutions who have decided to promote this approach and increasing numbers of productions choose to shoot in a more sustainable manner.

“With three deadlines for the financing grants scheduled in 2022, a total of 17 projects were approved, including 5 feature-length films, 5 documentaries, 1 animation project, 3 TV programmes and 3 TV series which amounted to 372 production days – comments Luca Ferrario, Director of Trentino Film Commission while describing the features of his territory to Italy For Movies. – The spend generated in the territory came to €5,870,855, equivalent to 383% of the grants we disbursed”. These figures are even more significant when we consider them associated with a province and not an entire region.

What strengths can your Film Commission offer productions?

Continual assistance and a film fund maximum raised to €400k

We always receive excellent feedback from producers for the quality of the services we offer. This is thanks to our efforts and also to the fact that we are based in a well-organized area able to respond rapidly. Raising the maximum contribution to €400k last year certainly helped us to become more competitive as a territory.

Why should productions choose to shoot in Trentino?

Regular grants, transparent assignation criteria, logistics assistance for every phase

The beauty and variety of our locations is certainly an important element, but there are also other reasons to choose Trentino: for example, the option of receiving financial contributions that are stable, regular and assigned with clear criteria that are always equal. This is very useful for producers who are able to plan the various phases of work ahead of time and logically. Another reason is that we put an enormous effort into offering the most comprehensive logistics assistance possible, from the writing phase onwards.

Any anecdotes/fun facts to tell us?  For example, what are the most surprising and first-time locations that you’ve suggested for productions or strange happenings on the set?

One production enquired about the possibility of knocking down the façade of a building so that the mountains in the background could be seen better! This aside, it is interesting to note that often Trentino is linked to mountain locations when actually over half the projects we support use different settings, such as villas, castles, city centres etc.

What are your future projects?

Vis-à-vis, Educa Immagine and Green Film to promote a different way of producing cinema

On the shooting front, there are various new elements from productions already working in the territory to feature-length films like One More Pictures and Apapaja, alongside a range of other local productions plus significant projects slated for autumn.

We are active on a range of fronts dealing with events for industry professionals such as Vis-à-vis, a match makingevent for producers and broadcasters developed with Turin’s Media desk.

Educa Immagine, a media education project that takes audiovisual culture into schools, supported by CIPS, is also producing very satisfying results.

[CIPS - Piano Nazionale Cinema e Immagini per la Scuola (National Cinema and Images Educational Programme) is promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Merit and aims to spread knowledge of the cinema industry, production techniques and media and sound and image distribution in schools, along with an understanding of the art, techniques and media of image production and distribution Ed.]

Activity linked to the Green Film protocol which certifies the sustainability of audiovisual productions is also very important: we run workshops with Torino Film Lab and work hard to spread awareness of a new way of producing films.