История итальянского кинематографа

Filmmaking industry in Italy

The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers, who filmed Pope Leo XIII in 1896. The first films were made in the main cities of the Italian peninsula. In the early 1900s, epic films such as Otello (1906), The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), L'Inferno (1911), Quo Vadis (1913), and Cabiria (1914), were made as adaptations of books or stage plays. The oldest European avant garde cinema movement, Italian futurism, emerged in the late 1910s. After a period of decline in the 1920s, the Italian film industry was revitalized in the 1930s with the arrival of sound film. A popular Italian genre during this period, the Telefoni Bianchi, consisted of comedies with glamorous backgrounds. Calligrafismo was in sharp contrast to Telefoni Bianchi American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity and deals mainly with contemporary literary material. While Italy's Fascist government provided financial support for the nation's film industry, notably the construction of the Cinecittà studios (the largest film studio in Europe), it also engaged in censorship, and thus many Italian films produced in the late 1930s were propaganda films. The end of World War II saw the birth of the influential Italian neorealist movement, which reached vast audiences throughout the post war period, and which launched the directorial careers of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio De Sica. Neorealism declined in the late 1950s in favour of lighter films, such as those of the Commedia all'italiana genre and directors like Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni. Actresses such as Sophia Loren, Giulietta Masina, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani and Gina Lollobrigida achieved international stardom during this period. From the mid 1950s to the end of the 1970s, Commedia all'italiana and many other genres arose due to auteur cinema, and Italian cinema reached a position of great prestige both nationally and abroad. The Spaghetti Western achieved popularity in the mid 1960s, peaking with Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, which featured enigmatic scores by composer Ennio Morricone, which have become icons of the Western genre. Italian thrillers, or giallo, produced by directors such as Mario Bava and Dario Argento in the 1960s and 1970s, influenced the horror genre worldwide. During the 1980s and 1990s, directors such as Ermanno Olmi, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuseppe Tornatore, Gabriele Salvatores and Roberto Benigni brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema. In 2008 the Venice Days ("Giornate degli Autori"), a section held in parallel to the Venice Film Festival, has produced in collaboration with Cinecittà studios and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage a list of a 100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978: the "100 Italian films to be saved".

The mid 1950s saw more and more Italian films tackling existential topics; they were often more introspective than descriptive. Michelangelo Antonioni was the first to establish himself and he became a reference for contemporary cinema. His first work, Story of a Love Affair (1950), breaks with neorealism. Totò is one of the symbols of the cinema of Naples.

Although Umberto D. is considered the end of the neorealist period, subsequent works turned toward lighter, sweetened and mildly optimistic atmospheres, more coherent with the improving conditions of Italy just before the economic boom; this genre became known as pink neorealism. Notable films of pink neorealism, which combine popular comedy and realist motifs, are Pane, amore e fantasia (1953) by Luigi Comencini and Poveri ma belli (1957) by Dino Risi, both works are in perfect harmony with the evolution of the Italian costume. The large influx at the box office from the two films remained almost unchanged in the sequels Bread, Love and Jealousy (1954), Scandal in Sorrento (1955) and Pretty But Poor (1957), also directed by Luigi Comencini and Dino Risi. Actresses who excelled in this genre included international celebrities such as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.

A series of black and white films based on the Don Camillo and Peppone characters created by journalist Giovannino Guareschi were made between 1952 and 1965. These were French Italian coproductions, and starred Fernandel as the Italian priest Don Camillo and Gino Cervi as Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi, the Communist mayor of their rural town. The movies were hugely successfull: In 1952, Little World of Don Camillo was the highest grossing film in both Italy and France, while The Return of Don Camillo was the second most popular film of 1953 at the Italian and French box office.

Hollywood on the Tiber describes the period in the 1950s and 1960s when Rome emerged as a major location for international filmmaking.

Sword and sandal is a subgenre of historical, mythological, or biblical epics. These films attempted to emulate the big budget Hollywood historical epics of the time. With the release of 1958's Hercules, starring American bodybuilder Steve Reeves, the genre was established with both European and American audiences. New directors such as Sergio Leone and Mario Bava broke into film with these films. Most sword and sandal films were in colour, a novelty.

Federico Fellini dominated this decade. He won the Palme d'Or for La Dolce Vita, was nominated for more Academy Awards than any director in the history of the academy. His other well known films include La Strada (1954), Nights of Cabiria (1957), Satyricon (1969), and Fellini's Casanova (1976). Franco and Ciccio were a comedy duo formed by Italian actors Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Together, they appeared in 116 films, usually as the main characters.

Musicarello (pl. musicarelli) is a film subgenre which emerged in Italy and which is characterised by the presence in main roles of young singers, already famous among their peers, and their new record album. The genre began in the late 1950s, and had its peak of production in the 1960s. The film which started the genre is considered to be I ragazzi del Juke Box by Lucio Fulci (1959). The musicarelli were inspired by two American musicals, in particular Jailhouse Rock by Richard Thorpe (1957) and earlier Love Me Tender by Robert D. Webb (1956), both starring Elvis Presley. At the heart of the musicarello is a hit song, or a song that the producers hoped would become a hit, that usually shares its title with the film itself and sometimes has lyrics depicting a part of the plot. In the films there are almost always tender and chaste love stories accompanied by the desire to have fun and dance without thoughts. Musicarelli reflect the desire and need for emancipation of young Italians, highlighting some generational frictions. For some time the duo Al Bano and Romina Power continued to enjoy success in musicarello films, but their films (like their songs) were a return to the traditional melody and to the musical films of the previous decades. The term indicates a period in which the Italian film industry was producing many successful comedies about controversial social issues like sexual behavior, divorce, contraception, and the traditional religious influence of the Catholic Church. An entire generation of great actors contributed to the films: Ugo Tognazzi, Marcello Mastroianni, and Nino Manfredi are among them. Dino Risi garnered fame for directing Una vita difficile (A Difficult Life), then Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life), now a cult movie. Many others followed.

On the heels of the sword and sandal craze, a related genre, the Spaghetti Western arose. These films differed from traditional westerns because they were filmed in Europe, produced and directed by Italians. The most director was Sergio Leone, credited as the inventor of the genre. His A Fistful of Dollars was an unauthorized remake of the Japanese film Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly featured Clint Eastwood and notorious music by Ennio Morricone.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Italian filmmakers Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda, Antonio Margheriti and Dario Argento developed giallo (plural gialli, from giallo, Italian for "yellow") horror films that become classics and influenced the genre in other countries. Representative films include: The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), Castle of Blood (1964), The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977). Giallo is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers and often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements. Giallo developed in the mid to late 1960s, peaked in popularity during the 1970s, and subsequently declined in commercial mainstream filmmaking over the next few decades, though examples continue to be produced. It was a predecessor to, and had significant influence on, the later American slasher film genre. Giallo usually blends the atmosphere and suspense of thriller fiction with elements of horror fiction (such as slasher violence) and eroticism (similar to the French fantastique genre), and often involves a mysterious killer whose identity is not revealed until the final act of the film. Most critics agree that the giallo represents a distinct category with unique features, but there is some disagreement on what exactly defines a giallo film. Giallo films are generally gruesome murder mystery thrillers that combine the suspense elements of detective fiction with scenes of shocking horror. The archetypal giallo plot involves a mysterious, black gloved killer who stalks and kills women. While most gialli involve a human killer, some also feature a supernatural element. The protagonists are often unconnected to the murders before they begin; they get drawn in as witnesses. both in politics and industry. In 1962, Francesco Rosi inaugurated an investigation film project retracing, through a series of long flashbacks, the life of a Sicilian criminal, the title figure in Salvatore Giuliano. The following year he directed Rod Steiger in Hands over the City (1963); this film was a denuciation of corruption in real estate and construction companies in Naples. The film was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

In the 1970s the work done by the director Lina Wertmüller was influential. Together with actors Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, she made several films and with Seven Beauties (1976), she obtained four nominations for the Academy Awards. That made her the first woman to be nominated for best director. Ettore Scola made his directorial debut in 1964 with Let's Talk About Women. In 1974, he directed his best known film, We All Loved Each Other So Much. Other films include Down and Dirty (1976) starring Nino Manfredi, and A Special Day (1977) starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. In the 1970s, after many animated documentaries, Gibba returned to the feature film with the erotic Il nano e la strega (1973) and Il racconto della giungla (1974). Emanuele Luzzati contributed what is considered one of the masterpieces of Italian animation: Il flauto magico ("The Magic Flute", 1976), based on Mozart's opera. After many satirical short films (centred on the popular figure of "Signor Rossi") Bruno Bozzetto returned to the feature film with what is considered his most ambitious work, Allegro Non Troppo (1977). Inspired by Disney's Fantasia, it is a mixed media film, in which animated episodes are combined with classical music pieces. Another notable illustrator was Pino Zac who in 1971 shot (again with mixed technique) The Nonexistent Knight, based on the novel of the same name by Italo Calvino. One of Francesco Rosi's most famous films of denunciation is The Mattei Affair (1972), a documentary into the mysterious disappearance of Enrico Mattei. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It became (together with Illustrious Corpses (1976)) a model for similar denunciation films produced both in Italy and abroad. Famous films of denunciation by Elio Petri are The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971), a corrosive denunciation of life in the factory (winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes) and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). The latter (accompanied by a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone) is a dry psychoanalytic thriller centred on the aberrations of power. The film won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film the following year.

Poliziotteschi films constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as polizieschi all'italiana, Euro crime, Italo crime, spaghetti crime films', or simply Italian crime films. Influenced by both 1970s French crime films and gritty 1960s and 1970s American cop films and vigilante films, poliziotteschi films were made amidst an atmosphere of socio political turmoil in Italy and increasing Italian crime rates. The films generally featured graphic and brutal violence, organized crime, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gunfights, and corruption. The protagonists were generally tough working class loners, willing to act outside a corrupt or overly bureaucratic system. Notable international actors who acted in this genre of films include Alain Delon, Henry Silva, Fred Williamson, Charles Bronson, Tomas Milian and others.

Also considered Spaghetti Westerns is a film genre which combined traditional western ambience with a Commedia all'italiana type comedy. Films in this genre included They Call Me Trinity (1970) and Trinity Is Still My Name (1971), both by Enzo Barboni, which featured Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, the stage names of Carlo Pedersoli and Mario Girotti. Terence Hill and Bud Spencer made numerous films together. Most of their early films were Spaghetti Westerns, beginning with God Forgives I Don't! (1967), the first part of a trilogy, followed by Ace High (1968) and Boot Hill (1969), but they also starred in comedies such as All the Way, Boys! (1972) and Watch Out, We're Mad! (1974). The next films shot by the couple of actors, almost all comedies, were Two Missionaries (1974), Crime Busters (1977), Odds and Evens (1978), I'm for the Hippopotamus (1979), Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981), Go for It (1983), Double Trouble (1984), Miami Supercops (1985) and Troublemakers (1994).

Commedia sexy all'italiana is characterized typically by female nudity and comedy, and by the minimal weight given to social criticism that was the basic ingredient of the main commedia all'italiana genre. Stories are often set in affluent environments such as wealthy households. It is closely connected to the sexual revolution. For the first time, films with female nudity could be watched at the cinema. Pornography and scenes of explicit sex were still forbidden in Italian cinemas, but partial nudity was somewhat tolerated. The genre has been described as a cross between bawdy comedy and humorous erotic film with ample slapstick elements which follow more or less clichéd storylines. During this time, commedia sexy all'italiana films, described by the film critics of the time as not artistic or "trash films", were very popular in Italy. Today they are widely re evaluated and have become cult movies. They also allowed the producers of Italian cinema to have enough revenue to produce successful artistic films. These comedy films were of little artistic value and reached their popularity by confronting Italian social taboos, most notably in the sexual sphere. Actors such as Lando Buzzanca, Lino Banfi, Renzo Montagnani, Alvaro Vitali, Gloria Guida, Barbara Bouchet and Edwige Fenech owe much of their popularity to these films.

The films starring Ugo Fantozzi, a character invented by Paolo Villaggio for his television sketches and newspaper short stories, also fell within the comic satirical comedy genre. Although Villaggio's movies tend to bridge comedy with a more elevated social satire, this character had a significant impact on Italian society, to such a degree that the adjective fantozziano entered the lexicon. Ugo Fantozzi represents the archetype of the average Italian of the 1970s, middle class with a simple lifestyle with the anxieties common to an entire class of workers, being re evaluated by critics. Of the many films telling of Fantozzi's misadventures, the most notable and famous were Fantozzi (1975) and Il secondo tragico Fantozzi (1976), both directed by Luciano Salce.

The sceneggiata (pl. sceneggiate) or sceneggiata napoletana is a form of musical drama typical of Naples. Beginning as a form of musical theatre after World War I, it was also adapted for cinema; sceneggiata films became especially popular in the 1970s, and contributed to the genre becoming more widely known outside Naples. The most famous actors who played dramas were Mario Merola, Mario Trevi, and Nino D'Angelo. The sceneggiata can be described as a "musical soap opera", where action and dialogue are interspersed with Neapolitan songs. Plots revolve around melodramatic themes drawing from the Neapolitan culture and tradition, including passion, jealousy, betrayal, personal deceit and treachery, honour, vengeance, and life in the world of petty crime. Songs and dialogue were originally in Neapolitan dialect, although, especially in film production, Italian has sometimes been preferred, to reach a larger audience. Sgarro alla camorra (i. e. "Offence to the Camorra", 1973), written and directed by Ettore Maria Fizzarotti and starring Mario Merola at his film debut, is regarded as the first sceneggiata film and as a prototype for the genre.

The 1980s was a period of decline for Italian filmmaking. In 1985, only 80 films were produced (the least since the postwar period) and the total audience decreased from 525 million in 1970 to 123 million. The era of producers ended; Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis worked abroad, and Goffredo Lombardo and Franco Cristaldi were no longer key figures. The crisis affected the Italian genre cinema above all, which, by virtue of the success of commercial television, was deprived of most of its audience. As a result, cinemas began showing mainly Hollywood films, which steadily took over, while many other cinemas closed. Among the major artistic films of this era were La città delle donne, E la nave va, Ginger and Fred by Fellini, L'albero degli zoccoli by Ermanno Olmi (winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), La notte di San Lorenzo by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Antonioni's Identificazione di una donna, and Bianca and La messa è finita by Nanni Moretti. Non ci resta che piangere, directed by and starring both Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi, is a cult movie in Italy. Carlo Verdone, actor, screenwriter and film director, is best known for his comedic roles in Italian classics, which he also wrote and directed. His career was jumpstarted by his first three successes, Un sacco bello (1980), Bianco, rosso e Verdone (1981) and Borotalco (1982). Francesco Nuti began his professional career as an actor in the late 1970s, when he formed the cabaret group Giancattivi together with Alessandro Benvenuti and Athina Cenci. Starting in 1985, he began to direct his movies, scoring an immediate success with the films Casablanca, Casablanca and All the Fault of Paradise (1985), Stregati (1987), Caruso Pascoski, Son of a Pole (1988), Willy Signori e vengo da lontano (1990) and Women in Skirts (1991). The cinepanettoni (singular: cinepanettone) are a series of farcical comedy films, one or two of which are scheduled for release annually in Italy during the Christmas period. The films were originally produced by Aurelio De Laurentiis' Filmauro studio. For the majority of critics the "Commedia all'italiana" waned from the beginning of the 1980s, giving way to an "Commedia italiana" ("Italian comedy").

The economic crisis that emerged in the 1980s began to ease over the next decade. Nonetheless, the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons marked an all time low in the number of films made, in the national market share (15 per cent), in the total number of viewers (under 90 million per year) and in the number of cinemas. The effect of this industrial contraction was the disappearance of Italian genre cinema in the middle of the decade, as it was no longer able to compete with the contemporary big Hollywood blockbusters (mainly due to the enormous budget differences). The most noted film of the period is Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, for which Giuseppe Tornatore won a 1989 Oscar (awarded in 1990) for Best Foreign Language Film. This award was followed when Gabriele Salvatores's Mediterraneo won the same prize in 1991. Il Postino: The Postman (1994), directed by the British Michael Radford and starring Massimo Troisi, received five nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Troisi, and won for Best Original Score. In 1998 Roberto Benigni won three Oscars for his movie Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella). Leonardo Pieraccioni made his directorial debut with The Graduates (1995). In 1996 he directed his breakthrough film The Cyclone, which grossed Lire 75 billion at the box office. In the 1990s, Italian animation entered a new phase of production due to the Turin Lanterna Magica studio which in 1996, under the direction of Enzo D'Alò, created the Christmas fairy tale La freccia azzurra, based on a short story by Gianni Rodari. The film was a success and paved the way for other feature films. In fact, in 1998, Lucky and Zorba based on a novel by Luis Sepúlveda was distributed, which attracted the favour of the public.

The Italian film industry regained stability and critical recognition. In 1995, 93 films were produced, while in 2005, 274 films were made. In 2006, the national market share reached 31 per cent. In 2001, Nanni Moretti's film The Son's Room (La stanza del figlio) received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other noteworthy recent Italian films include: Jona che visse nella balena directed by Roberto Faenza, Il grande cocomero by Francesca Archibugi, The Profession of Arms (Il mestiere delle armi) by Olmi, L'ora di religione by Marco Bellocchio, Il ladro di bambini, Lamerica, The Keys to the House (Le chiavi di casa) by Gianni Amelio, I'm Not Scared (Io non ho paura) by Gabriele Salvatores, Le Fate Ignoranti, Facing Windows (La finestra di fronte) by Ferzan Özpetek, Good Morning, Night (Buongiorno, notte) by Marco Bellocchio, The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventù) by Marco Tullio Giordana, The Beast in the Heart (La bestia nel cuore) by Cristina Comencini. In 2008 Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo, a biographical film based on the life of Giulio Andreotti, won the Jury prize and Gomorra, a crime drama film, directed by Matteo Garrone won the Gran Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. The director Enzo d'Alò produced other films in the following years such as Momo (2001) and Opopomoz (2003). The Turin studio distributed on its behalf the films Aida of the Trees (2001) and Totò Sapore e la magica storia della pizza (2003), accompanied by a good response at the box office. In 2003, the first entirely Italian animated film in computer graphics was released: L'apetta Giulia and Signora Vita, directed by Paolo Modugno.

Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2010, the first Italian animated film in 3D was made, directed by Iginio Straffi, entitled Winx Club 3D: Magical Adventure, based on the homonymous series; in the meantime Enzo D'Alò returned to theatres, presenting his Pinocchio (2012). Cinderella the Cat (2017), taken from the text Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile, won two David di Donatello's, one of which was for special effects, becoming the first animated film to be nominated, and win, in this category. The two highest grossing Italian films in Italy have both been directed by Gennaro Nunziante and starred Checco Zalone: Sole a catinelle (2013) with €51.8 million, and Quo Vado? (2016) with €65.3 million. They Call Me Jeeg, a 2016 critically acclaimed superhero film directed by Gabriele Mainetti and starring Claudio Santamaria, won eight David di Donatello, two Nastro d'Argento, and a Globo d'oro. Gianfranco Rosi's documentary film Fire at Sea (2016) won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. Other successful 2010s Italian films include: Vincere and The Traitor by Marco Bellocchio, The First Beautiful Thing (La prima cosa bella), Human Capital (Il capitale umano) and Like Crazy (La pazza gioia) by Paolo Virzì, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam) and Mia Madre by Nanni Moretti, Caesar Must Die (Cesare deve morire) by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Don't Be Bad (Non essere cattivo) by Claudio Caligari, Romanzo Criminale by Michele Placido (that spawned a TV series, Romanzo criminale La serie), Youth (La giovinezza) by Paolo Sorrentino, Suburra by Stefano Sollima, Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti) by Paolo Genovese, Mediterranea and A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano, Italian Race (Veloce come il vento) and The First King: Birth of an Empire (Il primo re) by Matteo Rovere, and Tale of Tales (Il racconto dei racconti), Dogman and Pinocchio by Matteo Garrone. Call Me by Your Name (2017), the final installment in Luca Guadagnino's thematic Desire trilogy, following I Am Love (2009) and A Bigger Splash (2015), received widespread acclaim and numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the nomination for Best Picture in 2018. Perfect Strangers by Paolo Genovese was included in the Guinness World Records as it became the most remade film in cinema history, with a total of 18 versions. film critic of the newspaper Il Messaggero, in collaboration with film director Gianni Amelio and the writers and film critics Gian Piero Brunetta, Giovanni De Luna, Gianluca Farinelli, Giovanna Grignaffini, Paolo Mereghetti, Morando Morandini, Domenico Starnone and Sergio Toffetti.

Cineteca Nazionale is a film archive located in Rome. Founded in 1949, it includes 80,000 films on file, 600,000 photographs, 50,000 posters and the collection of the Italian Association for the History of Cinema Research (AIRSC). It arose from the archival heritage of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, which in 1943, had been removed by the Nazi occupiers. Cineteca Italiana is a private film archive located in Milan. Established in 1947, and as a foundation in 1996, the Cineteca Italiana houses over 20,000 films and more than 100,000 photographs from the history of Italian and international cinema. Cineteca di Bologna is a film archive in Bologna. It was founded in 1962.

The National Museum of Cinema in Turin is a motion picture museum inside the Mole Antonelliana tower. It is operated by the Maria Adriana Prolo Foundation, and the core of its collection is the result of the work of the historian and collector Maria Adriana Prolo. It was housed in the Palazzo Chiablese. In 2008, with 532,196 visitors, it ranked 13th among the most visited Italian museums. The museum houses pre cinematographic optical devices such as magic lanterns, earlier and current film technologies, stage items from early Italian movies and other memorabilia. Along the exhibition path of about 35,000 square feet (3,200 m2) on five levels are areas devoted to the different kinds of film crew, and in the main hall, fitted in the temple hall of the Mole, a series of chapels representing several film genres. The Museum of Precinema is a museum in the Palazzo Angeli, Prato della Valle, Padua, related to the history of precinema, or precursors of film. It was created in 1998 to display the Minici Zotti Collection, in collaboration with the Comune of Padova. The Cinema Museum of Rome is located in Cinecittà. The collections consist of movie posters and playbills, cine cameras, projectors, magic lanterns, stage costumes and the patent of Filoteo Alberini's "kinetograph". The Milan Cinema Museum, managed by the Cineteca Italiana, is divided into three sections, the precinema, animation cinema and "Milan as a film set", as well as multimedia and interactive stations. The Catania Cinema Museum exhibits documents concerning cinema, its techniques and its history, particularly the link between cinema and Sicily. The Cinema Museum of Syracuse collects more than 10,000 exhibits on display in 12 rooms.

The Association of Italian Film Festivals (AFIC; Italian: Associazione Festival italiani di cinema) is the peak body for film festivals held in Italy.