Italy and France are strengthening their production ties with the launch of a new co-development and co-production fund that for the first time opens up development funding opportunities to jointly made TV series.
The new fund was announced on the Lido with both Italian Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli and Oliver Henrard, who is deputy chief of France’s National Film Board (CNC), in attendance.
The two countries have a long and storied history of collaborations in the film field. Since 2013 they’ve also had a small co-development fund in place. The significant novelty is that this new fund raises the support that each project co-produced by Italy and France can tap into from €50,000 to €200,000 ($218,000) and opens up submissions to TV projects.
The new joint Italy/France fund, which doubles existing resources to €1,5 million ($1.6 million), is expected to boost collaboration on TV shows by the two culturally compatible countries that are already working together in this field. Both Italian skeins launching from Venice, “The New Pope” and “ZeroZeroZero,” have French partners on board.
On the film side recent co-productions between the two countries include Nanni Moretti’s upcoming Three Floors (pictured) and Matteo Garrone’s “Pinocchio.”
Since 2013 Italy and France co-developed 93 film projects through the previously existing fund, roughly evenly split in terms of which country was the majority partner.