There is a festive atmosphere at the Italian Embassy in Tokyo to celebrate the 37th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff), where Italy is once again among the major film stars. The event, taking place in the Japanese capital from 28 October to 6 November, in addition to being a showcase for Asian film production, includes a collection of the highest-profile international titles, including a retrospective with five films on Marcello Mastroianni, La dolce vita, Otto e 1/2, Enrico IV, Luchino Visconti's Lo straniero and I Girasoli, as well as a showcase of three films directed by Nanni Moretti, Il Sol dell'avvenire, Caro Diario and Palombella Rossa.
At the end of the kermesse, there was also "Marcello Mio", directed by Christophe Honoré and starring jury member and daughter of the famous actor, Chiara Mastroianni. The evening, hosted in the residence by Ambassador Gianluigi Benedetti, with the presence of Tiff President Ando Hirayasu, served to support the film co-production agreement between Italy and Japan, signed in June 2023 and entered into force last August, which allows works produced through international collaborations to enjoy the same benefits attributed by each State to national works.
"After six years of institutional work, negotiation of the agreement, ratification and all the parliamentary procedures, the instrument is finally complete," Roberto Stabile, Cinecittà's director of internationalisation, explains to ANSA. "We have brought to the Tokyo market five production companies with projects to be co-produced with Japanese companies. We will return in May during the Italian Film Festival with another delegation of producers, and we will organise meeting opportunities in Italy. Precisely because the co-production agreement is a tool, but it needs to be filled with content, and this can only be done by producers exchanging ideas and projects'. Words of praise and recognition were expressed during the evening by President Ando, for the unique value of Italian cinematography, considered of enormous influence for Japanese visual art. 'President Ando is the father of the co-production agreement, because the idea had come to us one October six years ago while having lunch in a restaurant in Rome,' Stabile continued. "While chatting, the subject had come up that Japan had never made production agreements with anyone, and we threw ourselves into this challenge and then decided together to try this route precisely because we both believe that our cultures have many similarities, and we can really make an important contribution to cinema."
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