VIAREGGIO EUROPACINEMA 2011 COMPETITION: THE WINNER IS...

Pajaros de papel

Regia: Emilio Aragón
Spagna, 2010. Produzione: Antena 3 Films, Canal+ España, Globo Media S.A.

QUALITY AND INNOVATION

The basis

The previous Viareggio EuropaCinema edition – a ‘small’ festival focused on Europe, Youth and University as keywords- has turned out to be so successful that the public and cinema experts’ approval has given us confidence and encouragement to keep on pursuing the same objective in 2011. One year ago we could not even imagine that the University of Pisa along with the Italian Universities would have positively responded  to the new organization. At the same time, the European Cinema Institutions immediately shared our idea of festival and our programme. What is more, a high number of young people took part and showed their interest in the way Viareggio EuropaCinema involved them as active subject.

The town of Viareggio, the outskirt area of Versilia and the Province of Lucca played their part in welcoming the considerable flow of people which filled the Palazzo del Cinema and contributed to relaunch the Festival. In addition to them, Fondazione Sistema Toscana – Mediateca Film Commission, Lucca Film Festival and Cineclub Arsenal in Pisa  co-operated with us through new projects.

The main cultural institutions of Viareggio (Fondazione Carnevale and Fondazione Festival Pucciniano) and those linked to tourism (Unione degli Albergatori) appeared open-minded towards our new proposals. In other words, we thought and we still do that in order to make a festival working –in particular Viareggio EuropaCinema- synergies and collaborations are necessary, otherwise this kind of event could come to an end because of its inability to attract potential public.

As a consequence, we are truly grateful to all the institutions and people that believed in us and from this basis we have planned the programme of the new edition.

In particular, we need to thank for their precious support the Municipality, the Mayor  (Luca Lunardini) and the Arts and Culture Councilor (Ciro Costagliola) for the town of Viareggio which have engaged themselves in sharing and reaching our same goal: becoming one of the most important festivals for its cultural, qualitative and innovative offer . Of course, my staff and I will try not to disappoint their expectations.

Finally, I need to point out the attention paid by the Tuscan Government and the Tuscan Culture Councilor, Cristina Scaletti, to our “nuova formula” and the renewed interest in the Festival by Stefano Baccelli, President of the Province of Lucca, just as Fondazione Sistema Toscana.

A sign of innovation and change of the 2011 edition is  also the financial support obtained by the Presindent of Fondazione della Banca del Monte di Lucca, Alberto Del Carlo, and the President of Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, Antonio Lattanzi.

To conclude, Viareggio EuropaCinema 2011 is going to start with a positive outburst thanking once again the Patronage of the President of the Republic, Hon. Giorgio Napolitano, and the Ministries of Cultural Heritage, Youth and University, hoping to strengthen the relation with students and public.

A change in logistics

In order to hit the Festival targets, I have been personally concerned in improving the facilities offer of this edition.

The previous experience to concentrate all the events - especially the screenings- at the Palazzo del Cinema has proved to be an inadequate solution due to some technical faults such as the acoustics, which both the audience and us have pointed out. On top of that,  the lack of available funds to readapt the halls into proper cinemas has brought us to move the Viareggio EuropaCinema 2011 edition to a ‘real’ one. Eden Cinema, situated on the promenade by the sea in central Viareggio, will be our new ‘headquarters’.

Once again, because of the reduced amount of funds at our disposal, we have decided to postpone the morning screenings for schools to another period of the 2011- 2012 scholastic year. In this way, we would also increase the schedule and differentiate it depending on the age of students.

Last, the President of the Festival Pucciniano, Paolo Spadaccini, and the General Manager, Franco Moretti, have given us the chance to host some of the most important events of our Festival in the Auditorium “Enrico Caruso” at “Gran Teatro Giacomo Puccini”.

Through this special contribution, the programme of Viareggio EuropaCinema will really be focused on the important relations between Cinema and Music: an opportunity which I am truly proud and honored of.

Artist Director

Pier Marco De Santi