Rome, October 20 (askanews) – "What a Show Italy! What a Movie Italy is" is an initiative "focused on creating a small film, which we call film tourism, and which is then disseminated through films and major works, which are films and TV series in various formats. We believe that cinema has also been very important for tourism, including quality tourism, and for Italy's image around the world." This is how Tourism Minister Gianmarco Mazzi presented "What a Show Italy! What a Movie Italy is."
When tourism embraces cinema”, at the Rome Film Fest. The minister cited “our great directors, from Fellini to De Sica, Pasolini with The Gospel of Matthew filmed in Matera”, but also “Roman Holiday and Benigni with Life is Beautiful, or more popular films like Stallone’s Cliffhanger or The Sorpasso”, to explain that “if we had a narrative of the places where these films were shot, today we would have something of great value, because great actors who tell us about the places where they perhaps lived for weeks while filming the films, would be pearls.
With this in mind, we launched this initiative to support Italian tourism through the lens of cinema,” he emphasized, referring to the tagline of the commercial presented at the Auditorium for the launch of the MiTur institutional initiative. The project aims to promote the national and international development of Italian tourism through the production, acquisition, and dissemination of original, cinematic-quality audiovisual content, called tourism films, to be distributed alongside TV series and films in theaters, either as first screenings or as screenings. In tourism films, the lead actors, accompanied by co-stars and the director, will represent and tell the audience about the filming locations and the most significant scenes they have just seen.
The project will focus on Italian territories, localities, cities, and villages that are not simply settings but take on an identity, centrality, and relevance in the stories and are enhanced as such. Tourism films may be 5 to 10 minutes long, depending on whether they are paired with theatrical releases, TV films, or TV series in the form of feature films or miniseries. The inclusion of the tourism film at the end of the screening will be announced in the opening credits of the main work with the phrase "This work promotes the development of Italian tourism." Producers can submit their proposals to the Ministry of Tourism, and a commission will evaluate their consistency with the objectives of promoting the development of Italian tourism. For the production and acquisition of tourism films and the related distribution and dissemination activities, up to four hundred thousand euros are allocated, depending on whether the pairing involves theatrical releases, TV films, or TV series, whether in the form of a feature-length series or miniseries. The project, managed by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the in-house company ENIT SpA, will be a one-year trial. The announcement will be made public on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.
Askanews