Last night saw the open of the Rome International Film Festival. But during the red carpet opening, thousands of protesters blocked the red carpet and stars Keira Knightley and Eva Mendes were forced to enter the cinema through a back door.

 

A local filmmaker this morning told me: "Here the Rome Film Festival has been quite miserable (as usual) as yesterday there was a strike of cinema producers and directors that occupied the red carpet. There were over 2,000 people complaining about the cuts that the ministry is gonna make to the cinema funds. It was impossible to go on with the screenings and the program just jumped off! Then later, a rep of the government explained that the ministry doesnt give a damn about all this."

Another industry professional told me this morning:  "You missed a beautiful red carpet in Rome... Full of protesters, I wonder why we always do the same mistakes here?"

These two native Rome filmmakers express clear discontent to the protests and one has to wonder why there so much discord within the Italian film community. Well, I can confirm there is contention throughout the global film industry at large and while it was clearly an inconvenience and annoyance to the opening night ceremony last night, props to the Italians for using their rite of speech and opinion for saying what they feel whether it was appreciated or not by fellow Romans.

This morning an article covering the event appeared on FOCUS News Agency Home / European Union:

"Close to 2,000 demonstrators from the Tutti a casa (Everyone Home) group disrupted the festival's opening celebrations to protest the government's recent arts budget cuts. Italian trade unionists, actors and directors including Ettore Scola, Francesca Comencini and Mario Bellocchio marched together against the cuts and the government's decision not to renew tax breaks for the arts."

To read more of this article, please click on this link:

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n233849  

 

Written by Vanessa McMahon October 29, 2010