A joint collaboration between the Biennial of Venice and the Musica per Roma Foundation, which regards essentially the Venice Film Festival and RomeFilmFest, has been announced today at a press conference held at the Foreign Press Association in Italy’s Main Office in Rome. In attendance were Francesco Rutelli, Minister for Cultural Affairs; Davide Croff, President of the Biennial of Venice, and Goffredo Bettini, President of the Musica per Roma Foundation.
Both Croff and Bettini underlined that this agreement cannot but enrich the Italian as well as international film scene, even though they did not go into details regarding the risks of competition between both events.
The agreement involves a tribute to some of the most important Italian directors of all times, such as Bernardo Bertolucci (on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his movie The Last Emperor) to Roberto Rossellini, Mario Soldati and Luchino Visconti (on the 100th anniversary of their births).
Minister Rutelli spoke of “competition though not antagonism”. He highlighted the significance of the collaboration, positive that such a deeply rooted institution as the Biennial of Venice and its International Film Festival will only benefit from the competition with RomeFilmFest. For his part, Goffredo Bettini is convinced that the Venice Film Festival will be as outstanding as the first edition of RomeFilmFest.