The Fondazione Cinema per Roma’s 2009 budget, in the region of 13 million euros, has been approved by the Founders’ Board and the Board of Management. The figure is lower than for previous years, also because costs have been rationalised due to the international financial crisis. 

‘Last year’s budget was around 15 million euros. In addition to the Festival, this figure also covered some collateral events and the annual activities of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma. The slight budget decrease in 2009 means a reduction in these sidebar events (though local organisations are open to support them if they wish), along with the Fondazione’s permanent activities. This is being done to ensure the Festival maintains the same high quality of past years’, explained the General Director of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, Francesca Via.

Recent limits imposed on the 2009 budget mean the festival’s retrospectives and the Fondazione Cinema per Roma’s permanent activities have been put on hold. In order to keep up the impetus created by the previous three editions, and to avoid any slowdown, the President Gian Luigi Rondi urged Mayor Alemanno to formalise his proposal of no limits to private contributions, as well as agreeing to the possibility that founding members could increase their annual grant. Alemanno immediately gave a verbal commitment that there would be no ceiling on private contributions. The President of the Regione Lazio, Marrazzo, then disclosed that he would not only ensure the Region’s contribution to the Festival was the same as for previous editions.

Rondi expressed his gratitude for the announcements, and said he could begin to visualize the re-start of the permanent activities programme and re-instigation of the Retrospectives section, which have always been one of the festival’s mainstays.