ABSTRACT
After the financial crisis of 2008, the Italian government adopted a series of legislative measures to boost private investments in the national film industry that were meant to offset the drastic reduction in direct state subsidies. However, when private investments started to drop, and Italy was especially unable to stimulate cross-border cinematic ventures, the Italian film authority instituted the Fondo (fund) for the development of bilateral coproductions with France, increasing public spending on cinema. This chapter analyzes the terms and conditions of the Fondo, alongside the films that apply for support and those that are selected. Providing information on a distinct coproduction policy will tackle the issue of its broader place in European history and geography in a post-2008 sociopolitical climate, while also raising the question of whether globalization is actually superseding national cultures, since the Fondo relies on cultural policies and financial resources agreed on and extended to the film industry at the national level. The sheer fact that Italy and France continue to invest in bilateral coproduction, despite the dwindling numbers, underscores a policy of resistance to, rather than assimilation of the neo-liberal paradigm, in an attempt to maintain cultural specificities in times of crisis.
