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"AFIC – Association of Italian Film Festivals while sharing the principles aimed at preserving public health that informed today's Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers, expresses strong concern over the decision to close, for at least a month, cinemas e, Consequently, to suspend film festivals.

Our thoughts and closeness naturally go to all the cinematographic events taking place in these hours and to those scheduled, but often rescheduled after the closures of the last lockdown, in the next weeks.

Our sector is indistinctly affected by these measures and is found, Once again, to suddenly redesign their work saying goodbye to months of hard work to bring the audience back to theaters. The experience of some important festivals, first of all the Venice International Film Festival, showed how it was possible to organize events with thousands of people at the highest levels of security. We would like these experiences to be taken into account in the future before deciding generalized closures of cinemas which, according to sector studies, are at a very low risk of spreading the infection..

Unfortunately the cinema exercise, to whom we express our closeness and solidarity, it is one of the most affected by this type of closure measures because it is one of the most important but also the weakest pieces of the entire film industry chain since it cannot independently dispose of the films to be screened. The sudden closure and reopening of cinemas therefore risks interrupting the work of months of reorganizing the distribution companies that with seriousness and courage have decided to release their films in theaters.

With this in mind, we therefore ask that the Government and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism be even closer to all these realities by guaranteeing the economic means of support in this emergency moment but we also ask for a comparison for the future for imagine together a restart of the whole sector with certain and verified rules that give new work and stability to everyone. "

AFIC- ASSOCIATION FESTIVAL OF ITALIAN CINEMA