Italy for Movies is the national portal of locations and production incentives, born following the issue of Law no. 220 of 14 November 2016, the “Film and Audiovisual Regulation”, that qualifies cinema and audiovisual as fundamental means of artistic expression, cultural formation and social communication and nontheless promotion of the image of Italy also for touristic purposes.Thanks to this law our country now has a new set of regulations which govern the state funding of film and audiovisual products in a more modern and effective way. These sectors are recognised as activities of significant public interest, and contribute to defining our national identity along with the civil, cultural and economic growth of the country. They also encourage industrial growth, promote tourism, and generate jobs.More specifically, the reform gives the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism the task of promoting the image of Italy, including for the purposes of tourism, through film and audiovisual products, in conjunction with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and through agreements with the Italian National Tourist Board (ENIT).

The Italy for Movies project was launched in January 2017 as per a memorandum of understanding signed by the General Directorates for Film and Tourism of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.The project is one of the lines of action launched under the Strategic Tourism Plan, the aim of which is to implement strategic actions that contribute to harmonising and organising existing design heritage, also launching experimental initiatives characterised by high levels of innovation, both in terms of supply as well as target markets and the related promotion and marketing channels.

The strategic aims:

To act as a coordinated institutional tool between the State and the Regions for information and communication aimed at internationally promoting the Made in Italy.
To increase the appeal and visibility of the Italian regions to tourists through film production.
To secure an increasing flow of foreign investments for more effective tourism promotion through film induced tourism, also intensifying the use and appreciation of cultural, environmental and landscape assets.

The portal gives industry professionals:
-access to the «best of» information on filming locations in the Italian regions;
-knowledge of funding opportunities at regional, national and international level;
-news about filming in Italy and funding opportunities.

The portal gives also film-induced tourists (people who want to visit filming locations):
- film-induced tourism routes through movies, tv series and videogames settings;
- a movies and games map including details on locations where they have been shot;
- news about cinema, filming on the territories and on events related to film-induced tourism.

The content

The portal contains five sections as follows:
-a catalogue of locations broken down into individual territories, with a search engine that can be used to search for dynamic categories such as geographical location, type of location, building and site classification, historical era, environmental details and organisational contacts;
-a guide to incentives, international, national and regional, for producers, as well as the technical facilities provided by the Film Commissions;a regional map of existing films and audiovisual works (photos and videos) with links to production websites;a news section containing updates of the topics covered by the portal;
- a film commission area containing documents relative to the National Coordination of the Film Commissions.

The website, available in Italian and English, can be visited at www.italyformovies.it. For more information, please get in touch at: info@italyformovies.it