The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, to be inaugurated soon, has just announced that Istituto Luce-Cinecittàhas officially become one of his Founding Supporter. The five-year deal includes the organization of events, exhibitions and activities dedicated to Italian cinema. Italy is the first country to close a deal with the Academy’s new creation. The museum team will curate a series of screenings of Italian cinema masterpieces, starting with a tribute for the 100thanniversary of Federico Fellini’s birth.

The partnership has been announced during the first Italian event of the Academy, co-produced by Luce Cinecittà with the support of Mastercard. Among the guests who attended the reception and dinner at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Dawn Hudson (Academy Managing Director), Roberto Cicutto (President and Managing Director of Luce Cinecittà) and David Rubin (Academy President), who welcomed 200 Italian and European members of the Academy, including directors, artists and personalities who celebrated the great successes of Italian cinema.

Cicutto states: “We’re proud of our friendship with the Academy, that shares our deep commitment for the preservation of the film heritage. We’re happy to consolidate our presence within the Academy Museum. This new institution, designed by Renzo Piano, will surely become of the international beacons for all the cinema lovers.” During the press conference, on behalf of Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Camilla Cormanni (Head of International Cultural Promotion) highlights how “the collaboration with the Academy is now official, and will foster an ever more interesting future for Italian cinema.”

Hudson underlines the tight relationships between Italy and the Academy over the years: “Italy won 11 Oscars for Best Foreign-language film and collected 28 nominations. However, we wish to give an idea of inclusivity, so we changed the name of the category into Best International Film.”

Talking of Renzo Piano, who designed the museum, Hudson states: “When I met him, he told me he would have worked on it with pleasure, because if he hadn’t been an architect, he would be a filmmaker.” Rubin adds: “Believe it or not, Los Angeles missed a museum of this magnitude, even if it is the capital city of cinema. It will include a huge collection of artifacts, and two screening rooms with the most advanced technologies. Nothing is better than a screening in a dark room, surrounded by people who share the same experience and let go in front a story on the silver screen. However, we are also open to new ways of cinema fruition as those adopted by the younger generations.”

Planned events include an exhibition on Miyazaki and one on Afro-American cinema.

Talents on the red carpet included: Monica Bellucci, Luca Bergamo, Luca Bigazzi, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Maite Carpio Bulgari, Matilda De Angelis, Marcello Fonte, Matteo Garrone, Valeria Golino, Reed Hastings, Giancarlo Leone, Francesca Lo Schiavo, Fernando Meirelles, Laura Morante, Ferzan Ozpetek, Domenico Procacci, Gianni Quaranta, Tony Renis, Nicoletta Romanoff, Francesco Rutelli, Kasia Smutniak, Vittorio Storaro, Giuseppe Tornatore, Carlo Verdone, Lina Wertmüller, Luca Zingaretti.