“Visit Italy With Movies” is a digital project by Minerva Pictures, a film production and distribution company that recently celebrated its seventieth anniversary, partnering with RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts. The project aims to promote the internationalization of Italy’s reputation through audiovisual media, which represent a significant asset for both the cultural and tourism industries.
“Visit Italy With Movies” provides cinephiles, enthusiasts of Italian culture, and tourists worldwide with a virtual space where they can discover and, with a click, visit the locations where their favorite films were shot. This includes anecdotes and trivia surrounding the film scenes, the cast, and the directors, both in front of and behind the camera. From territories to films and vice versa, it presents ‘cinetourism’ in a way you’ve never seen before. The goal is to support Italian cultural production abroad and increase the presence of Italian landscapes in foreign productions.
The “VIWM TRAINING 2024” project, in collaboration with RUFA, is an initiative aimed at fostering the development of skills related to film production, distribution, and promotion through Italian audiovisual works. The program addresses the emergence of new job profiles in the audiovisual industry, such as Showrunner, Organizer, and Location Manager, active in both Italian and foreign productions.
Through the VIWM TRAINING platform – a free version of the Visit Italy with Movies platform specifically developed for educational institutions – faculty and students have access to a catalog of approximately 200 films. These films can be screened for educational activities, along with an online course that allows independent learning to understand the importance of Italian cinema abroad and its role in the international film scene. The course includes case studies, interviews with industry experts, clips, and full-length films available for streaming, as well as practical exercises. The course is created by Professor Francesco Pennica, a director of photography, filmmaker, and producer of Italian and international films, documentaries, music videos, series, and TV programs.
Among the titles that are available on the platform for the course are:
1. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Ferrara)
2. The Conformist (Rome)
3. Caliber 9 (Milan)
4. One Hundred Steps (Sicily)
5. The Seduction of Mimi (Catania, Turin)
6. The Marquis of Grillo (Rome, Monterano Lucca, Amelia)
7. Too Bad She’s Bad (Rome)
8. Adua and Her Friends (Rome)
9. The Sunday Woman (Turin)
10. Poverty and Nobility (Naple)
11. La Bella di Lodi (Modena, Bologna, Venice and Lodi)
12. The Bloodstained Shadow (Veneto)
13. Be sick… It’s free (Rome)
14. The Visit (San Benedetto Po, Rome, Ferrara)
15. Come Have Coffee with Us (Luino, Cuvio, Varese)
16. The Stolen Children (Milan, Bologna, Rome, Calabria, Sicily)
17. Conversation Piece (Rome)
18. The Scent of the Night (Rome)
19. Double Game (Turin)
20. Rice Girl (Novara)
The presentation of VIWM TRAINING 2024 will take place on Friday, December 22, 2023, at the RUFA campus in San Lorenzo in Rome, at Via Ausoni 7/a, at 12:00 PM. Participation is possible both in person and online by connecting via Webex.
