Italian tax perks in works

Film boycott prompts Silvio's reversal Bowing to pressure from Italy's enraged film community, the Silvio Berlusconi-led government has reintroduced film production tax incentives and averted a threatened boycott of the Venice Film Festival by local producers. The eagerly awaited tax credits, expected to pump some $250 million annually into the local industry, are back on a budget bill now going through parliament. Berlusconi abruptly cut the incentives last month, prompting Italy's main industry orgs to announce a boycott of the Venice, Rome and Turin film festivals in protest. On Tuesday motion picture body Anica, general entertainment org Agis, and producers entity API called off the boycott and thanked the government's culture czar Sandro Bondi for intervening "to avert huge damage to the economic policy of the country's... [read full story]