Telecom Italia is official sponsor of the 58th International Film Festival, organized by the Venice Biennale, which opens today on the island city.
Telecom Italia has already worked closely with the Biennale, as sponsor of the 49th International Art Exhibition. This project included the provision of telephone line, data transmission system and broadband connection links between the various Exhibition locations, as well as completely cabling selected sites and setting up a stand in collaboration with "Studio Azzurro".
As official sponsor of the Venice Film Festival Telecom Italia is contributing to the award known as the Lion of the Year, given to the best film in the Cinema of the present competition. Worth US$100,000, the prize is shared by the director and producer of the winning film.
Telecom Italia is also a partner in The Film Foundation, the film industry association that is dedicated to gathering funds to preserve films that risked being lost forever through neglect. Martin Scorsese, president of the Foundation, will be in Venice for the showing of two carefully restored films illustrating the relationship between Italy, Naples in particular, and the United States: Santa Lucia Luntana, directed by Harold Godsoe in 1931 in New Jersey, and The Movie Actor by Bruno Valletty, also filmed on the eastern seaboard of the United States, in 1932.
In a world where communication is increasingly important, Telecom Italia is once again playing an integral part at a major event whose purpose is to facilitate the dissemination of ideas and creativity.