With nearly 15 million moviegoers in 2024, accounting for 20% of Italy’s total, and approximately half a million films screened, representing 18% of the national figure, Lombardy has been confirmed as Italy’s leading region for cinema attendance and offerings. The sector is supported by over 1,700 businesses (18.6% of the national total) employing more than 16,000 people. This data was highlighted by Lombardy’s Regional Councillor for Culture, Francesca Caruso, during a meeting at the Venice International Film Festival.
The region has backed 19 projects, including feature films, series, and documentaries—some of which were presented in Venice—through its ‘Lombardy for the Cinema’ initiative, funded with 3 million euros. A second edition of the fund has been approved and will open in October. For cinema theaters, a separate 5-million-euro fund for technological and structural upgrades has been launched, with a deadline of September 25. This is in addition to 750,000 euros already allocated for 2025 via the ‘Unico Cultura’ program. A further 500,000 euros is available through the ‘Next – Linea F’ fund for quality programming, open until September 18. An additional 116,000 euros has been earmarked for festivals and film series.
Significant focus has been placed on youth engagement. The ‘Schermi di Classe’ (Classroom Screens) project, relaunched in 2023/2024 in partnership with AGIS Lombarda and Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, involved 38,188 students from 212 schools, with 254 screenings across 84 theaters. Since 2016, nearly 200,000 young people have participated in over 1,100 free screenings. “We are investing in the training of new generations,” stated Councillor Caruso, “because cinema is a language that educates towards knowledge and engagement with reality.”
Furthermore, the region has opened a 300,000-euro fund for the development of audiovisual works, offering grants of up to 30,000 euros for fiction and animation and 15,000 for documentaries (deadline September 30), and a 48,000-euro fund for special projects with two deadlines: September 10 and January 30. “These measures confirm our commitment to supporting professionals, attracting productions, promoting festivals, training the youth, and enhancing theaters,” concluded Caruso. “Because cinema is not just entertainment; it is also industry, work, and economic development.”