ROME -- Last year saw huge success for Rome’s main cinema studio complex, Cinecittà studios, with the return of leading international film companies Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, with ‘Zoolander 2’ and the remake of ‘Ben Hur’, on screen in September. “Rome’s prestigious film studio was privileged enough to showcase the first televised version of Oscar award winning Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘The Young Pope’, which was produced by Wild Side for Sky, HBO and Canal+,” said Managing Director Giuseppe Basso.

 Basso also pointed out that seeing as almost a year ago the company was struggling with the sets of theatres 13 and 15 as well as the external backlot of the studio, to find out that ‘The Young Pope’ will have pride of place as a special event at the 73^rd Venice International Film Festival made the company extremely happy.

 Basso expressed his gratitude for the presence of these important and prestigious productions, which allowed Cinecittà studios to end 2015 having made 48 million euros in revenues and a net profit of 1.7 million. He also talked about the further development of the film studios in the USA at the headquarters of the Agency of Performing Arts (APA), which continues to act as Cinecittà’s main representative agency in Los Angeles.

 The company's managing director made clear that Cinecittà's goal is to continue to attract such a high calibre of international productions to Italy and to his film studios, but also to keep on developing prestigious Italian productions for both television and film, as it did for ‘The Young Pope.’

 On the topic of strengthening the company’s international market, Basso said they were very happy to welcome on board Los Angeles based Dr Migde Velazquez, who was recently appointed US Representative for Cinecittà studios. The addition of Velazquez to the team will help to ensure continuous communication with major US clients, as well as confirming the company’s dedication to attracting big international productions.

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