From the very beginning to the digital age
The Italian cinema originated in Piedmont and Turin has been the capital of cinema since 1896, when the Lumière brothers organized in the city the first film projection of Italy. The first sound stages and the first cinemas were built in Turin, a city which also launched internationally known film producers: Turin is a unique urban set and exciting chapters of the cinema history were shot in its neighborhoods. Nowadays, the city promotes and hosts prestigious festivals for spectators of all ages, such as the TFF - Torino Film Festival, Torino LGBTQI, CinemAmbiente and Sottodiciotto Film Festival, as well as the multimedia festival ViewFest. The Mole Antonelliana is the symbol of the “seventh art”: it now hosts the National Museum of Cinema and the extraordinary collection of 1,800,000 works among which filmstrips, documents from the archives, photographs, art devices and objects, film posters and memorabilia exhibited in the showcases located on the helical flight of stairs that leads to the dome. “Turin City of Cinema 2020” was devoted to the historic link between Turin and this art.
Piedmont on stage
The city of Turin and Piedmont have in common genius and vitality in the cinematographic sector, not only in terms of international film festivals, but especially for the event production and organization, the training, the research and the distribution. This tradition and fertile vocation represent a source of ideas and talents, whose headquarter is the Film Commission Torino Piemonte, created with the support of the Piedmont Region and the collaboration of different cultural institutions and associations. There are more than 800 locations throughout the region in the catalogue which are excellent film sets: from the royal residences Residenze Reali Sabaude to the monumental palaces, from the mountain landscapes to the lakes and the hills which are part of the UNESCO heritage. An up-to-date production guide is also available for the professionals. A wide range of unusual and visually striking indoor and outdoor locations can be found in the region of cinema, that has been the set of more than 1,300 films, among which Italian and international productions, tv series, animated films, short films and documentaries.