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Third Resignation Hits Italy’s Film-Funding Panel Over Regeni Doc Decision

The culture ministry plans a decree that will rewrite the rules that govern expert panels.

Overview

  • Ginella Vocca, who leads the MedFilm Festival, resigned Thursday from the Culture Ministry’s selective cinema commission, becoming the third member to quit over the Giulio Regeni documentary’s rejection.
  • In her resignation letter, she said she had firmly opposed the decision and told colleagues by email and in meetings that blocking the film was wrong on every front.
  • Minister Alessandro Giuli said he disagrees with the lack of funding and called it a repeated technical judgment across two years and sections, noting that current law bars governments from overturning panel rulings.
  • Parliamentary pressure grew as PD lawmaker Gianni Cuperlo questioned the minister, while Culture Committee chair Federico Mollicone denied any role and offered the lower house for a screening.
  • The ministry is drafting a decree to change how expert panels are formed and run, after Vocca warned that many producers are still waiting on the commission’s second session decisions.