Moliwood Films: Story of my Wife

“Creativity is about giving shape to dreams and making them accessible to a wider audience. The cinema allows us to popularise this creativity, to turn it into a collective experience, unlike watching a movie alone at home. You laugh when others laugh for example. You share moments and feelings,” explains Flaminio Zadra, film producer at Moliwood Films.

Flaminio spent a lot of his professional life in Germany. Now he’s back home in Italy, running a film production company based in Rome, specialising in feature films, short films and commercials. “I’m still wondering if it was the right decision…“ Flaminio says, like any expat returning home after a long stint abroad. But the experience he brought back with him from film-making in Germany and the contacts he has developed across Europe have allowed him to push Moliwood Films onto a growth trajectory.

“Our latest project is a European co-production entitled “Story of my Wife”. We’re working with entities from Hungary, Germany and France as well. The entire project will cost close to EUR 10m, but the Italian part is around EUR 1.4m, which is still a large amount for a small company like ours.”

“Making movies costs money. It’s not like an artist making a painting…” Flaminio adds. “Sadly, banks are often not accustomed to film production. It’s difficult for them understand this sector. In Italy, this kind of specialised financing is not as readily available as it might be, say, in France. We’re a new company as well, so it’s perhaps normal that banks were extra-prudent. But when they saw our plan and realised that it’s solid and well-drafted, we were able to make progress.” With the help of an EU-guaranteed loan through Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, backed by the EIF, Moliwood Films were able to raise the money they needed to cover the necessary up-front payments for the project to go ahead. “Some production companies start production without having completed their financing, but we would never do that,” he adds.

For Flaminio, independent European productions deserve all the support they can get. “Independent movies should be considered a public utility, like hospitals or transportation. They contribute to improving our quality of life. So I think it’s very sensible that public institutions support these areas. They can also play an important role in highlighting cultural heritage. European productions are squeezed by larger, more commercial American movies. It’s normal I guess – the Anglo-Saxon market is huge, while in Europe, we have smaller national markets with distinct languages.”

But this has not dented Moliwood Films’ ambitions. In this latest project, a sea-captain makes a bet in a café with a friend that he will marry the first woman who walks in…

Company: Moliwood Films (Italy)

Type of business: Audiovisual production company

EIF financing: Cultural & Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (CCS), EFSI

Financial intermediary: CDP / Intesa San Paolo

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Italy, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/it