The Italian cinema reform received final, unanimous Senate approval on 4 November 2026, the Ministry of Culture said in an official press release, with Cinecittà News reporting the same vote from Palazzo Madama. The text matches the version already passed by the Chamber of Deputies. Culture minister Alessandro Giuli and undersecretary Lucia Borgonzoni both issued statements with the MiC release.
Key facts
- Vote: Senate, 4 November 2026, unanimous (no contrary votes or abstentions, per Cinecittà News)
- Bill: “Disposizioni in materia di cinema” , concludes the parliamentary path after Chamber approval
- New bodies: Agenzia per il cinema e l’audiovisivo (operational functions now at DG Cinema e Audiovisivo, under Mic vigilance); Forum del cinema e dell’audiovisivo (consultation, replacing the Consiglio Superiore)
- Decree window: government delegated to adopt one or more legislative decrees within two years (Cinecittà News)
- Policy hooks named by MiC: triennial programming; simpler procedures and certain contribution windows; stronger controls on public money; independent production and first/second works; AI guarantees for authors and performers; anti-piracy; national plan for cinema reopening and upgrade; welfare revisions including discontinuity indemnity
What the Agency and Forum do
Cinecittà News says the Agency takes organisational, financial and managerial autonomy for operational cinema-audiovisual functions currently at the ministry, while political direction, strategic vigilance and inspection stay with the Mic. The Forum is a permanent consultation body without new public-finance burdens, the MiC release says. Decrees are also expected to shape a national cinema and audiovisual hub involving Cinecittà and the Centro Sperimentale, at least two annual contribution windows, bank treasury management of the investment fund, and a tax-credit “responsabile,” Cinecittà News reports.
AI, exhibition and money
Borgonzoni’s MiC statement links the reform to recovered public funds (€70m this year and €150m next) and says Italy is the only major reference market back in positive territory versus pre-Covid. She also cites AI protections for actors and screenwriters as a text later picked up at European level. Giuli framed the unanimous Senate vote as shared majority–opposition work ten years after the 2016 cinema law. Implementing decrees, not the framework vote alone, will set the practical tax-credit and selective-aid rules producers use.
Why it matters
Italian producers, exhibitors and streamers have waited for a post-2016 governance reset that separates operational grant management from political direction. A unanimous Agency-and-Forum law is the institutional signal; the commercial signal arrives when the first decree publishes contribution calendars and AI compliance rules. Related FilmBunch Europe money coverage includes Spain’s ICAA €31.3m general feature aid, Isabelle Allanche’s mk2 appointment and South Investors Week in Cádiz. More under Money & Policy.
Our reading
For European incentive desks, Italy has locked the governance architecture and left the rate cards and windows to decrees. The next evidence is the Agency’s implementing decrees and the first published contribution calendar under the new law.
Sources
- Ministero della Cultura press release, Cinema, approvata all’unanimità la riforma (4 November 2026; Giuli and Borgonzoni statements; Agency; Forum; AI; exhibition; welfare)
- Cinecittà News, Approvata all’unanimità la nuova legge cinema (4 November 2026; Agency vs Mic functions; Forum; two-year decree window; Polo Nazionale; Avati attendance)