The epidemic rages, Hollywood adapts. Most of the halls are closed and Walt Disney has inaugurated a new strategy by simultaneously offering products at the box office in streaming, the only business in great expansion. Meanwhile Netflix has soared past the barrier of 200 million subscribers. The steadily growing revenue stream has enabled a quantum leap: the company has announced that it will no longer need to borrow billions of dollars to finance its TV shows and movies but will finance itself instead.
Thus change the world of entertainment. And even Italian cinema is looking for ways to grow or at least to survive. In fact, there are signs of vitality in the small patrol of independent production companies that have chosen the path of Piazza Affari. It is the case of Leo Movie, founded in 1989 by the director of "A Fistful of Dollars" and now run by his children, which has been part of the Aim index since 2013.
At first the company only held the rights to two works by the author (still among the most popular films today), and then started a distribution business through agreements with the US majors and, through Lotus productions, producing Italian operas, including feature films Giuseppe Tornatore and Paolo Genovese.
During the week, Leone Film jumped at the top of the AIM charts (+24% ) after the announcement of the renewal of theagreement with Amazon: the new films distributed by Leone Film will come broadcast exclusively on Prime Video, according to the provisions of an agreement that will significantly increase both the value of the first window and that of the proprietary library. “I am very proud – said the President Andrew Leone – in announcing the agreement, which confirms and strengthens the important collaboration with Amazon, highlighting, in fact, the Group's indisputable ability to select a product of the highest quality and marketability”.
No less positive is the news regarding the Iervolino Entertainment, company specializing in the production of film and television content for the international market. Second Variety, an American magazine that is a point of reference for the world of cinema, the film "Waiting for the Barbarians”, produced by Iervolino Entertainment with Michael Fitzgerald and Olga Segura, is among the possible candidates for an Oscar. The film was included in the forecasts that Variety draws up each year on the films that will be nominated for the Academy Awards, the 93rd edition of which will be held on April 25th.
According to Variety, the film is one of the possible contenders for the Oscars in five categories: Best Actor, Best Costume Design, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography. Andrea Iervolino, president and founder of Iervolino Entertainment, commented: “Waiting for the Barbarians was a strongly desired project that gives prestige to the cinema of our country being a Made in Italy production. The inclusion of the film among the possible candidates for the Oscar Award is further confirmation of the validity of our business model, which allows us to produce, with entirely Italian workers and professionals, films capable of competing with the main Hollywood majors”.
