Nicola Borrelli, head of cinema at Italy’s ministry of culture, steps down

Nicola Borrelli, the long-serving head of cinema and audiovisual in Italy’s ministry of culture, has left his post this week.

His departure comes amid a mounting scandal in the country about the misuse of tax credits for Italian productions.

Italian news outlet Open reported Borrelli’s resignation, saying the minister of culture, Alessandro Giuli, had thanked him for his work without giving reasons for his departure.

Earlier this week, Giuli spoke about the tax credit for cinema at the launch of a news stage at Cinecittà, according to Open: “We are making the system of rules and certifications more stringent to reward those who respect the rules and make good cinema, without the money being stolen by scammers.”

It came as news reports have mounted in Italy about a scandal involving a tax credit, overseen by Borrelli’s department, worth almost $1m granted in 2023 for a film, Stelle della Notte, that was never made, allegedly involving a US producer accused of a double murder.

Reportedly called Charles Francis Kaufmann, the producer applied for the Italian tax credit through a company named Tintagel Films that reportedly was working with Italian company Coevolutions. 

Kaufmann was reportedly arrested last month on the Greek island of Skiathos, accused of the double murder of his partner Anastasia Trofimova and their infant daughter Andromeda.

Italy’s generous tax credits fuelled a boom in local production in the early 2020s, but the government has spent much of the past 18 months trying to reform the system amid claims that too many films were being made and not enough being seen by audiences. It has led to severe slowdown in local production in Italy.

International productions, however, have been less affected.

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