With its stunning backdrop, Tuscany serves as an ideal setting for cinematic productions such as films, documentaries, TV shows, and other audio-visual works. 146 productions were made in collaboration with the Toscana Film Commission in 2021, doubling in comparison to 2019 and generating an estimated economic impact of 13 million euros across the region. An increase of 150% was also seen in the employment of 611 technical workers and 400 local service companies, highlighting the importance of work opportunity in the industry.
Over a total of 1094 working days, the 146 audio-visual productions that arrived in Tuscany in 2021 included 22 feature films, 9 TV series, 11 short films, 34 documentaries, 36 sets (including photo shoots), video clips and commercials, and 34 TV formats. Among the many made, three were by Netflix, two by HBO and one by the Disney Channel. Red-carpet film stars from all over the globe flocked to Tuscany to shoot their scenes in some of the region’s most idyllic surroundings, including Penelope Cruz, Zoe Saldana, Brian Cox, Vanessa Incontrada, Hershey Felder, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Sarah Snook and Jeremy Strong.
Toscana Film Commission, a department of Fondazione Sistema Toscana which offers assistance for film and audio-visual productions interested in filming in Tuscany, generated an incredible increase over the previous year of around 100%.
Their services include: location and photo scouting, organisation of inspections, production guides for professionals and local companies, relations with local and national institutions, technical and logistic-bureaucratic information, facilitations for obtaining permits, relations with the cinema branches in individual municipalities throughout the region, facilitations and assistance for accommodation, and use of spaces in the Manifatture Digitali Cinema cine-ports in Prato and Pisa. Through its services, which have been partly remodelled to meet the current shooting safety measures in compliance with Covid 19 regulations, Toscana Film Commission has made it possible for international productions to come to the region, not only from European countries but also from the United States, Canada and elsewhere.
“This is a great result, most certainly for the professionals and companies working in the sector’s related industries,”
said Eugenio Giani, President of the Tuscan Regional Council,
“but the effect is not limited to these industries alone. We all know how cinema and television have a magical power in spreading the beauties of the territory all over the world, prompting you to visit them and to experience, in some way, the emotion of the film you have just seen...the many sets hosted in Tuscany in 2021 give us hope for a potential increase in tourists who choose Tuscany for their holidays”.
As far as the economic impact of the productions in the region is concerned (including accommodation, catering, logistics and the purchase of goods and services) an expenditure of around 9.2 million euros has so far been recorded. However, this figure does not yet take into account the very important sets— which will be assessed in the coming months—including those of the television series based on Elena Ferrante’s books My Brilliant Friend, the HBO series Succession, and the Italian films Colibrì and Twinky Doo’s Magic World. It’s therefore possible to estimate an impact of over 13 million euros, up from 6 million in 2019. Tuscany will see a boom in sets in the next few years, creating ricochets in the film tourism sector and among those attracted to Tuscany by the images seen both on big and small screens.
