A poster for the film A City of Sadness [File Photo]

In 2013, a new cinema co-production agreement between Italy and China was signed. According to its terms, films co-produced under the treaty will enjoy dual nationality – Chinese and Italian.

In China, they will be free from the quota that restricts the release of foreign-made films, and receive the same percentage of the box office revenue as for Chinese domestic films. The co-produced films will also receive tax incentives and government subsidies in Italy, and if the filming team needs to shoot in Italy, they can seek support from local government.

The entire Italian film community – public and private organizations, associations and government agencies – came together for the first time ever to launch a three-year "China Project," hoping to open up governmental to private channels to facilitate film cooperation between China and Italy.

"It means many new opportunities for Sino-Italian cooperation in filmmaking," Bradanini said.

However, Italy is not the first country to sign a film co-production agreement with China. Similar deals with France in 2010 and South Korea in 2014 shook the whole moviemaking industry. The Italian deal had a smaller impact, due to the stagnation of the Italian film industry.

In 2013, a delegation of Italian officials and film professionals visited China and found a booming film industry, in contrast to the declining Italian one.

A few days after the Gillo Pontecorvo Award Ceremony, the Chinese government disclosed that China’s total box office revenue reached RMB 29.6 billion in 2014. This shows a year-on-year increase of 36.15 percent. Compared to the sluggish film market in other countries including the United States, the world’s largest film market, the booming Chinese market is attracting global attention.

"The rapid development of the film market in China astonished Italian filmmakers, and we want to visit China to see why," said Italian judge Maurizio Sciarra during the first Chinese cinema forum held during the Venice Film Festival. "There are many good stories, but we need investment to finish the production." Clearly, Italy’s "Golden Lion" has awoken to the growing market and abundant capital in China.

In order to attract investment, in the Sino-Italian co-production agreement the Italian side formulated only one article, requiring that "the ratio of the investment from Italy must be no less than 20 percent." Apart from this, there were no requirements on the themes, sets, and cast. This perhaps makes it the most agreeable and lax agreement in international film co-production history.

"Today, China commands huge interest among all countries in the world. Any stories related to China, or co-produced with China will consequently attract large audiences. Therefore, we hope that with more communication, China and Italy will better understand each other, and find more stories to work on together," Bradanini said.