Georgian film Antikvariati/The Antique readmitted for Giornate degli Autori (Authors’ Days) review

Fabio Moretti (partner), Manuela Molinari (senior manager) and Giulio Berrino (junior manager), under the coordination of Enrico Castaldi (founder) of CastaldiPartners,have obtained an emergency injunction from the Venice court authorizing the screening of Rusudan Glurjidze's Georgian film ANTIKVARI / THE ANTIQUE as part of the Venice Days of the Venice Biennale.

In the past few days, the press had given wide coverage to another ruling, also by the Venice court, issued against the film's majority production company (the Georgian Cinetech), which inhibited the latter 's use of the film in violation of copyright . Venice Days (a historic autonomous festival within the Venice Film Festival, modeled after the prestigious Cannes Directors' Fortnight), deciding to uphold the director's moral copyright and the crucial importance that her film could be publicly shown in Venice, have, with CastaldiPartners, requested the Venice court to rule accordingly.

The judge, in his ruling, indicated that the first public presentation of the work may represent a way in which its author acquires artistic authorship, thus authorizing the screening in Venice Days, whose president Francesco Ranieri Martinotti commented on the decision as follows, “This is a great day for authors, for the freedom of Rusudan and his film, and for the entire Venice Film Festival as a place of protection of artists' expression.”

In fact, as noted by lawyer Fabio Moretti, “there are no precedents at the Venice Film Festival regarding cases of screening of a film prohibited by a court order. The 'authorization for the screening of the Georgian film The Antique in the context of the Festival is a very important precedent for the recognition of the moral right of the director regardless of the diatribes on the economic exploitation of' work.”