The mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, and the minister of fine arts and culture, Francesco Rutelli, have agreed to meet in the second half of October in order to discuss a calendar designed to put an end to bickering between Rome and Venice over the dates of their respective film festivals. Venice feels that the new Rome festival, due to run from 13 21 October, follows much too closely on its own annual festival, which today opens for the 63rd consecutive year, with the result that neither festivals enjoys the prestige and impact it should.

The problems to resolve will test the various parties conciliatory skills as the scope for manoeuvre does not seem great; one of the problems is that the seat for Romes festival, the Auditorium of the Parco della Musica, is where the Accademia di S. Cecilia holds an intense series of concerts running from November to May, most of which are programmed three years ahead. The new coordinated calendar would also try to take into account the annual Turin film festival, due to run this year from 10 18 November.