Eyes on the Prix.

Prix Italia's new president has plans for change

For its 49th incarnation, the Prix Italia TV and radio festival is heading north again. Last year's festival took place in Naples; this year the venues are Casa Minzoni and Casa Melandri in Ravenna. But that isn't the biggest change for the rest, which will be held from June 19 to June 29. This year the event is under new leadership, in the form of Robert O'Reilly, who will be president of Prix Italia for the next two years.

O'Reilly, who is also executive director of International Relations for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was chosen by Prix Italia organizers to succeed Massimo Riva, general director of Television Suisse. "They approached me slightly over a year ago because the secretariat saw that it was heavily European," O'Reilly said. He explained that the organizers want to attract attendees from other areas, particularly North America, and they hope he will be able to bring a new element to the festival.

Other changes loom on the horizon for Prix Italia. At press time, it seemed likely that Secretary General Paolo Battistuzzi, who was appointed by festival sponsor RAI, would be replaced by RAI executive Francesco Mattioli. In effect, this would make Prix Italia part of RAI's international relations division, which Mattioli heads. Battistuzzi, a former RAI board member, has been appointed head of RAI 3.

In the past RAI has considered the festival one of its top windows to the world. Lately it has been ignored by the highly political RAI officials, who are said to have better things to do.

Some 686 attendees convened in Naples last year, and O'Reilly expects to surpass that figure this year. He also anticipates an increase in submissions to the competition. Last year, 88 hours of television programming and 54 hours of radio were submitted to the competition that forms Prix Italia's core. The judging extends for eight to 10 days. "Believe me, it's brutal, having to judge," lamented O'Reilly.

The other key part of Prix Italia is the two-day forum. This year's forum, "The Public at Risk," to be held June 2324, will explore the relationship between freedom of speech and responsibility in broadcasting. "The forum will focus on: have we gone too far in TV programming?" said O'Reilly. He explained that the forum will draw on the V-chip debate that has been stirring Canada, the U.S. and other countries, but he said that the scope of the forum will encompass other issues. "The notions of freedom of speech and expression are regularly tested in our country and yours," said the Canadian O'Reilly, "but everyone has a different idea of what's acceptable."The speeches and panels will deal with topics ranging from lack of taste in programs and violence in drama to the need for freedom of expression in nonfiction programming. The frank questions posed at the forum will include: Where does the duty to report news end and pleasure in depicting violence begin? When does lack of quality turn a particular program into a risky one for the viewer? Should the focus be on banning undesirable programming or on producing more desirable programming? Is it possible to accept censorship at the end of the millennium, at a time when it seems impossible to control the avalanche of communication? Where does one draw the line between art and pornography, between entertainment and stupidity?

In addition to the forum, the festival will include Sunday excursions on June 22 and June 29. Press conferences on music and documentary programming are slated for June 27, and a press conference on fiction programming is scheduled for June 28. The general assembly and the awards ceremony honoring the competition winners will both take place on June 28.

When asked what direction he plans to take Prix Italia in, O'Reilly said, "It's really a two-year approach." He confessed that there will not be major changes at this year's event; his ambitious plans are reserved for 1998, when Prix Italia will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

O'Reilly said that Prix Italia organizers have had numerous talks with the International Council of Television Arts and Sciences about the possibility of the organization joining in the festival. The arrangement has yet to be finalized and should be worked out during talks this summer. If the two boards approve the collaboration, O'Reilly said, "that will be a major, major change in the level of participation and the scope of what it is we're going to be talking about [at the forum]." Currently, Prix Italia doesn't get the kind of attention that festivals like Banff get, said O'Reilly, but with the involvement of the International Council he anticipates a new level of participation. "We'll see more attention, while still maintaining the working nature of the festival," he commented. And the marriage will have other benefits. According to O'Reilly, the International Council is trying to position itself as an intellectual center for all matters Internet, and next year's festival will be shaped around that. The forum will focus on new media and the Internet, and Prix Italia organizers are considering instituting a prize for new media content. O'Reilly hopes that this will allay some of the criticism - which has come primarily from the radio arena - that the festival focuses too much on television.

So it's on to the future for Prix Italia, with a new field, a possible new partnership and a new pilot at the helm.