Fabrica Cinema is a division of Italian clothing maker Benetton that was originally formed to aid, along with a Swiss cinema fund, controversial films that might never reach a screen. But in its one year history, Fabrica has seen such an urgent need for aid to directors of difficult films that it has begun producing films itself. Last year it co-produced “Seventeen Years” by Chinese director Zhang Yuan, a film to which Chinese authorities denied official recognition. The second series of films produced Fabrica will produce will be directed by “new names under 25 years of age,” according to the head of the company Marco Mueller. The only project in the works he could announce was a new film by Samira Makhmalbaf, the nineteen year-old director whose debut “The Apple” impressed Cannes to no end. Mueller describes her as the “single most talented young woman director in the world.” Benetton plans to increase funding of its Fabrica Cinema next year to $2 million.

(Source: Reuters)