This essay will address the dissemination of contemporary Italian cinema in North-American theatres. In the first part, it provides an overview of theatrical circulation strategies over the past few decades, offering a historical perspective on the economic and cultural distribution processes of Italian cinema in the United States. In the second, the article focuses on quantitative data in order to examine how many and what kinds of Italian films were distributed in American theatres over the past ten years, as well as their admissions and box office takings...

This paper analyses a corpus of Italian films produced in the last 15 years that, in various ways, have dealt with the Holocaust theme. All of these films were recognised as ‘film d’interesse culturale e nazionale’ (films of cultural and national interest). Starting from this observation, the article will trace the connections between didactical purposes, quality claims and the concept of ‘impegno’ (political and cultural commitment), which all come to light from these films...