The Lucca Comics & Games 2012 finally took off and with it came the Lucca Movie section, which presents some of the most awaited movies of the season. Among the distribution companies that will take their films to the festival, there’s also Lucky Red, with From Up on Poppy Hill by Goro Miyazaki (soon in theaters), Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson, Asterix et Obelix and Pinocchio by Enzo D’Alò. We asked Gabriele D’Andrea, marketing director of Lucky Red, about Lucky Red’s proposals for the Lucca Movie Comics & Games.

Gabriele D’Andrea, can you tell us more about your participation to Lucca Comics?

In Lucca we will show three full movies: Pinocchio, Moonrise Kingdom, and From Up on Poppy Hill. Then we will show the trailer of Asterix & Obelix for the first time. As for Pinocchio, we also organized a meeting between the audience and the director, Enzo d’Alò, accompanied by the great illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti, who drew all the characters.

What makes this convention interesting to a distribution company such as Lucky Red?

It is a moment of strong aggregation for all the great fans, not only of cinema, but also of everything that is popular. We intend to take this as an opportunity to show our movies to this audience, which is very active on the Internet, prone to the word-of-mouth and very responsive to original dynamics that may not emerge through the traditional advertising channels. What interests us is to reach a point of contact with this audience, so we can build a solid base for our movies.

And this is also a more various audience than the one you usually find at a cinema festival, don’t you think?

I would say it is a more original audience, an audience that is difficult to reach through traditional channels, a young audience that knows cinema very well, in both its quality and popular sides. It is different, and maybe more open, than the one you can find ad a film festival.

Lucca Comics looks like a perfect match for Lucky Red, which for a long time has been committed to the distribution and valorisation of Miyazaki’s and Ghibli studio’s masterpieces.

Absolutely. Lucca Comics is the most important Italian event in its niche, and it gives us great visibility in the media, especially on the Internet.

Can the event evolve towards a stricter relationship with cinema, following the example of San Diego Comi-Con?

We often “use” Comi-Con has a benchmark to understand the appeal a movie can have on the audience, so we look forward to do the same in Italy with such an innovative and growing event. We have all the interest in seeing Lucca Movie growing and becoming more important every year.

And this year you brought an example of Italian animation, Pinocchio. This is an area that is much in need of visibility.

We think that Pinocchio has found its ideal place in Lucca. Not only because the character is a symbol for Tuscany and because we’re talking about a high quality animation movie, but also because it is a very “Italian” product. From the way in which it was made and drawn to the music, by Lucio Dalla. This is why we think the movie will be a success in Lucca and will elicit very positive reactions.