Unusual but expensive – Italy’s Puglia region offers filmmakers a quaint mix of ancient and contemporary locales
Imagine Italy as a leg whose foot is shod by a high-heel called Puglia. Puglia, also known as Apulia, is a South Italian region bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Puglia is exceptionally sun-soaked and dry, with a scarcity of fresh water. Its most southern portion, known as the Salento peninsula, forms a stylish high-heel for Italy.
The region comprises 19,358 sq km of picturesque locations and is bordered by the other Italian regions of Molise to the north, Campania to the west and Basilicata to the southwest. It neighbours are Greece and Albania across the Ionian and Adriatic Seas, respectively. The region extends as far north as Monte Gargano.
Filmmakers will find Puglia exotic in many ways, partly due to its historical evolution, but also socially and culturally, Puglia is just now catching up with the rest of Italy. Throughout its history, till recent times, the region has been pure with its locations and locals but it still has a contemporary touch.
Puglia’s cities and towns and outlying areas have Greek and Roman ruins, paleo-Christian ruins and public and ecclesiastical buildings done in every major style from Romanesque to Gothic to Renaissance. In Puglia, and nowhere else, you will also find a very peculiar type of building – the trullo – a beehive-shaped, whitewashed structure. 
Boundless fields of wheat, plain and finely tilled lands, fascinating caustic and sea caves, smoking chimneys, sunny farms, ancient olive trees, maze-like alleys. Dry-stone walls, industrial archaeology, huge deserted squares, mystery magic castles, thick green woods, medieval small villages, baroque cities is what you will find when shooting in Pugllia.
Climate
Summers have clear, blue skies and the temperature in July and August averages 30°C. Spring and autumn are moderate. Winters are cooler, with temperatures usually above 0°C, and only occasionally rising above 15°C.
Apulia Film Commission (AFC)
The Apulia Film Commission dedicates a fund to the most-convincing productions and interesting projects in long/short movies, documentaries, video clips, video games, mockumentaries and TV series. The Apulia Film Fund works as a grant for movie productions interested in shooting in Puglia. Three times a year, you can submit your movie projects. Each individual production may apply for a maximum grant as detailed below:
• Feature-length fiction films, TV films and TV series up to a maximum € 1,50,000
• Documentaries, docu-fictions, mockumentaries up to a maximum € 40,000
• Fiction shorts and video clips up to a maximum € 30,000• Videogames up to a maximum € 15,000
Apulia Film Fund
Who can apply
Funding is available for Italian, European and non-European productions presenting projects in the following categories:
• Feature-length fiction films (minimum 85 min)
• TV movies (minimum two episodes of 100 min)
• TV series (minimum four episodes of 52 min)
• Documentaries, docu-fictions, mockumentaries
Eligibility for potential applicants for funding is outlined and may also include temporary enterprises or co-production companies. In the case of all other film projects, in addition to the companies, foundations and cooperative production companies mentioned, other public and private bodies intending to produce may also apply. Each production, co-production company or association may only apply for funding with one project per session and in general only a maximum three times during a 12-month period.
Criteria for funding
As part of funding regulations, the applying production team and its beneficiaries are obliged to:
• Ensure that 35 per cent of hired staff (crew and cast) including post-production team, but excluding extras, special extras or apprentices and trainees, are made up of citizens resident or born in Apulia.
• Spend a total that is equal to at least 200 per cent of the grant received within the Apulia Region. This percentage rises to 300 per cent for animation films and videogames.
• Guarantee that for full-length fiction films (as well as TV films and TV series) at least three weeks of filming of the first reel is on Apulian territory. To also receive hospitality funding from the foundation, the minimum working period rises to four weeks.
• Include the brand of the Apulia Film Commission in the opening credits of the film or alternatively in the first frame of the closing credits as well as on all the film’s information.
