An underhanded move by members of Italy’s right-wing government to try and take over the management of Rome’s Centro Sperimentale Film School is prompting an uproar by its students and a strong show of support from the country’s top directors.

Earlier this week, students of the Centro Sperimentale — which is the oldest film school in the world, and among the finest — staged a demonstration in front of the country’s parliament just as a piece of legislation that would change the school’s management was swiftly being approved by a parliamentary committee. A ratification vote, expected in the coming days, would make it effective.

If passed by parliament, the legislation — which is being couched in small print within a larger bill — would basically oust the school’s current president — producer Marta Donzelli, whose Vivo Film is known for indie titles such as Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “Nico, 1988” and Abel Ferrara’s “Siberia” — and also kick out the rest of its top management two years before their mandate expires.

The students have also launched a petition in support of their protest, which has been signed by practically all of the country’s top directors. Supporters include Marco Bellocchio, Luca Guadagnino, Alice Rohrwacher, Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone, Mario Martone and also, from Germany, Wim Wenders.

Besides ousting current management, the bill would also give several Italian ministries power to appoint members of the Centro Sperimentale’s advisory board, who are currently appointed by the school’s president. And it would give this advisory board executive powers that it currently does not have.

Italy took a sharp turn to the right last September when a coalition headed by current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy have Neo-Fascist roots, emerged as big winners with more than 44% of the vote in the country’s national elections. Since then, members of the right-wing camp have been making moves to hold more sway within the country’s state-controlled media and cultural institutions, starting with a change in top management they prompted at state broadcaster RAI in May.

RAI’s top management takeover was not too much of a surprise, as somewhat similar moves have been made in the past by leftist governments when they gained power. Most seats of power within the politically controlled broadcaster have often been assigned with a spoils system logic. But when it comes to the Centro Sperimentale, this is the first time the formative institution has become the target of a political power grab. In this case, the move is symbolic of how determined the Italian right is to try and get a foothold within the country’s creative community, which is known to be overwhelmingly left-leaning.

“Every government has a right to appoint whomever they want,” says Sarah Narducci, a Centro Sperimentale student who is among those leading the protest. “But at the Centro Sperimentale, it’s never happened before that they try to step in two years before the mandates of the existing management expire.”

Narducci also points out that Italy’s right-wing government is trying to politically micro-manage the school by increasing the powers of the government-appointed advisory board. And she also complains that the students have been unable to speak with Brothers of Italy co-founder Federico Mollicone, who is head of the parliamentary culture commission that is pushing the bill.

“We had a meeting all set up,” but then Mollicone “canceled last minute and scrambled to get the bill approved by the commission instead,” Narducci said.

A likely scenario is that the bill will soon be passed in parliament, and in a matter of months, Donzelli and her team could be pushed out of the Centro Sperimentale — where, by all accounts, she was doing a great job of revamping the school and expanding its activities in other branches besides Rome.

“I am concerned that the process of renewal that Marta Donzelli had begun will be interrupted,” Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera told Italian journalists on Wednesday when asked for comment on the situation after announcing the fest’s lineup. “The school needed to be revamped by removing its bureaucratic shackles. And Donzelli was doing that,” Barbera added. “It’s really a shame to deprive her of the possibility of completing this process. It does not seem right.”

There was no comment from Donzelli or the Centro Sperimentale.

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