Cinema, AI, and Physical Media: The UNIVIDEO Event at IED

Cinema, Memory, and Future: Physical Media Takes Center Stage Again at IED Milan

At a historical moment when cinema seems to exist almost exclusively within platforms, digital catalogs, and algorithms that profile and recommend, an event at IED Milan sought to reverse this perspective. Not just a simple nostalgia for the past, but a concrete reflection on the future of audiovisual memory, the value of physical media, and the role that new generations will play in the cultural preservation of cinema.

The event “The Professions of Cinema Today. Between Memory and Innovation”, promoted by UNIVIDEO together with OffiCine and IED Cinema, brought together professionals, students, and protagonists of the audiovisual industry to discuss distribution, streaming, artificial intelligence, piracy, and sector transformations. On stage, Francesco Mandelli, UNIVIDEO President Luciana Migliavacca, Gianluca Guzzo from MYmovies, Davide Novelli from PiperFilm, and Federico Bagnoli Rossi from FAPAV took turns speaking, moderated by Paolo Borraccetti.

But the heart of the meeting was not just technological change. The dominant theme was above all another: what it truly means to preserve cinema in an era where everything seems temporary.

From Videocassette to 4K Blu-ray: The Emotional Value of Possession

From the very beginning of the meeting, a precise concept emerged: owning a film is not the same thing as having it available within a digital catalog.

An idea that ran through most of the speeches, especially those of Luciana Migliavacca, who recounted her personal experience related to Home Video, starting from videocassettes up to Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD discs. Not just a technological discussion, but almost a physical and emotional relationship with cinema.

The desire was to communicate how physical media today represents a true form of cultural preservation. In a system dominated by platforms that continuously modify catalogs, remove titles, or change access conditions, DVDs, Blu-rays, and any other physical media become a kind of permanent personal archive.

One concept was rightly reiterated multiple times: streaming allows you to browse thousands of contents, but a collection built over time tells instead an individual journey, a private memory made of passions, discoveries, and memories.

The Return of Physical Media Among Younger Generations

One of the most interesting aspects that emerged during the debate concerns the relationship of new generations with physical media.

UNIVIDEO cited some international trends, particularly in the United States, where part of Gen Z is rediscovering DVDs, Blu-rays, and film collecting. Not as a nostalgic gesture but as a search for control, continuity, and cultural identity.

According to Luciana Migliavacca, young people could become the true protagonists of new audiovisual preservation. A vision that goes against the common idea that new generations would only live through fast, fragmented, and disconnected content.

The physicality of the medium, in this sense, does not just represent an object to possess, but a different way of experiencing cinema: choosing a film, preserving it, rewatching it over time, delving deeper through extra content, behind-the-scenes, deleted scenes, film commentaries, audio descriptions for the visually impaired and subtitles for the hearing impaired, foreign languages, and last but not least, collector's editions, limited editions, with gadgets and autographs of the protagonists.

Francesco Mandelli: “Physical Media is an Act of Freedom”

Among the most followed interventions at the event was that of Francesco Mandelli, who spoke to the students with a very direct, personal approach, far from any theoretical discourse.

Mandelli recounted his professional journey, born almost by chance between the oratory theater, experimental television, and the desire to continuously explore new expressive forms. But the most significant passage came when he addressed the topic of his relationship with cinema as a viewer.

The actor and director recalled how, in the early 2000s, the DVD was fundamental for recovering hard-to-find films, unreachable classics, or works that today seem always available but which then required a real personal search.

For Mandelli, physical media remains a form of cultural freedom. Having a film means being able to rewatch it whenever you want, with whoever you want, without depending on algorithms or the rotation logic of digital catalogs.

His speech also transformed into a broader reflection on how to watch cinema today. According to Mandelli, the contemporary problem is not the lack of content, but the superficial excess of images and information. Hence the advice given to students: truly delve into what they love, go vertical, listen to people, and observe reality even before platforms.

Streaming, Platforms, and Market Transformations

The discussion then shifted to the role of streaming and the profound transformations of the audiovisual sector.

Davide Novelli from PiperFilm explained how the distribution business has become increasingly complex and unpredictable. Viral trailers, organic campaigns, online numbers, and real box office success no longer automatically coincide, making the market extremely difficult to interpret.

According to Novelli, one of the big mistakes would be to look for definitive formulas to understand what really works in cinema. Every project remains a creative gamble, fragile and difficult to predict.

Gianluca Guzzo from MYmovies also recounted the evolution of the relationship between the internet and cinema, recalling the launch of the portal in 2000 and the first streaming experiments long before the arrival of major international platforms.

His idea of complementarity between digital and physical media was particularly interesting. For Guzzo, streaming and home video are not necessarily in conflict: one represents immediate accessibility, the other memory, in-depth study, and belonging.

Artificial Intelligence and the Risk of Losing the Source

The focus on artificial intelligence could not be missed, though it was approached with great caution by the professionals present.

Both Guzzo and Novelli insisted on the fundamental difference between AI as a tool and AI as an autonomous creative source. AI can be useful for organizing data, optimizing processes, or improving consultation tools, but the risk is that, without real content produced by humans, it will progressively impoverish the cultural system.

The debate also touched on issues related to rights, intellectual property, and creativity. According to Novelli, the central problem remains understanding who truly owns what is generated by artificial intelligence and how to preserve the human value of artistic creation.

Piracy, Protection of Works, and Cultural Value

Federico Bagnoli Rossi, President of FAPAV (Federation Against Audiovisual Piracy), instead brought attention back to the issue of fraudulent use, defining it as one of the main threats to the economic and cultural survival of cinema.

In his speech, he recounted the evolution of Italian systems for combating digital piracy, explaining how Italy is now one of the most advanced countries in the rapid removal of illegal online content.

But beyond the technical and regulatory aspect, Bagnoli Rossi insisted above all on a symbolic concept: protecting cinema means protecting imagination, memory, and cultural identity. Streaming, physical media, and theatrical viewing offer multiple legal accesses to works; the culture of legality fights the loss of jobs in the sector.

Cinema as Collective Memory

The final impression left by the meeting at IED Milan is that the debate on physical media does not only concern collecting or a nostalgic niche of enthusiasts.

Behind DVDs and Blu-rays lies a much broader reflection on the contemporary relationship with images, memory, and the cultural permanence of works.

In an era dominated by speed and immediate availability, cinema seems to be rediscovering the need to be preserved, archived, and handed down also through concrete objects. Not to oppose digital, but to prevent the future of audiovisuals from being controlled exclusively by those who decide what should or should not be seen, by catalogs as mutable as ocean waves, by the temporary and invisible algorithms.

And perhaps this is the strongest message that emerged during the meeting: today the real risk is not having too little content, but losing the ability to truly safeguard it.