The post-war Italian cinema was organized as an industry or an artisan system? Did State intervention take place in terms of semi-authoritarian control or as a form of strategic support? Historians of Italian cinema have often debated about these questions and usually favored an interpretation of national film industry as a weak, politically-controlled system. The goal of this talk is to shed light on the role of the State in every phase of post-war film production, form training to funding, from the supply of production facilities to the management of film theaters. Case studies and archival materials will be presented in order to have a broader look on the entire value chain, taking account not only films and related quantitative data (box office, admissions, budget), but also the social and professional relations between the various players in the system.