Writing on cinema
International call open to young under-30 graduates from all over the world with an excellent knowledge of spoken and written Italian language, researchers in Cinema, to write critical texts that will be collected in a publication of la Biennale di Venezia.
Research will be on the ground: the selected candidates will be invite to participate to the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.
On the basis of the theme proposed by the Director of the Cinema Department, Alberto Barbera, the selected candidates will carry out in the Archives, guided by tutor, a search for sources and historical references, to write a text in Italian of a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 15 pages, from its first draft to the printed version.
A maximum of 4 candidates will be selected.
Three phases of research and activities are planned in Venice in the Biennale venues (Ca’ Giustinian, Lido di Venezia, Biennale Library at Giardini, Historical Archives at Vega)
Thanks to the Swiss Seaside Foundation.
TITLE
The Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia 1983-1991.
THEME
Following the relaunch and renewal of the Venice Film Festival by filmmaker Carlo Lizzani, who served as director for the four-year term 1979-1982, the 1980s on the Lido reaffirmed the quality and originality of the selections, thanks to the terms of directors Gian Luigi Rondi (who served from 1983 to 1986) and Guglielmo Biraghi (from 1987 to 1991), two of the most influential Italian film critics, who wrote respectively for “Il Tempo” and “Il Messaggero”. Their tenures took place under the presidency of Paolo Portoghesi at La Biennale (1983-1992).
Gian Luigi Rondi (Tirano, 1921 – Rome, 2016), who headed the Venice Film Festival in 1971 and 1972 (when he instituted the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award), was an influential and multifaceted figure, a festivals and award director (Sorrento, Taormina, David di Donatello), a screenwriter, director and a leading voice in Catholic film criticism. He returned to the Lido from 1983 to 1986 to oversee four editions of the Venice Film Festival focused on recognized auteur cinema. Rondi looked in particular to French cinema, which over his four-year term won three Golden Lions awarded to the great directors of the Nouvelle Vague Jean-Luc Godard (Prénom Carmen, 1983), Agnès Varda (Sans toit, ni loi, 1985), Éric Rohmer (Le rayon vert, 1986). The selections furthermore featured works by Alain Resnais, Jacque Rivette, Jean Rouch, Maurice Pialat, Jacques Doillon, Bertrand Tavernier. The Golden Lion awarded to Godard’s film was decided by a jury chaired by Bernardo Bertolucci, and composed exceptionally, to celebrate the Festival’s 50th anniversary, of filmmakers alone. The only non-French Golden Lion of Rondi’s directorship, attributed in 1984 to The Year of the Quiet Sun by the Polish master filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi, was representative of the significant presence in Venice, in the years preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall, of the reflective cinema of Eastern European auteurs. Those years presented films by Otar Iosseliani (Grand Jury Prize 1984 for Favorites of the Moon), Juraj Jakubisko, Andrzej Wajda, Andrei Konchalovsky, Jerzy Skolimovski. Naturally the festival also featured the masters of Italian cinema (Federico Fellini with La nave va, Marco Ferreri, Pupi Avati), American cinema (Woody Allen with Zelig, Robert Altman with Streamers, John Huston with Prizzi’s Honor), European cinema (Ingmar Bergman with Fanny and Alexander, James Ivory, Manoel de Oliveira) and world cinema (Amir Naderi with The Runner, Goutam Ghose, Kon Ichikawa). There was attention at the same time to new global cinema (the section titled Venezia Genti) and the new languages (Venezia TV), featuring the first auteur television series (Heimat by Edgar Reitz).
During the five years of his term from 1987 to 1991, Guglielmo Biraghi (Rome, 1927-2001) directed a Festival that reflected his own singular personality as a curious traveller, with a keen eye on emerging auterus from every continent. He brought in revelations from Taiwan (A City of Sadness by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Golden Lion 1989), China (Raise the Red Lantern by Zhang Yimou, Silver Lion 1991), Korea (Sibaji by Im Kwon-taek, Coppa Volpi for Kang Soo-youn 1987), New Zealand (An Angel at my Table by Jane Campion, Grand Jury Prize 1990), Senegal (Camp de Thiaroye by Osumane Sebène, Grand Jury Prize 1988), as well as Spain (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which launched Pedro Almodòvar’s international career in 1988) and Poland (the landmark Dekalog by Krzyszstof Kieslowski in 1989). But in addition to confirming the renowned Italian and European masters to which the juries awarded the Golden Lion (Ermanno Olmi for La leggenda del Santo Bevitore in 1988, Louis Malle for Au revoir les enfants in 1987, Nikita Mikhalkov in 1991 for Urga), Biraghi recemented relations with American cinema, bringing to the Lido, among others, two key works by Martin Scorsese, The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Goodfellas (1990), as well as, among the other titles from across the ocean, The Untouchables (1987) by Brian De Palma, House of Games (1987) by David Mamet and Dick Tracy (1990) by Warren Beatty. The 1991 Venice Film Festival also presented in competition The Beautiful and Damned by Gus Van Sant (Coppa Volpi for the lamented River Phoenix), one of the first and most significant works of the emerging wave of independent American auteur cinema, which distinguished the 1990s.
Tutor: Paolo Lughi
Graduated in History of Cinema, journalist, he is Head of Institutional Press Office and Cinema of La Biennale di Venezia.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
First phase - from 26 August to 6 September 2025
Participation in the activities scheduled within the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and beginning of research activities at the Historical Archive and Library guided by the tutor.
Second phase - from 29 September to 3 October 2025
specific research activities at the Historical Archive and Library guided by the tutor;
deadline for sending the first draft of the text 2 November 2025
Third phase - from 10 to 14 November 2025
Analysis and in-depth study of the first draft of the text with the tutor at the Historical Archive and the Library;
The deadline for sending the final text is 14 December 2025.
CONDITIONS AND TERMS OF PARTICIPATION
The international call is open to young under-30 graduates from all over the world with an excellent knowledge of spoken and written Italian language.
Attendance for the whole programme is mandatory for participation in the project.
A maximum of 4 candidates will be selected.
The selected participants will be hosted in shared apartments provided by La Biennale di Venezia.
La Biennale di Venezia will also provide participants with tickets for local public transport and meals (lunches).
Selected participants will be required to pay a registration fee in the amount of € 80 (VAT included, non-refundable), to be paid exclusively by credit card.
Note: Applications will not be accepted from candidates selected in previous Biennale College ASAC - Writing in Residence editions.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Documentation
The documentation - which must be sent in Italian exclusively via the online form - consists of:
a) Curriculum vitae - please also specify
a.1) Bachelor's/Master's degree or equivalent degree
a.2) thesis degree title, course of study
a.3) knowledge of spoken and written Italian - minimum required level C1
a.4) other languages known and level
b) submission of 2 texts
1 - cover letter (maximum length 2 pages)
2 - an essay, including bibliographical references, on the theme of the call (maximum length 2 pages)
Two selection phases are envisaged, the first on the basis of the requested documentation and the second by interview.
La Biennale di Venezia reserves the right in any case to modify, cancel or interrupt the initiative described above, in that the announcement or the selection do not constitute a binding contract for the same, nor do they entail the right to the reimbursement of any expense other than those specified above.
The integral acceptance of the conditions of the Biennale College ASAC – Writing in Residence - Cinema call makes the application eligible.
Applications open on 18 April.
Applications deadline 14 May.