Biennale College Cinema: Italian call now open / News and updates

The Italian call for the 14^th Biennale College Cinema, the higher education workshop launched in 2012 by La Biennale and addressed to emerging filmmakers to develop and make microbudget feature films over the course of one year, is open on the website www.labiennale.org, through 14 April 2025.

Registration for Biennale College Cinema – Italia is open to teams consisting of directors and producers, both of whom must be Italian nationals.

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Eight projects for microbudget feature-length films will be selected and invited to participate in a development workshop to be held in English from July 3 to 7, at the end of which a further selection of 3 projects will be made. The latter will be invited to take part in a workshop from October 7 al 16, together with the teams of nine projects selected from the international call of Biennale College – Cinema, which will be launched on May 6^th (through July 7^th). The workshops will be held in Venice, on the island of San Servolo.

The announcement of the projects selected for the training sessions in October will be held during the 82^nd Venice International Film Festival 2025 directed by Alberto Barbera. From that moment on, the two programmes involved in the 14^th Biennale College Cinema, BCC–Italy and BCC–International, will proceed along the same track, towards the selection and presentation of a maximum of four feature-length microbudget films at the 83^rd Venice International Film Festival 2026, supported by La Biennale and to be produced with a grant of € 200,000.

Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears, India/Gb/Canada) by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade - a film from the Biennale College Cinema, selected among the projects of the 11^th edition 2022/23, and from the Venice Gap Financing Market 2023 of the Venice Producrion Bridge - won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic competition at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival 2025 founded by Robert Redford, which concluded February 2^th in Park City, Utah.

«This is the great modern love story. To say it’s an honor to award this tender film is an understatement», said the Jury of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, composed by Ava Cahen, Wanuri Kahiu and Daniel Kaluuya, on Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears).

In 2020, another film from Biennale College had already triumphed at the Sundance Film Festival: This is not a burial, it's a resurrection (Lesotho), by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, produced by Cait Pansegrow, from the 7th Biennale College – Cinema and presented at the 76th Venice Film Festival, won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Visionary Filmmaking in Park City.

The activities of Biennale College Cinema Immersive, now in its 9th edition (2024-2025), continue. The 12 selected projects participated in the international workshop which opened in Venice on January 10^th and concluded on January 17^th, with a presentation at Ca’ Giustinian.

The 12 selected projects are:

• Alchemical Reclamation
  Director: Sara Bonaventura (Italy) | Producer: Giorgia Tronconi (Italy) – debut film
• Beyond the Window
  Director: Daming Zhang (China) | Producer: Ling Mao (China) – third film
• Church of Glass
  Director: Matthijs Vuijk (Holland) | Producer: Mateo Vega (Holland) – sophomore film
• Gut Instinct
  Director: Adam Lieber (United Kingdom) | Producer: Anna Firbank (United Kingdom) – third film
• Channelers
  Director: Jakub Wróblewski (Poland) | Producer: Anna Szylar (Poland) – third film
• Owl House
  Director: Jason Mollink (South Africa) | Producer: Lebo Leitch (South Africa) – sophomore film
• Persona
  Director: Felicity Chen (China) | Producer: Heujinchao Li (China) – sophomore film
• The Sound of One Eye Closing
  Director: Logan Wilkinson (Canada) | Producer: Asad Aftab (Pakistan) – debut film
• Re-Launching Luigi Broglio
  Director: Vincenzo Cavallo (Italy) | Producer: Silvia Gioiello (Italy) – sophomore film
• Vanish Point
  Director: Giulio Martinelli (Italy) | Producer: Gabriele Brombin (Italy) – debut film
• We Do Not Believe in a God Who Cannot Dance
  Director: Gombo (France) | Producer: Maria Høeberg (Denmark) – sophomore film
• What the Fox
  Director: Sina Ataeian (Iran) | Producer: Anke Petersen (Germany) – debut film

Biennale College Cinema, organised by La Biennale di Venezia, enjoys the support of the Ministry of Culture – General Directorate Cinema and the additional support of Chanel.

Biennale College Cinema relies on the academic collaboration of the Gotham Film & Media Institute and the TorinoFilmLab.
The Director is Alberto Barbera, the Head of Programme Savina Neirotti.