Shooting wraps for Biennale College Cinema Projects

The selected films are:

Zen in the Ice Rift (Italy) – Margherita Ferri (director), Chiara Galloni (producer) - Maia, called ZEN - a rowdy yet solitary 16-year-old tomboy -, lives in a small village on top of the rough and beautiful Italian Apennines. She’s the only girl of the local ice hockey-team and she is constantly bullied by her teammates for her masculine attitude. When Vanessa, the beautiful and dazing girlfriend of the team captain, runs away from home and hides in Maia's family lodge, Maia feels free to open up for the first time. Led by the need to break away from the roles that their small community forced them to play, Maia and Vanessa embark on a journey of self-discovery, exploring their inner desires in search of their own identity.

Yuva (Turkey) – Emre Yeksan (director), Anna Maria Aslanoğlu (producer) - VEYSEL's wild solitary life in the woods is disrupted when the land he inhabits is sold to investors. One day, his younger brother HASAN comes from the city to convince him to leave. As the imminent threat of the eviction rapidly grows, the belated confrontation of the two brothers leads to the discovery of a magical home: A hidden universe in the heart of the forest.

Deva Mall (Hungary) – Petra Szocs (director), Péter Fülöp (producer) - In the small Romanian town of Deva, Kato, a teen girl living in an orphanage gets electrocuted while drying her hair. This event changes the world around her. The orphanage is invaded by electricians, and a new volunteer, Bogi is hired to help. Kato becomes infatuated with her, and when she realizes that Bogi is going to leave soon, she decides to sacrifice an old volunteer for the new one.

This is the sixth year that Biennale College – Cinema, an initiative established by La Biennale di Venezia in 2012, supports the production of these three micro-budget films, with a grant of 150,000 euro.

La Biennale di Venezia through Biennale College - Cinema has funded 19 features, each premiered at the Venice Film Festival since its 70th edition. Highlights include award-winning films such as The Fits (USA, 2015) by Anna Rose Holmer, Blanka by Kohki Hasei (Japan, 2015), Short Skin (Italy, 2014) by Duccio Chiarini, and Mukti Bhawan – Hotel Salvation (India, 2016) by Shubhashish Bhutiani.

The Biennale College is an innovative and complex experience that engages every department of the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta, that cultivates young talents by offering them the opportunity to work side by side with the masters, to develop their “creations”.

The Biennale College – Cinema project, now in its 6th edition, is supported by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism – General Direction Cinema, and enjoys the academic collaboration of IFP New York and the TorinoFilmLab, and the support of Condé Nast. The Director is Alberto Barbera, Head of Programme is Savina Neirotti.

The Biennale College – Cinema and Biennale College – Cinema Virtual Reality projects for the 2017/2018 edition, will receive significant funding from the European Commission – Connect Directorate General’s MEDIA – Creative Europe Programme. The educational activities of the 2017-2018 edition will thus be supported by a MEDIA grant. This grant increases the funding which the MEDIA Programme has awarded to the development of the Venice Production Bridge.

Starting this year, the Biennale College – Cinema will enjoy the support of Eurimages, the cultural fund of the European Council, to cover the expenses for travel, hospitality and training for one woman director (Eurimages Residency Grant), who this year will be Petra Szocs (Hungary), director of the Deva Mall project.