Biennale College Cinema: first workshop and presentation of the 12 projects

On Thursday October 17^th at Ca’ Giustinian (1^st floor), headquarter of La Biennale di Venezia, there will be a presentation of the 12 projects by the 12 teams, composed of a director and a producer, who participated, from 7^th to 17^th October 2024, in the first workshop of the 13^th Biennale College Cinema (2024 – 2025) in Venice.

In one session, from 3 pm to 5 pm, the 12 teams will present their projects developed during the workshops and describe the creation of their stories and the various aspects involved in the production process. The participants come from Italy, Nigeria, USA, Canada, France, India, Vietnam, Iran, China, Cambodia, Turkey, Kenya, Ukraine.

Of the 12 projects, 9 have been selected from the Biennale College Cinema – International call, and 3 from the Biennale College Cinema – Italia call. The latter Call was launched on January 18^th, the international Call on May 3^rd. 277 applications were submitted in response to these Calls. Overall, during the first 12 editions of the Biennale College Cinema, 41 feature films have been made.

The 12 projects selected for this first phase of the 13^th Biennale College Cinema are:

1 WOMAN, 1 BRA (Kenya/Nigeria) - director: Vincho Nchogu; producer: Josh Olaoluwa (1^st feature)

AGNUS DEI (Italy) - director: Massimiliano Camaiti; producers: Giovanna Nicolai, Emilia Bandel (2^nd feature)

BADLAND (Italy) - director: Mounir Derbal; producers: Lorenzo Fiuzzi, Bardo Tarantelli (1^st feature)

BECOMING HUMAN (Cambodia/USA) - director: Polen Ly; producer: Daniel Mattes (2^nd feature)

LAST TIME, AGAIN (China/Canada) - directors: Di Zhang, Mariusz Rusiński; producer: Beryl Liu (1^st feature)

ORANGE PEEL (Italy) - director: Anita Rivaroli; producer: Marco Mingolla (1^st feature)

SAVING THE DAY (Turkey/France) - director: Serhat Karaaslan; producer: Laure Dahout (2^nd feature)

SECRET OF A MOUNTAIN SERPENT (India) - director: Nidhi Saxena; producer: Vimukthi Jayasundara (2^nd feature)

SUMMER 1999 (Vietnam) - director: Hang Luong Nguyen; producer: Dinh Le Minh Trinh (1^st feature)

THE BOOKING (USA) - director: Gabriella Moses; producer: Sarah Wharton (2^nd feature)

THE FAMILY (Ukraine/Iran) - director: Hanna Jalali; producer: Moeinoddin Jalali (1^st feature)

VANISHING BONES (France) - director: Simon Rieth; producer: Inès Daïen Dasi (2^nd feature)

Following this presentation, up to four teams will be invited to two further workshops, during the months of December 2024 in Venice and January 2025 online, and then begin the production of up to four feature length films (debut or sophomore film) – including one Italian and at least two by women directors  – which will be supervised and supported, and subsequently presented at the 82^nd Venice International Film Festival 2025. The eight projects that are not selected will receive specific feedbacks on their projects and three will be invited to attend the Venice Gap Financing Market in 2025. Starting in 2022, the funds provided for the production of the selected films have been increased from € 150,000 to € 200,000.

Biennale College Cinema, managed by La Biennale di Venezia, has the support of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities – Directorate General for Cinema. The main sponsor is Vivendi. Biennale College Cinema receives academic collaboration from Gotham Film & Media Institute and TorinoFilmLab. The Director is Alberto Barbera; the Head of Programme is Savina Neirotti.