Biennale College – Cinema has taken its first step forward. The international Call launched last August on the official website of the Biennale di Venezia, www.labiennale.org, closed on 24th October with particularly interesting results: a total of 433 applications were received online – 80% from abroad – from as many teams of emerging directors and producers, from 77 different countries from around the world.

“This initial result reinforces our convictions about the importance and interest raised by this project” – stated the President of the Biennale, Paolo Baratta. The Biennale College-Cinema represents a step forward with respect to mere public incentives for film productions. This is a complex and innovative experience: it offers the involvement of some of the great masters of film, and is intended as a breeding ground to promote the creative capacity of new talents with credible and accomplished projects that will allow them to test themselves against an audience. The initiatives of the Biennale College have been developed in all the sectors and – as always with the Biennale di Venezia – on a worldwide scale, once again offering participating Italian talents the opportunity to measure their skills against those of the rest of the world. I would like to thank Gucci for understanding the meaning of the project”.

 

For the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera, “the number of proposals we received is incredibly high. Both in consideration of the fact that this is the first edition of an absolutely original project, the only one of its kind in the world. And because it is our understanding that no other similar activity has ever attracted such massive participation. This success is not only beyond our most optimistic expectations, it offers the best possible confirmation of the remarkable interest raised by the Biennale College – Cinema project and the unquestionable international credibility enjoyed by the Venice International Film Festival. Despite the intense schedule for evaluating so many applications, in a few days we expect to announce the results of the complex selection process, which will for the most part determine the possibility of achieving the final result we aspire to: to offer three young directors the possibility of making a low-budget film, in time to premiere at the next edition of the Venice Film Festival”.

 

It is interesting to note at this point that after Italy (88), the largest number of directors who expressed their interest comes from the United States (77) and Great Britain (21). They are followed by Israel (15), Brazil, France and Spain (9), Hungary and Thailand (7), Canada, Egypt and Turkey (6), Korea, Germany, Greece, India and Mexico (5).

 

Each of them applied as a team with a producer not necessarily from the same country.

 

The selection process (by Alberto Barbera assisted by the Biennale College team) will now choose 15 projects: the respective teams (one director and one producer) will participate in an initial 10-day workshop that will be held in Venice in January 2013.

 

Subsequently, a maximum of 3 teams will be invited to participate in a second workshop lasting 15 days, to be held in Venice again between February and March 2013, after which production will begin, at low cost and funded with 150,000 euros, for each of the three feature-length films (debut or second work), to be presented at the 70th Venice International Film Festival (28 August – 7 September 2013), directed by Alberto Barbera.

The Biennale College – Cinema is an initiative of the Biennale di Venezia, in partnership with Gucci. It is supported by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities – General Direction Cinema – and by the Regione del Veneto, and is held in collaboration with IFP, the Dubai International Film Festival and the TorinoFilmLab.

 

Biennale Collegeincludes all the sectors of the Institution chaired by Paolo Baratta, promoting young talents and offering them the opportunity to work with the masters, and to develop their own “creations”.