FB: la Biennale di Venezia
The Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, announces the fourth edition of the Biennale College – Cinema, which begins today, Tuesday May 12th 2015, with the launch of the international call for participation on the website www.labiennale.org (open through July 1st 2015).
The first three editions were successfully launched in August 2012, May 2013 and May 2014, bringing in over 900 applications from all over the world. The six feature-length films produced during the first two editions of Biennale College – Cinema, which were screened as world premieres at the 70th Venice Film Festival in 2013 and the 71st Venice Film Festival in 2014, as well as other international festivals, garnered a substantial number of awards and high praise by critics.
Biennale College – Cinema complements and enriches the Venice International Film Festival with a higher-education workshop dedicated to research and experimentation for the development and production of micro-budget audiovisual works, open to a maximum of 12 teams of emerging film directors and producers from around the world.
The goal is to bring to completion – at the end of a year-long series of activities that covers the entire spectrum of ideation, development, production, direction, marketing, audience engagement and distribution of a film – up to three feature-length micro-budget audiovisual works (150,000 euro), which will subsequently be presented at the Venice Film Festival.
The international call for participation for the fourth edition will be open from May 12th through July 1st 2015. Participation is open to teams of directors making their first or second film, and producers who have produced at least three audio-visual products distributed and/or screened at festivals. The selection of the 12 projects and teams for the micro-budget feature-length films will be announced during the 72nd Venice International Film Festival 2015 (2-12 September).
Three of these projects will then be selected to participate in the subsequent phases, to be developed and produced with a contribution of 150,000 € and then presented at the 2016 Venice Film Festival. They will also be screened online on the Sala Web, the virtual screening room that complements the traditional screening rooms on the Lido.
The official and complete text of the international call for participation for the fourth edition of the Biennale College – Cinema will be available online starting today May 12th 2015 at the following address: www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/collegecinema/.
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Biennale College is a complex, innovative experience that engages all the Sectors of the Biennale di Venezia, promoting young talents and offering them the opportunity to work side by side with the masters, to develop “creations”.
Biennale College – Cinema, developed by the Biennale di Venezia, enjoys the support of the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities – General Direction Cinema, and the Regione del Veneto. Biennale College – Cinema relies on the academic collaboration of the IFP in New York and the TorinoFilmLab. The College will also collaborate with the Busan International Film Festival. The Director is Alberto Barbera, the Head of Programme is Savina Neirotti.
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Great success international success rewarded the three feature-length films made during the first edition of the Biennale College – Cinema, which had their world premiere screening at the 70th Venice Film Festival and were presented at other festivals later, winning many awards and high praise by critics:
- Memphis (USA) by Tim Sutton (director), produced by John Baker, participated in the Sundance Film Festival, the NEXT competition, the Miami Film Festival, the Irish Film Institute, the Wisconsin Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival and the Sundance-London Film and Music Festival. In the US, it was distributed in theatres in the summer of 2014 for Kino Lorber and in VOD for Vimeo a month after its release in theatres. It was shown on cable TV on the AMC/Sundance Channel Global.
- Mary is Happy, Mary is Happy (Thailand) by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director), produced by Aditya Assarat , participated in the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, winning the Netpac Competition for Best Asian Film; the Busan International Film Festival, the Festival Internacional de Cine Valdivia, the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Torino Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Pan-Asia Film Festival, the Italian Film Festival – Special Venice Edition (Asian Showcase) in Singapore, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival. It also won 4 Thailand National Film Awards (out of 10): Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing; and 3 Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards (out of 9): Best Actress, Best Editing, Best Art Direction; it won 5 Kom Chad Luek Award nominations: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress. It was released in theatres in Thailand on November 28th 2013, and in theatres in England and in Ireland in the fall of 2014 (distributed by day-for-night).
- Yuri Esposito (Italy) by Alessio Fava (director), produced by Max Chicco, participated in the Stockholm International Film Festival and the Torino Film Festival, garnering excellent reviews.
International success also rewarded the three feature-length films made during the second edition of the Biennale College – Cinema, which had their world premiere screening at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014 and were later presented at other festivals, winning many awards and critical acclaim:
- Blood Cells by Joseph Bull (director, Great Britain), Luke Seomore (director, Great Britain), Samm Haillay (producer, Great Britain) participated in the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2015;
- H. by Rania Attieh (director, Lebanon), Daniel Garcia (director, USA), Shruti Rya Ganguly (producer, India), Pierce Varous (producer, USA), won the Kiehl’s Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirit Awards 2015. It participated in the Sundance Film Festival 2015 in the NEXT competition. It also participated in the Berlin Film Festival 2015 in the Forum section. And finally, it was presented in other festivals such as the International Istanbul Film Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival of Boston, the Nashville Film Festival, the Jeonju International Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Little Rock Film Festival.
- Short Skin by Duccio Chiarini (director, Italy), Babak Jalali (producer, Iran/Great Britain), participated in the Generation 14plus competition of the Berlinale Generation section at the Berlin Film Festival 2015. It was released in Italian movie theatres on April 23rd, 2015 by Good Films, confirming the critical acclaim it had received at the festivals. It also participated in the Istanbul Film Festival, the Stockholm International Film Festival, and won the Festival Il Cinema Italiano Visto da Milano.
The three new projects from the third edition of Biennale College – Cinema, which have all finished filming, will be presented at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival (2 September – 12 September 2015):
- Baby Bump by Kuba Czekaj (director, Poland), Magdalena Kaminska (producer, Poland) (debut film);
- Blanka by Kohki Hasei (director, Japan), Flaminio Zadra (producer, Italy) (debut film);
- The Fits by Anna Rose Holmer (director, Usa), Lisa Kjerulff (producer, Usa) (debut film).