La Biennale di Venezia announces the presentation of the 12 projects that participated in the first workshop of the 7th Biennale College – Cinema (2018/2019) in Venice from 6th to 15th October 2018. The pitch presentation, which took place on Monday October 15th 2018 in Venice at the Biennale headquarters at Ca’ Giustinian, was introduced by President Paolo Baratta and the Director of the Cinema Department Alberto Barbera.
Biennale College – Cinema
This is the programme by La Biennale di Venezia that cultivate young talents by offering them the opportunity to work side by side with the masters, to make feature-length micro-budget films. The Biennale College is an innovative and complex experience that engages every Department of La Biennale di Venezia.
The international Calls of the 7th edition
Of the 12 projects, 9 have been selected from the Biennale College Cinema – International call, and 3 from the call of Biennale College Cinema – Italia. The call for the latter was launched on February 20th, the international call on May 8th. A total of 190 applications were submitted. Overall, in the course of the 7 editions of the Biennale College – Cinema, 1.640 applications have been received from every corner of the world.
The first workshop of the 7th edition
The 12 teams that submitted the selected projects (consisting of a director and a producer), from Bolivia, Chile, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States, participated in a preliminary workshop that was held in Venice from 6th to 15th October 2018.
Presentation of the 12 projects of the 7th edition
In a working session from at 3 pm to 6 pm on Monday October 15th, the 12 teams pitched their projects, offering a brief description of various aspects involved in the creation of their stories, their personal careers, their special influences and their vision of cinema.
Selection of 3 projects to make three feature-length films
Following this presentation, 3 teams only will be invited to attend two additional workshops, also to be held in Venice, from December 3rd through 6th 2018 and from January 11th through 15th 2018, following which they will begin production on 3 feature-length films (debut or sophomore films) of which one will be Italian. The films will be low-cost, supported by a grant of 150 thousand euro, and will subsequently be presented at the 76th Venice International Film Festival in 2019. The other 9 projects that are not selected will however be assisted and supervised.
THE 12 PROJECTS
Hominarius – Federico Lagna (director, Italy) | Alice Drago (producer, Italy)
Lucio is a werewolf: he lives like a voluntary prisoner with the innkeeper Pietro who tamed him. Everything changes when a prostitute named Aminah wants to hand Lucio a key.
False Positive – Kasia Plazinska (director, Poland) | Kamil Skalkowski (producer, Poland)
The life of a successful professional David is shattered by small and large apocalypses.
Marwell – Benjamin Bee (director, UK) | Maria Caruana Galizia (producer, UK)
If you don’t have any positive role models, sometimes you have to become your own…
This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection – Jeremiah Mosese (director, South Africa) | Cait Pansegrow and Bongiwe Selane (producers, South Africa)
Amongst the pythonic mountains of land-locked Lesotho, an elderly widow winds up her earthly affairs and prepares to die. When her village is threated with forced resettlement, she finds a new will to live and in the final dramatic moments of her life, her legend is forged and made eternal.
Lessons of Love – Chiara Campara (director, Italy) | Tancredi Campello (producer, Italy)
Yuri is thirty years old and has never had a partner. He is the eldest son of the only cattle farmer left in a remote mountain village, and he has not resigned himself to his solitary life. In a short span of time, he will have to deal with new personal relationships and make some important decisions about his future, which he can no longer postpone.
Replaceable – Dániel Reich (director, Hungary) | Balázs Lóth (producer, Hungary)
An anxious actor who shies away from human conflict has been working a special job: to play family members of strangers in faked, but joy-inducing life situations. After a baffling meeting with a woman from his past he decides to face his demons and start a new life.
The End of Love – Keren Ben Rafael (director, Israel) | Delphine Benroubi (producer, France)
In the beginning, they made love even though they lived in different countries, but as time passed, their intimacy was killed. At the end, they fall in love for the first time.
Where Were We? – Tetsuya Tomina (director, Japan) | Mina Hatanaka (producer, Japan)
Are we seen… or unseen by you?
The Properties of Metals – Antonio Bigini (director, Italy) | Claudio Giapponesi (producer, Italy)
A small mountain village in 1970s Italy. Pietro, a child raised by his widower father, a surly man with money problems, begins to manifest mysterious powers: he can bend metal simply by touching it. A parapsychologist begins to study him.
The Naked Woman – Allie Avital (director, USA) | Meghan Doherty (producer, USA)
After her father witnesses a mysterious crime during a family gathering, a young immigrant woman’s notion of masculinity is challenged.
Perros – Vinko Tomicic (director, Chile) | Alvaro Manzano (producer, Bolivia)
Martin, a 14-year-old shoeshine boy from La Paz who has lived his entire life in the streets, begins to suspect that one of his best clients is his father, Mr. Novoa, a lonely tailor whose only emotional bond is his dog. Martin, anguished by this presentiment, devises a plan to kidnap the dog.
Those Who Whistle After Dark – Pinar Yorgancioglu (director, Turkey) | Sarah Seulki Oh (producer, South Korea)
An encounter with a skeptical angel burdens recently retired Melih with an existential awakening. Can he and his family survive this curse together?