La Biennale di Venezia has announced the 5th edition (2020-2021) of the project Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality, aimed at Italian filmmakers and creatives for the development and the realisation of Virtual Reality projects.

On Tuesday 24 March (open until 31 May 2020) the new call for projects is launched, for teams exclusively made up of a director and a producer both Italian, at their first, second or third VR project (no age limits).

The International call of the Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality will be launched after the Italian one, during the 77th Venice International Film Festival (2-12 September 2020).

Six VR projects will be selected as part of the Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality / Italia, for a duration of max 30 minutes and to be made with a € 60,000 budget. The selected teams will be invited to join a development workshop held in English from 9-13 October 2020 in Venice.

A further selection of two projects will enter the final phase along with ten projects selected in the International call: these will attend a second 7-day workshop in January 2021 in Venice.

Out of these 12 projects, three finalists will be selected to enjoy the La Biennale di Venezia support for the production costs (not exceeding € 60,000). The projects will then be presented at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in 2021.

The project Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality receives the funding of the MEDIA Programme – Creative Europe of the European Commission – DG Connect. Training activities will be supported by the MEDIA contribution. This contribution will be added to the support the MEDIA Programme has given for the development of the Venice Production Bridge.