La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, announces the Call for the Biennale College Cinema – International, which opens today, Tuesday May 8^th 2018, in the website collegecinema.labiennale.org (the Call will remain open through July 1^st 2018).

The Biennale College – Cinema, now in its 7^th edition (2018-2019), enriches the Venice International Film Festival with a workshop for advanced training, research and experimentation open to up to 12 teams of upcoming directors and producers from around the world. The goal is to develop and produce up to 3 micro-budget feature-length films (at a cost of less than 150,000 euro each), to be presented at the 2019 Venice Film Festival.

Biennale College is a strategic programme that also involves the Dance, Music and Theatre Departments of La Biennale di Venezia, and seeks to promote young talents by offering them the opportunity to work side by side with the masters to develop “creations”.

The Call for the Biennale College – Cinema International is open to teams composed of directors making their first or second film, associated with producers who have made at least three audio-visual subjects, or one feature-length fiction film, or a documentary, distributed and/or presented at Film Festivals.

Nine micro-budget projects will be selected and invited to participate in a development workshop, to be held between October 6^th and 15^th 2018 in Venice, together with the three projects selected from the Italian call (Biennale College – Cinema Italia).

Of these twelve projects, three (including one from the Italian section) will be selected to receive a supporting grant from the Biennale that will cover the production costs (which must not exceed 150,000 euro). The three feature-length films produced during this process will be presented at the 76^th Venice International Film Festival 2019. They will also be screened online in the Sala Web, the virtual theatre that coexists with the traditional screening venues of the Venice Film Festival on the Lido.

The complete official text of the Biennale College – Cinema International is available online starting today May 8^th, 2018 at collegecinema.labiennale.org.

The Biennale College – Cinema project, now in its 7^th edition, is supported by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism – General Direction Cinema,

For the seventh year in a row, Biennale College – Cinema enjoys the academic collaboration of IFP New York and the TorinoFilmLab. The Director is Alberto Barbera, Head of Programme is Savina Neirotti.

The educational activities are supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA grant. This grant increases the funding which the MEDIA Programme has awarded to the development of the Market and Venice Production Bridge.