08/03/2017 - The lab of the Biennale di Venezia, giving emerging filmmakers the opportunity to make features on microbudgets, will flank the international programme, and is reserved for Italian professionals

Yesterday, on 7 March, applications opened for the new Biennale College – Cinema – Italy competition, which is reserved for emerging Italian filmmakers, and will be part of the Biennale College – Cinema – International project, the high-level training laboratory for developing and producing feature films on microbudgets, this year in its sixth edition (2017-2018).

The new call, for teams made up exclusively of  Italian directors and producers, will be open on the website www.labiennale.org until 18 April. The Biennale College – Cinema – International call will instead open after the Italian call, starting in mid-March 2017 (and will remain open until the beginning of July 2017).

The Italian call is open to teams made up of directors working on their first or second film, with producers who have produced at least three audiovisual works, a fictional feature, or a documentary distributed and/or presented at a festival. Eight microbudget projects will be selected, with their makers invited to participate in a development workshop to be held, in English, from 10-16 July 2017 in Venice.

At the end of the workshop, there will be a further selection of three projects, which will be announced at the 74^th Venice International Film Festival 2017 (30 August – 9 September). These three Italian projects will then move to the next stage along with the nine projects selected in the international section, and will participate in a 10-day workshop in Venice in October 2017.

Of these 12 projects, three will then be selected (one from the Italy section) to receive support from the Biennale to cover production costs (up to a maximum of €150,000). The three finished feature films will then be screened at the 75^th Venice International Film Festival 2018.

The complete text of the Italian call for applications for the 6^th edition of Biennale College – Cinema is available here.

(Translated from Italian)