08/10/2012 - Intro: Biennale College-Cinema launches a challenge: to make a film with €150,000 and present it in Venice

Could you make a feature length film with no more than €150,000 and present it at the next Venice Film Festival? This is the question recently asked by the Venice Biennale, who plan on making it happen for three films. The idea was thought up to support directors and producers as they bring their first audiovisual pieces of work to term. The initiative has been named Biennale College-Cinema and was conceived in partnership with Gucci, with support from Mibac, the Region of Veneto, the IFP, the International Dubai Film Festival and the TorinoFilmLab. The call for competitors will close on 24 October 2012 (as of today, there are 381 applications from 34 different countries). Venice Film Festival artistic director took a moment to explain what the project will entail.

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Cineuropa: There is a Berlinale Talent Campus, an Atelier in Cannes, and coproduction markets all around the world. How is the Biennale College different from other such endeavours?
Alberto Barbera: We are more ambitious. Our College will seek to go from the initial stages, like the development of an idea, a process, a screenplay – things most endeavours you mentioned do – to a finished product. No one else does this. The College is willing to bet that in the space of twelve months, we will be able to identify fifteen interesting projects, work with filmmakers, select those three who have the biggest chance of finishing their project and make sure that they are completed in time and shown during the festival. No one has done this before. This relies on the possibility of producing films on a micro-budget in this day and age, but also on a capacity to enable, support and help artists directly financed by the Biennale. This system should be enough to guarantee not so much quality, something that rests on the shoulders of the directors and producers themselves, but rather it should be able to guarantee that the boat gets to port. And that is not as easy as it sounds.

Will the €150,000 cover absolutely everything?
The film needs to be made with that exact number - with a maximum of €150,000 including tax, union constraints, etc. No extra financing is allowed, nor are requests for more money from film commissions. Everything will have to be proven and certified. The film will be followed by our tutors who will be in contact with the producers and will be checking up on how money is being spent, what the budget looks like and whether output actually corresponds to what has been declared.

Have tutors already been selected? Who are they?
We already have three tutors, who are fundamental and constant benchmarks for our work. One of them is Michel Reilhac, director of Unité Cinéma for French Arte since 2002. He will be giving up his Arte position at the end of this year. Then we have Joana Vicente, executive director of IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) in New York. The third tutor is Jane Williams, head of project development for the Dubai Film Market. Others will be added too, in order to follow projects during all the various phases, monitor them and guarantee that potential risk factors are held to a minimum. Savina Neirotti is Head of Programme.

What is the College’s total budget and where does its financing come from?
The budget will be no less than €1 million, covering the three films’ financing, upkeep costs, tutors, and housing for the fifteen directors and producers selected. The money will mainly be coming from private sponsors and partners, including Gucci, who recently signed a three-year sponsoring contract. We are in talks with other possible partners interested in getting financially involved with our operation. These are foreign people or institutions, active in analogous sectors. They believe in the project and want to invest in the potential effects it may have in terms of involving parts of the world well removed from Europe.