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VENICE 2021 Biennale College Cinema

The four Biennale College Cinema projects set to be presented at Venice have now been selected

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- Projects from Argentina, Ecuador, Italy and the USA are set for the showcase, with this year also seeing a Biennale College film submitted for the Oscars, This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection

The four Biennale College Cinema projects set to be presented at Venice have now been selected
Italian director Beatrice Baldacci, whose project La Tana has been selected

Argentina, Ecuador, Italy and the USA are the bearers of four lucky film projects which took part in the 9th edition (2020 – 2021) of the Biennale College – Cinema initiative and which are subsequently entering into the production phase. As of today, Wednesday 2 December, until Sunday 6 December, the four teams comprising one director and one producer are taking part in the first of two workshops. The finished feature films will then take part in the 78th Venice Film Festival in 2021. The final four projects were chosen after a first workshop involving 12 projects selected from all corners of the globe, specifically Argentina, China, Ecuador, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Italy, Serbia, Switzerland and the USA.

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The successful projects are: Ecuadorian director José María Avilés’ second work Al Oriente, produced by Julieta Juncadella (Argentina); La Tana by Italy’s Beatrice Baldacci (first work), produced by Aurora Alma Bartiromo (Italy); Nuestros Días Más Felices, directed by Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière (Argentina, second work) and produced by Argentina’s Laura Mara Tablón, and The Cathedral, US director Ricky D’Ambrose’s second work which is produced by Graham Swon (USA).

The four chosen teams will take part in a further workshop running 12 – 18 January 2021, which will kick start the production process on these four microbudget feature films, helped by a subsidy, coming courtesy of the Biennale, of €150,000 per work. The four films will then be presented at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, alongside 2 other films carried over from the 8th edition whose presentation was pushed back to next year: La Santa Piccola, directed by Silvia Brunelli and produced by Francesca Maria Scanu (Italy) and Mon Père, le Diable, directed by Ellie Foumbi (USA) and produced by Joseph Mastantuono (France).

Since the 8th edition of Biennale College – Cinema, the number of films supported by the festival has grown to four projects, at least two of which are expected to come courtesy of women directors. And since 2012, over the course of its first eight editions, the Venice Biennale lab has brought 24 feature films by emerging directors to fruition.

For the record, the film submitted by Lesotho to the 2021 Best International Film Oscar - Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- was supported and produced within the framework of Biennale College – Cinema’s 7th edition (2018-19). It's the first time a Biennale College – Cinema film is submitted for an Oscar nomination.

Overseen by the Venice Biennale, Biennale College is supported by MiBac’s DG Film and is also backed by Eurimages who are covering travel, lodging and training expenses for one director (via the Eurimages Residency Grant). The director who won these privileges in 2020 was Patricia Pérez Fernandez, whose feature film project The Foreign Woman took part in the first development workshop held within this 9th Biennale College – Cinema edition.

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(Translated from Italian)

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