Biennale College – Cinema has reached the 14th edition: a strategic programme for training new filmmakers from all around the world, which was already operating in the Art, Dance, Music, Theatre Section of La Biennale di Venezia.
Biennale College fosters new talents, allowing them to work in contact with masters in order to develop “creations”.
This is a project of crucial importance and the Cinema Section of La Biennale di Venezia has been revitalized and given a brand new configuration: a program of permanent activities “after and beyond the Festival” with a strong commitment to developing new creative energies channeled into producing art.
Biennale College Cinema, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, is supported by the Ministry of Culture – Directorate General Cinema with the additional support of Chanel.
The programme is held in academic collaboration with The Gotham Film & Media Institute in New York and the TorinoFilmLab.
The primary goal is to supplement the Venice International Film Festival with an advanced training workshop for the development and production of micro-budget audio-visual works, open to teams of directors and producers from around the world.
The challenge is to be able to create – at the end of a year-long series of activities that cover the entire spectrum of filmmaking including the conception, development, production, marketing, audience engagement, sales and distribution of films – up to 4 feature length micro-budget audio-visual works. Among these, 1 is presented by an Italian team and at least 2 are presented by female directors and they will be world premiered during the Venice International Film Festival and also have an on-line screening on “La Sala Web”, the virtual theatre added to the traditional theatres that house the screenings for the public and pass holders in the Lido.
An essential element of the initiative is the combination of not only training and production finance but also the screening of the completed film at the Venice International Film Festival giving the selected filmmakers much needed visibility – the lack of which is one of the major problems of today’s independent cinema.
Biennale College – Cinema also aims to advance research on micro-budget productions, which have become, in times of economic crisis, one of the few opportunities that new talents have to make the leap into producing and directing full feature films. At the Biennale College Cinema we strongly believe that central to the successful development and production of a micro budget film project within a short time frame there must be a strong team of producer and director. It is essential that the team shares the same vision of the film and respects each other’s roles and responsibilities. For that reason the programme is structured to reinforce this relationship giving equal status to the producer and director.
In the course of the first ten editions, the first one successfully launched in August 2012, BCC has received 2768 applications from all over the world; out of the 199 projects participating in the first development workshops, over 68 micro-budget features have been produced: 41 funded by La Biennale di Venezia, each one with € 150.000,00 raised to € 200.000,00 and premiered at the Venice Film Festival from its 70th edition, 27 produced independently.
The fourteenth edition comprises two different calls, one Italian and one International. The training activities will be in English and both courses will proceed on the same path from October onwards.
For each call, Biennale College Cinema is looking for feature-length audio-visual concepts that can be made, starting with this 14th edition, within € 200.000,00 and could be completed, developed, produced, edited and screened at the Venice International Film Festival in 2026.