In the context of the 73rd Venice Film Festival, an important new project titled Venice Production Bridge has been introduced to ensure continuity, but also to surpass and fine-tune the Venice Film Market first held in 2012.

The Venice Production Bridge will take place from September 1 to 5 on the third floor of the Excelsior Hotel of the Lido di Venezia. It will join and reinforce the Industry Office, which will continue to work, as it has in past years, throughout the entire Venice Film Festival, offering many services to its guests (August 31 to September 10).

The new Venice Production Bridge is established to foster the development and production of international and European projects across a range of audio-visual forms.

This is the direction also pursued by the Venice Film Market, which since its very first edition has served as a light market, featuring programmes such as the Venice Gap-Financing Market and Final Cut in Venice, with the aim of helping to complete films and works in progress. The new Venice Production Bridge will also build on the experience of the Biennale College – Cinema, an innovative workshop for the development and production of micro-budget feature films, which over a four-year period has led to the production of 13 films that have earned prestigious international results and acknowledgments.

The image of the bridge expresses perfectly well the philosophy of this new Venetian market. The idea consists in building an opportunity of encountering and networking for all the professionals involved in production. Indeed the producers but also the multiple categories of financiers who are participating in the creation of the necessary financial package to create a film. Distributors, sales agents, banks, private and public investment funds, regions and film commissions, broadcasters, video aggregators and Internet platforms, are also, in their own way, contributing in financing, buying or co-producing a film.

The Venice Production Bridge will also focus on one of the major new trends in contemporary production, which is the co-existence of a diversity of platforms fostered by the digital revolution: television series, web-series and, above all, the new frontier represented by VR/Virtual Reality, which are currently attracting major investment and the most advanced technological research. The Venice Production Bridge intends to attract industry professionals active in these fields.

The 2-day Venice Gap-Financing Market event (September 2-3, 2016) will take place during the forthcoming 73rd Venice Film Festival and will offer the 40 selected European and International projects, the opportunity to close their international financing.

The Venice Gap Financing Market presents 40 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding, divided as follows: 25 projects for feature-length fiction films and feature documentaries, 15 projects for Virtual Reality & Interactive, Web Series and  TV Series.

The two-day Venice Gap Financing Market is thus setting up one-to-one meetings between the teams (producer and director) of the 40 projects and top industry decision-makers (producers, private and public financiers, banks, distributors, sales agents, TV Commissioners, Internet and video Platforms, Institutions, post-production companies…).

– Films: 18 projects (9 from Europe and 9 from outside of Europe) for feature-length fiction films from around the world that need to complete their funding package with minority shares in the co-production, having at least 70% of the funding in place

– Documentaries: 7 projects (6 from Europe and 1 from outside of Europe) for narrative or creative documentaries (to be presented like the films)

FICTION
Europe
1 – “Alien Food” by Giorgio Cugno (Italy, Denmark, France)
2 – “Birth” by Jessica Krummacher (Germany, Turkey)

3 – “Funan, the new people” by Denis Do (France, Luxembourg, Belgium)

4 – “God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija” by Teona Sturgar Mitevska (Macedonia)

5 – “Luxembourg” by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (Germany, Ukraine, France, Norway)

6- “The Intruder” by Leonardo Di Costanzo (Italy, Switzerland, France)
7 – “The Nature of Time” by Karim Moussaoui (France)
8 – “The Song of Scorpions” by Anup Singh (Switzerland)
9 – “Touch Me Not” by Adina Pintilie  (Romania, France, Bulgaria)
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Outside of Europe
10 – “A Worthy Companion” by Carlos & Jason Sanchez (Canada)

11 – “Brief Story from the Green Planet” by Santiago Loza (Argentina, Germany)

12 – “Dolores” by Gonzalo Tobal (Argentina, France, Spain)
13 – “Let it be Morning” by Eran Kolirin (Israel, France)

14 – “Lily and the Dragonflies” by René Guerra (Brazil, Denmark)
15 – “Los Perros” by Marcela Said (Chile, Germany, Argentina)
16 – “Sollers Point” by Matt Porterfield (USA, France)
17 – “The Seen and Unseen” by Kamila Andini (Indonesia)

18 – “Wajib” by Annemarie Jacir (Palestine, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark)

DOCUMENTARIES
Europe
19 – “Apolonia, Apolonia” by Lea Glob (Denmark)
20 – “Cain, Abel and the Cowgirl” by  Dina Salah Amer (UK, France, USA)
21 – “Gold Mine” by Ben Russell  (France)

22 – ‘’Latifa’’ by Olivier Peyon and Cyril Brody (France)
23 – “The Real Estate” by Axel Petersén and Måns Månsson (Sweden, Denmark)
24 – “Tierra del mal” by Daniele Incalcaterra and Fausta Quattrini (Italy, Argentina)
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Outside of Europe
25 – “Impeachment” by Petra Costa (Brazil)

– TV Series and Web series: 7 projects

– Virtual Reality and Interactive Projects: 8 projects for short to medium-length artistic-narrative films to be produced as virtual reality experiences

1 – ‘’Ashes to Ashes’’ (Netherlands) VR

2 – ‘‘Exode’’ by Gabo Arora (USA) VR

3 – ‘’Nomads’’ (Canada) VR

4 – ‘’Our baby’’ by Simon Bouisson (France) VR

5 – ‘’The Future of Forever: Welcome to the Other Side’ by Annna Brezezinska  (Poland) VR

6 – ‘‘Trinity’’ by Patrick Boivin (Canada) VR

7 – ‘‘Oh Moscow’’ by Sally Potter (UK) Interactive/Multimedia Experience

8 – ‘’The Boy in the Book’’ by Fernando De Jesus (UK) Interactive/Web series

9 – ‘‘Difficult Second Coming’’ by Dylan Edwards (UK) Web series

10 – ‘’Music on the road’’ by Benoit Pergent (France) Web series

11 – ‘‘Referees’’ by Giampiero Judica (Italy) Web series

12 – ‘‘Aurora’’ (Italy) TV series

13 – ‘‘Bullfinch’’ (Germany) TV series

14 – ‘’Nemesi’’ (Italy) TV series

15 – ‘‘School Of Champions’’ by Clemens Aufderklamm (Germany, Switzerland) TV series

A tailor-made initiative of this kind requests a real confidentiality for the producers and the partners already in place and a first Project line-up will therefore be sent to selected potential financiers and professionals in order to allow them to register to this co-production market.

The Book of Projects detailing each film project is sent to the registered professionals in July 2016 to entitle them to request 30-minute one-to-one meeting with the producers of the selected projects. The Venice Gap-Financing Market will set up these meetings in accordance with the availability of the participants and meetings slots. Each participant will receive a personalised meeting schedule a few days before the event.

The Venice Production Bridge will again organize the 4th edition of its workshop program, the Final Cut in Venice which will take place from September 3 to 5 in collaboration with Laser Film, Mactari Mixing Auditorium, Titra Film, Sub-Tu Ltd, Sub-Ti ACCESS Srl, Rai Cinema, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), Festival International du Film d’Amiens, Festival International de Films de Fribourg, MAD Solutions, Institut Français.

The Festival’s purpose is to provide concrete assistance in the completion of films from Africa and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria; and to offer producers and directors an opportunity to present films still in the production phase to international film professionals and distributors in order to facilitate post-production and promote co-production partnerships and market access.

The workshop consists in three days of activities, in which the working copies of a maximum of the six selected films are screened to producers, buyers, distributors and film festival programmers. Networking, encounters and meetings will allow directors and producers to interact directly with the workshop participants.

The workshop will conclude with the awarding of prizes, in kind or in cash, for the financial support of the films in their post-production phase:

. € 15,000 for the color correction of a feature-length film offered by Laser Film (Rome) for up to 50 hours of work (technician included);

. Up to € 15,000 for the sound mixing offered by Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris);

. Up to € 10,000 for digital color correction, for the production of a DCP master and French or English subtitles, offered by Titra Film (Paris)

. Up to € 7,000 for the production of the DCP master and Italian or English subtitles, offered by Sub-Ti Ltd. (London);

. Up to € 7,000 for the accessible contents of the film for audiences with sensory disabilities: subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired and audio description for the blind and visually impaired, with audio subtitles, in Italian or English, offered by SUB-TI ACCESS Srl (Turin)

(the SDH file and the audio described soundtrack for DCP will be provided)

. € 5,000 for the purchase of two-year broadcasting rights by Rai Cinema;

.  € 5,000 offered by the Organisation   Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) to an  African or Arabian film from a member-country of La  Francophonie

. A 35mm print (without subtitles) or the participation in the production costs of a DCP (€ 1,500), offered by the Festival International du Film d’Amiens;

. A 35mm print (without subtitles) or the participation in the production costs of a DCP (€ 1,500), offered by the Festival International de Films de Fribourg;

. Marketing and distribution in the Arab World for one Arab project is offered by MAD Solutions (except for projects already attached to MAD Solutions).

The 6 Selected projects of FINAL CUT IN VENICE 2016 are:

–  ‘Felicity’ by Alain Gomis (France, Senegal, Belgium)

–  ‘Ghost Hunting’ by Raed Andoni (Palestine, France, Switzerland)

–  ‘Obscure’ by Soudade Kaadan (Syria, Lebanon)

–  ‘Poisonous Roses’ by Ahmed Fawzi Saleh (Egypt, France, Qatar)

–  ‘One of these days’ by Nadim Tabet (Lebanon)

–  ‘The Wound’ by John Trengove (South Africa, Germany, Netherlands, France)

The Venice Production Bridge is also launching a new initiative this year with the Book Adaptation Rights Area. This two-day event (September 2 and 3) allows International renowned Publishers to propose the adaptation rights of their new titles as well as their libraries (novels, series, graphic novels, essays…) to International top producers in a dedicated area within the VPB.

The 15 invited publishers of the Book Adaptation Rights Area are:

–  Andrew Nurnberg Associates (United Kingdom)

–  De Agostini (Italy)

–  De Bezige Bij (Netherlands)

–  Diogenes (Switzerland)

–  Elisabeth Ruge Agentur (Germany)

–  Flammarion (France)

–  Gallimard (France)

–  Glénat (France)

–  Lannoo (Belgium)

–  Les Éditions de l’Homme Sans Nom (France)

–  Média-Participations (France)

–  Oetinger Filmrechte-Agentur (Germany)

–  Place des Editeurs (France)

–  Planeta (Spain)

–  Ullstein Buchverlage (Germany)

In the framework of the European Film Forum, the European Commission organises two workshops on access to finance (3 September from 3:00 pm to 5:15 pm – Sala Stucchi) and on the future of cinemas (4 September from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm – Spazio Incontri). The first event will be the occasion to discuss the new guarantee facility for the cultural and creative sector recently launched with the European Investment Fund (press release), as well as new modes of investments. The second event, which will be opened by European Commissioner Oettinger, in charge of the Digital Economy and Society, will focus on how cinemas can fully reap the benefits of digital technologies. The Venice International Film Festival is also an opportunity to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Creative Europe MEDIA programme (press release) and to discuss the recent update of EU audiovisual rules (press release) as well as the upcoming proposals on the modernisation of EU copyright rules to be presented in the autumn. Next initiatives will aim at further increasing the circulation of European works across borders and supporting the audiovisual sector.

Finally, the Venice Production Bridge offers all traditional services such as the Industry Club, to support networking among the participants, the Digital Video Library, an Exhibition Area, VPB Market Screenings, a Business Centre, equipped with secretarial services, computers, copy machines, Internet access and Wi-Fi, and numerous international panels and networking events with some of them in partnership with the European Producers Club.

(Source: http://www.labiennale.org)