The 69th Festival in 2012 saw Alberto Barbera as the new artistic director alongside remarkable new initiatives: the launch of Biennale College – Cinema, a higher education training workshop for the development and production of micro-budget audio-visual works, and the establishment of the Venice Film Market in dedicated spaces at the Excelsior Hotel. As part of the renovation – in agreement with the City of Venice – of the existing facilities of the Festival, which included the restoration of the Sala Grande in 2011, a new, larger and more functional foyer in the Palazzo del Cinema was built to welcome the public. The intervention also included the renovation of two historic screening rooms, the Pasinetti and Zorzi, for an overall extension of 50 more seats.
The retrospective was titled «80!» on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival (1932-2012) and presented unique copies of films thought to be lost but actually existing in the Biennale’s ASAC archive collections. This was complemented by theVenice Classics section of restored classic films. The opening film was Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist; the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was given to Italian director Francesco Rosi, who received the award from Giuseppe Tornatore. The main jury chaired by Michael Mann awarded the Golden Lion to Pieta by Kim Ki-duk and the Silver Lion and the Coppa Volpi for best actor to The Master by Paul Thomas Anderson and the two actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix. Among the stars that were on the red carpet, Robert Redford (his first-time attendance on the Lido), Michael Cimino (Persol Award), Spike Lee (Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Film-maker Award), Brian De Palma, Jonathan Demme, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Winona Ryder, Michael Shannon, Ray Liotta, Pierce Brosnan, Michael Fassbender, Isabelle Huppert, Claudia Cardinale, Noomi Rapace, Kristin Scott Thomas, Olga Kurylenko, Emmanuelle Seigner, Takeshi Kitano, Peter Brook, Liliana Cavani, Marco Bellocchio, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Barbora Bobulova and teen-idols such as Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, James Franco, and Shia LaBeouf.
To celebrate its 70th edition, the Festival of 2013, directed by Alberto Barbera, created the special project,Venezia 70 – Future Reloaded. 70 directors from all around the world made a short film, lasting between 60 and 90 seconds, in total creative freedom. All these short films were given their world premiere at the Lido during the 70thFestival, and later published on the Biennale website http://www.labiennale.org in a new and specific page dedicated to the history of the Festival, with the addition of rare photographs and unique documents preserved at the Biennale Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts (ASAC), as well as 40 excerpts from footage films kept in the archives of the Archivio Storico Istituto Luce Cinecittà (which were screened at the Festival before the films from the Official Selection).
The 2013 edition also presented successfully the 3 feature films of the Biennale College – Cinema, an advanced workshop opened to young filmmakers from around the world for the production of micro-budget films, launched at the 2012 Festival. It also announced the 12 projects of the 2nd edition of the Biennale College – Cinema 2013/14. The 2nd edition of the Venice Film Market also proved to be a success, set up in dedicated spaces at the Hotel Excelsior, and involving 246 major distributors. As part of the redevelopment of the historic structures of the Festival – carried out jointly with the City of Venice – the Palazzo del Casinò had a new 150-seat room (Sala Casinò) and the Press Room was expanded and technologically improved. Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Sandra Bullock
and George Clooney, was the opening film in 3D. The Golden Lion for lifetime achievement of the Biennale was awarded to American film director William Friedkin. The Jury of the Venice 70 competition, headed by Bernardo Bertolucci, awarded the Golden Lion to the film Sacro GRA by the Italian director Gianfranco Rosi. The Silver Lion for Best Director was awarded to Alexandros Avranasfor Miss Violence (Greece), the Grand Jury Prize went toJiaoyouby Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese Taipei). The Coppa Volpi for Best Actor was awarded to Themis Panou forMiss Violence (Greece), the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress to Elena Cottafor Via Castellana Bandiera, by Emma Dante. The Italian film master Ettore Scola received the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award. For the occasion his film was screened, Che strano chiamarsi Federico, a homage to Federico Fellini 20 years after his passing; present at the screening was the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. Among the other masters and stars at the Lido were Andrzej Wajda (Persol Award, awarded in the presence of Lech Walesa), Paul Schrader, Bret Easton Ellis, Mia Wasikowska, Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, James Franco, Scott Haze, Tom Welling, Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Hardy, Scarlett Johansson, Errol Morris, Terry Gilliam, Stephen Frears, Amos Gitai, Kim Ki-duk, Patrice Leconte, Pablo Larraín, Sion Sono, Edgar Reitz, Tsai Ming-liang, Wang Bing, Philippe Garrel, Anna Mouglalis, Louis Garrel, Rebecca Hall, Alan Rickman, Richard Madden, Carrie Fisher, Martina Gedeck, Virginie Ledoyen, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Jiang Wen, Ken Watanabe, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Gianni Amelio, Alba Rohrwacher, Antonio Albanese, Giuseppe Battiston, Anita Caprioli, Marco Paolini, and Carlo Verdone.
In 2014, following an agreement with the Venice City Council, the Sala Darsena theatre was completed renovated and enlarged from 1300 to 1409 seats: the inaugural event took place on 26 August for the Festival pre-opening dedicated to the anniversary of World War I, featuring the screening of Maciste alpino (1916) by Luigi Maggi and Luigi Romano Borgnetto (direction supervisor Giovanni Pastrone) in a new restored copy. Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance by Alejandro González Iñárritu starring Michael Keaton was the opening film on 27 August. The Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement were awarded to film editor Thelma Schoonmaker and to director Frederick Wiseman. The Venezia 71 jury, chaired by Alexandre Desplat, awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film to En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence) by Roy Andersson. The actor, director, screenwriter and producer James Franco was presented the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award 2014. For the occasion, James Franco’s new film, The Sound and the Fury screened out of competition. Actress Frances McDormand was presented the Persol Tribute to Visionary Talent Award 2014, and Olive Kitteridge directed by Lisa Cholodenko starring Frances McDormand screened out of competition.
Stars on the red carpet included Al Pacino, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni , Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Shannon, Abel Ferrara, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Andrea Riseborough , Stellan Skarsgård, Tahar Rahim, Maria De Medeiros, Anna Mouglalis, Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Luca Zingaretti, Milla Jovovich, Ryô Kase, Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, Alexandra Daddario, Shinya Tsukamoto, Wang Xiaoshuai, Amos Gitai, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, Ann Hui, Im Kwontaek, Barry Levinson, Hong Sangsoo, Fatih Akin, David Gordon Green, Andrew Niccol, Benoît Jacquot, Xavier Beauvois, Ulrich Seidl, Aléx de la Iglesia, Ami Canaan Mann, and Michael Almereyda. Three feature films in the Biennale College – Cinema section were presented: H. by Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia, Blood Cells by Luke Seomore and Joseph Bull, and Short Skin by Duccio Chiarini. Biennale College – Cinema is a project promoted by the Biennale di Venezia since 2012 and aimed at new talents in cinema by offering them the opportunity to produce micro-budget feature films; the 12 selected projects for the 3rd edition of the Biennale College – Cinema 2014/15 were also announced. The 3rd edition of theVenice Film Market took place in dedicated spaces at the Excelsior Hotel.
The Biennale Cinema 2016 will run Aug. 31 to Sept. 10
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…).
25 SELECTED PROJECTS
– 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)
+
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)
15 VIRTUAL REALITY & INTERACTIVE, WEB SERIES AND TV SERIES PROJECTS
– 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
Submarine Channel
2 – ‘‘Exode’’ by Gabo Arora (USA) VR
Un/Verse, Lightshed
3 – ‘’Nomads’’ (Canada) VR
Felix & Paul Studios
4 – ‘’Our baby’’ by Simon Bouisson (France) VR
La Générale de production
5 – ‘’The Future of Forever: Welcome to the Other Side’ by Annna Brezezinska (Poland) VR
Unlimited Film Operations
6 – ‘‘Trinity’’ by Patrick Boivin (Canada) VR
Unlimited Vr
7 – ‘‘Oh Moscow’’ by Sally Potter (UK) Interactive/Multimedia Experience
Adventure Pictures
8 – ‘’The Boy in the Book’’ by Fernando De Jesus (UK) Interactive/Web series
CYOD Ltd., Thinking Violets
9 – ‘‘Difficult Second Coming’’ by Dylan Edwards (UK) Web series
Electric Sandbox
10 – ‘’Music on the road’’ by Benoit Pergent (France) Web series
Les Films du Poisson
11 – ‘‘Referees’’ by Giampiero Judica (Italy) Web series
3Zero2 SpA
12 – ‘‘Aurora’’ (Italy) TV series
Publispei Srl
13 – ‘‘Bullfinch’’ (Germany) TV series
Zentropa Hamburg GmbH
14 – ‘’Nemesi’’ (Italy) TV series
Indigo Film
15 – ‘‘School Of Champions’’ by Clemens Aufderklamm (Germany, Switzerland) TV series
Catpics Ltd
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.
FINAL CUT IN VENICE
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)
European Film Forum events – Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September
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 25thanniversary 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.
