The first Venice Production Bridge – the Festival film market’s evolution into a specialized meeting point for completing projects – was held from September 1-5, 2016 at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. The VPB re-proposed and expanded on the Venice Gap-Financing Market and Final Cut in Venice programs, making the most of the experience of the Biennale College – Cinema.
This first edition of the Venice Production Bridge registered 1,767 accreditations, including 758 Industry Goldaccreditations (a 35% increase in this latter figure, compared to 2015).
Here are the final figures of the 2016VENICE PRODUCTION BRIDGE:
· GAP FINANCING MARKET (2-4 September): 448 pre-organized meetings were held for the 25 Fiction and Documentary projects, and 158 meetings for the 15 Virtual Reality/TV series/Web series. Fifty meetings were added directly on-site for all 40 projects. Thus, a total of 606 encounters were re-organized, for a grand total of 656 meetings for the 40 projects over the two and a half days.
· BOOK ADAPTATION RIGHTS AREA (2-3 September): over 250 meetings were organized over the two days for the 15 editors.
· FINAL CUT IN VENICE (3-5 September): of the 6 projects presented in the selection, 4 films won the Final Cut prizes (***)
· EUROPEAN FILM FORUM OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The European Film Forum was held on September 3-4, with the participation of the European Commissioner for the Digital Single Market,Günther Oettinger, and the Director-General of DG Connect, Roberto Viola. The European Film Forum organized two workshops, on access to financing for the creative industries and on the future of cinemas.
· 6 STANDS OPERATED IN THE VPB EXHIBIT AREAS:
INCAA
EURIMAGES
REGIONE UMBRIA
REGIONE FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA
CHINA FILM PROMOTION
SHANGAI FIL FESTIVAL
· PANELS AND EVENTS ORGANIZED AT THE MEETING SPACE
A total of 22, including 17 international panels and events
· VPB MARKET SCREENINGS ORGANIZED
A total of 35, including 13 Private Screenings
· DIGITAL VIDEO LIBRARY:
51 films were available for viewing at the Digital Video Library, including:
6 films from Out of Competition, 18 from Orizzonti, 7 from Venice Classics, 4 from Biennale College Cinema, 2 from Cinema nel Giardino, 5 from SIC, 6 from Venice Days, 1 from Final Cut
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(***) FINAL CUT Awards:
FELICITY / FÉLICITÉby Alain Gomis (France/Senegal/Belgium) Producer: Arnaud Dommerc received the following prizes:
– Sub-Ti Ltd. (London) will offer up to € 7,000 to make a DCP master and Italian or English subtitles;
– Sub-Ti Access Srl (Turin) will offer up to € 7,000 for a version accessible to people with sensorial disabilities;
– Rai Cinema will offer € 5,000 to purchase the broadcasting rights for two years;
– Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) will offer € 5,000 to reimburse costs incurred during post-production.
THE WOUND / ISIKO by John Trengove (South Africa/Germany/France/Holland) Producer: Elias Ribeiro received the following prizes:
– Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris) will offer up to € 15,000 to make the sound mix;
– Titra Film (Paris) will offer up to € 10,000 for digital color correction, and to make a DCP master and French or English subtitles.
GHOST HUNTING / ISTIYAD ASHBAby Raed Andoni (Palestine/France/Switzerland) Producer: Palmyre Badinie received the following prizes:
– Laser Film (Rome) will offer € 15,000 for the color correctionof a feature film, totaling up to 50 work hours (including technician);
– The Festival International du Film d’Amiens will participate in the cost of making a DCP.
OBSCURE / OTMAHby Soudade Kaadan (Syria/Lebanon) Producer: Salma Kaf received the following prizes:
– MAD Solutions will offer marketing, advertising and distribution in the Arab world;
– The Festival International de Films de Fribourg will participate in the cost of making a DCP.
Award ceremony on Sept. 5th at 2:00 pm at the Palazzo del Cinema
La Biennale di Venezia and Jaeger-LeCoultre are pleased to announce that the great Iranian director Amir Naderi (Vegas, Manhattan by Numbers, Davandeh-The Runner) will receive the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival (August 31st – September 10th 2016), dedicated to a personality who has made an original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema.
Amin Naderi will be awarded the prize in a ceremony to be held Monday September 5th at 2:00 pm in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema), before the Out of Competition screening of his new film Monte, in its world premiere showing in Venice. The film (shot on location in Italy in the mountains of the Alto Adige and Friuli regions) is set in the year 1350 and tells the dramatic story of a man who makes every attempt to bring the sunlight into his village, where his family is barely able to survive because of the prevailing darkness. In 2014 Monte has been one of the projects selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market, a programme launched by the Venice Production Bridge.
The Director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, made the following statement about the award: “Amir Naderi gave fundamental impetus to the birth of the New Iranian Cinema during the 1970s and ‘80s with a number of masterpieces destined to leave their mark on the history of cinema, such as Davandeh (The Runner, 1985) and Ab, bâd, khâk (Water, Wind, Dust, 1988). But even after moving to New York in 1988, Naderi remained stubbornly true to himself and to a type of cinema dedicated to research and experimentation, which refuses to bow to trends and easy shortcuts. Every film he has made clearly displays the nucleus of an identical obsession which transcends the principle of reality in order to force individuals beyond their own limits. The last half hour of Monte is a sort of synthesis of his entire opus, a larger-than-life metaphor of a struggle for survival prevailing over the dividing lines, intimidations and insults which can sometimes make human existence miserable. The breathtaking epilogue transforms the ideas, emotions and visions at the basis of all his films into powerfully expressive images. The Jaeger-LeCoultre Award is a well-deserved recognition, a tribute to the originality and greatness of a filmmaker who stands out from the crowd, the talent of a passionate director, and the generosity of a man who seems to know no limits.”
Since the 1970s, Amir Naderi (Abadan, 1945) has been among the most influential figures of New Iranian Cinema. He entered the international spotlight with cinema classics such as Tangsir (1974), Entezar (1974), awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes children’s film festival, The Runner (1985) and Ab, Bad, Khak (1989), which both won the Golden Montgolfiere at Three Continents Festival in Nantes. The first prominent Iranian director to move abroad in the mid ’80s, Naderi’s American films have uniquely captured the vanishing texture of New York. SoundBarrier (2005) won the Roberto Rossellini Critics’ Prize at the Rome Film Festival. Vegas: Based on a True Story, premiered In Competition at Venice in 2008. Cut was shot in Japan and premiered as the Opening Film of the Orizzonti section at Venice in 2011, later winning the 21st Japan Professional Film Awards for Best Director and Best Actor. Naderi’s work has been the subject of retrospectives at museums and film festivals around the world. He has served on international juries such as Jury President for the Competition section of Tokyo FILMeX in 2011 and the Orizzonti section of Venice in 2012. His new film Monte, starring Andrea Sartoretti and Claudia Potenza, and premiering at this year’s Venice Film Festival, is the first film by Naderi to be set and directed in Italy. Monte is an Italian/American/French co-production, by Citrullo International, Zivago Media, Cineric, Ciné-sud Promotion and KNM, in collaboration with Rai Cinema and with the support of the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism – General Direction for Cinema.
The film was shot almost entirely on location in the mountains of the Alto Adige region, at an altitude of over 2500 metres on the Latemar mountain chain, and in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in the towns of Erto, Casso and Sott’Anzas, with the support of the Alto Adige IDM-Film Commission and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Film Commission. The shooting lasted 6 weeks.
Jaeger-LeCoultre is a sponsor of the Venice International Film Festival for the twelfth year in a row, and of the Glory to the Filmmaker prize for the tenth. The prize has been awarded in past years to Takeshi Kitano (2007), Abbas Kiarostami (2008), Agnès Varda (2008), Sylvester Stallone (2009), Mani Ratnam (2010), Al Pacino (2011), Spike Lee (2012), Ettore Scola (2013), James Franco (2014), and Brian De Palma (2015).
Iranian director Amir Naderi (Vegas, Manhattan by Numbers) is to receive the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker award of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival(August 31-Sept 10), dedicated to a personality who has made an original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema.
The prize has previously been awarded to filmmakers and actors including Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Al Pacino and, last year, Brian De Palma.
Naderi will be awarded the prize in a ceremony to be held September 5 in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema), before the world premiere of his new film Monte, which plays out of competition.
The film – shot on location in Italy in the mountains of the Alto Adige and Friuli regions – is set in 1350 and tells the story of a man who makes every attempt to bring the sunlight into his village, where his family is barely able to survive because of the prevailing darkness.
Monte was one of the projects selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market in 2014, a programme launched by the Venice Production Bridge.
Naderi has been among the most influential figures of New Iranian Cinema since the 1970s. He entered the international spotlight with Tangsir (1974), Entezar (1974), awarded the Jury Prize at the Cannes children’s film festival, The Runner (1985) and Ab, Bad, Khak (1989), which both won the Golden Montgolfiere at Three Continents Festival in Nantes.
The first prominent Iranian director to move abroad in the mid ’80s, Naderi’s US films include SoundBarrier, which won the Roberto Rossellini Critics’ Prize at the Rome Film Festival in 2005, and Vegas: Based on a True Story, which premiered in competition at Venice in 2008.
Cut was shot in Japan and premiered as the opening film of Venice’s Orizzonti section in 2011.
Monte, starring Andrea Sartoretti and Claudia Potenza, marks the first film by Naderi to be set and directed in Italy.
For more information on tickets and passes click here
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)
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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)
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.
