14/10/2014 - The works, from countries such as Bulgaria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland and Portugal, took part in the first workshop of the 2014-2015 edition, held from 4-13 October in Venice

Yesterday saw the unveiling of the 12 projects that took part in the first workshop of the third edition of Biennale College - Cinema (2014-2015), which was held from 4-13 October in the city of Venice. This initiative led by the Venice Biennale aims to support fresh film talents by offering them the opportunity to shoot micro-budget feature films. The 12 teams (made up of directors and producers), selected in the wake of an international announcement launched on 6 May, and hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, France, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Sri Lanka and the USA, described their projects and talked about the various creative aspects of their stories.  

Following the recent first workshop, the three teams chosen will be invited to two additional workshops, again in Venice, from 3-6 December 2014 and from 10-14 January 2015, in order to get the ball rolling on the production of a maximum of three feature films (be they first or second works) that will have to be very low budget, will benefit from €150,000 worth of aid and will finally be presented at the 72nd Venice Film Festival next year.

Featuring among the European titles are: Baby Bump [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kuba Czekaj
film profile] by Kuba Czekaj (Poland), which revolves around the sexual transformations of an 11-year-old boy; Guarda in alto by Fulvio Risuleo (Italy), which tells the story of a young man’s journey as he discovers a parallel world above the rooftops of Rome; The Father by Kristina Grozeva (Bulgaria), in which a recently deceased woman continues to ring her old neighbour up on her mobile phone; There Was Las Vegas by Alexandre Castres (France), which is about a transsexual who wants to be a man again; and Blanka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kohki Hasei
film profile] by Kohki Hasei (Japan, but with an Italian producer), which tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who, after being abandoned by her mother, decides to “buy” herself another one.

A more detailed description of the 12 projects is available on the webpage: www.labiennale.org/it/cinema/collegecinema/. 

(Translated from Italian)