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The selection is complete for the four projects, from Argentina, Ecuador, Italy, USA, that will move on to the production phase for the films of the 9th edition (2020-2021) of the Biennale College – Cinema. The four teams, composed of a director and a producer, will participate starting today, Wednesday the 2nd, through Sunday December 6th in the first of two workshops. The final feature-length films will participate in the 78th Venice International Film Festival 2021.

La Biennale is also pleased to announce that the film This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection by Jeremiah Mosese, supported and produced as part of the 7th edition 2018-2019 of the Biennale College – Cinema, has been nominated for an Academy Award 2021 for Lesotho in the Best International Feature Film category. This is the first Oscar nomination for Lesotho and the first for the Biennale College – Cinema.

Overall since 2012, during its first eight editions, Biennale College – Cinema has produced 24 feature films by upcoming directors, following 1.815 applications from around the world. Biennale College – Cinema is the Biennale di Venezia workshop that cultivates new talents for cinema by offering them the opportunity to work side by side with the masters in the production of micro-budget feature films (maximum 150 thousand euro).

The four final projects of the 9th edition 2020-21 were chosen after the first workshop among the 12 projects selected from around the world (this year from Argentina, China, Ecuador, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Italy, Serbia, Switzerland, USA).

The following are the four selected projects, in alphabetical order of title:
• Al Oriente
Director: José María Avilés (Ecuador, sophomore film)
Producer: Julieta Juncadella (Argentina)
• La Tana
Director: Beatrice Baldacci (Italy, debut film)
Producer: Aurora Alma Bartiromo (Italy)
• Nuestros Días Más Felices
Director: Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière (Argentina, sophomore film)
Producer: Laura Mara Tablón (Argentina)
• The Cathedral
Director: Ricky D’Ambrose (Usa, sophomore film)
Producer: Graham Swon (USA)

The four selected teams will participate in another workshop from January 12 to 18 2021. This will initiate the actual production of four microbudget feature-length film made with a grant by the Biennale of 150 thousand euro each. The 4 films will be presented at the 78th Venice International Film Festival 2021, together with 2 feature films from the 8th edition, the presentation of which was postponed for a year: La Santa Piccola, director Silvia Brunelli, producer Francesca Maria Scanu (Italy) and Mon Père, Le Diable, director Elli Foumbi (USA), producer Joseph Mastantuono (France).

The Biennale College – Cinema section of the 78th Venice Film Festival 2021 will thus include 6 world premiere feature films, 2 of which were directed by an Italian and 3 by women.

Since the 8th edition of the Biennale College – Cinema the number of films supported by La Biennale has been extended to four projects, of which at least two must be by women directors.

Since 2016 the programme includes the Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality section, which has produced 6 VR projects so far, presented at the Venice Film Festivals 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

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This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection. Amongst the pythonic mountains of land-locked Lesotho, an elderly widow prepares to die. When she learns that her village will be forcibly relocated, she finds a new will to live and ignites a collective spirit of defiance in the community.

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Biennale College – Cinema enjoys the support of Eurimages, the cultural fund of the European Council, which covers the costs of travel, hospitality and training for a woman director (Eurimages Residency Grant). In 2020 the selected director was Patricia Pérez Fernandez. Her feature-length project The Foreign Woman participated in the first development workshop of the 9th edition of Biennale College – Cinema.