VENICE PRODUCTION BRIDGE at the Venezia 78

VENICE PRODUCTION BRIDGE at the 78th Venice International Film Festival

The 6^th edition of the Venice Production Bridge (September 2 to September 7, 2021), will be held during the 78th Venice International Film Festival. It will once again focus in particular on the presentation and exchange of original projects for films and works in progress, so as to foster their development and production.

While we are not yet out of the pandemic, we are now more confident that, thanks to the vaccination, we will soon be able to leave this particular period behind. The Venice Production Bridge, which has been constantly adjusting itself to follow the evolution of the industry with the long-term aim of enabling producers and directors to complete their projects, has now more than ever the will to contribute to the restart of the film and VR worlds.

The Venice Production Bridge will be held as an on-site event at the Excelsior Hotel, 3^rd floor, on the Venice Lido, with specific components also taking place digitally. It will therefore preserve its physical event on the Lido, while also offering many possibilities to participate remotely and worldwide.

Selected panels and events that will take place at the Excelsior Hotel, will be streamed through the Venice Production Bridge website to guarantee the maximum of possible participation on a global level.

For those unable to attend in-person due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, online participation will also be guaranteed through streaming and virtual one-to-one meetings. The Online VPB accreditation has been made again available.

The Venice Production Bridge will therefore continue to provide producers worldwide with a unique possibility of meeting multiple categories of financiers (distributors, sales agents, banks, private and public investment funds, regions and film commissions, broadcasters, video aggregators and Internet platforms), who participate in raising the financial package necessary to create a film.

For the first time, the VPB will have a general focus on the Netherlands which will include additional Dutch projects (both feature films and VR) within the VGFM, two Dutch publishers at the BARM, one co-production for a work-in-progress within Final Cut in Venice, two dedicated panels, a reception and a large delegation of 33 professionals (public funds, festivals, producers, VR experts, private financial institutions, sales agents and distributors…) coming from this country.

Confirming its uniqueness, the Venice Production Bridge will propose the following events:

VENICE GAP-FINANCING MARKET

The 8^th edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market (September 3 – September 5, 2021), organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, will take place during the forthcoming 78th Venice International Film Festival (September 1 – 11, 2021) and will offer selected European and international projects the opportunity to close their international financing, through one-to-one meetings with international decision-makers.

The 3-day Venice Gap-Financing Market will present 57 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding. More than 250 project applications have been received from around the world and the selection reflects the great diversity of backgrounds, stories and talents, aesthetics, genres and budgets of the projects submitted for consideration.

The selection is divided as follows:

30 feature-length Fiction Film and Documentary projects
13 Virtual Reality Immersive Story projects
11 Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality projects
3 Biennale College Cinema projects

The Venice Gap-Financing Market will be setting up on-site and online one-to-one meetings between the teams (producer and director) of the 57 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…).

The Book of Projects, detailing each project, will be emailed to professionals from the film industry, to entitle them to request 30-minute one-to-one meetings with the teams of the selected projects through the Venice Production Bridge website (veniceproductionbridge.org).
The VPB Office will support the teams and the registered professionals in organizing tailor-made meetings.

30 SELECTED FICTION AND DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS:

– Fiction Films: 23 projects for feature-length fiction films (10 from Europe and 13 international), 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 (2 from Europe and 5 international) for narrative or creative documentaries (fulfilling the same requirements as the fiction films above).

¡CAIGAN LAS ROSAS BLANCAS! fiction (Argentina, Brasil, France) by Albertina Carri, Gentil Cine
A ROOSTER ON THE FIRE ESCAPE fiction (France, Haiti) by Guetty Felin, Aldabra Films
ALLAH N’EST PAS OBLIGÉ animation (France, Luxembourg, Belgium, USA) by Zaven Najjar, Special Touch Studios
ÅRET JAG BÖRJADE ONANERA (The Year I Started Masturbating) fiction (Sweden) by Erika Wasserman, Gimme A Break, AB
ASHKAL (Tunisia, France, The Netherlands) by Youssef Chebbi, Supernova Films
AU CIMETIÈRE DE LA PELLICULE documentary (France, Senegal, Guinea), by Thierno Souleymane Diallo, L’image d’après
BACK TO ALEXANDRIA fiction (Switzerland) by Tamer Ruggli, Tipi’mages Productions
BIRTHMARK fiction (India, Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Norway) by Aditya Vikram Sengupta, For Films
BUFIS fiction (Kenya, Germany) by Mahad Ahmed and Vincenzo Cavallo, Cultural Video Production, Unafilm
BUTIKEN (The Store) fiction/animation (Italy, Sweden, Norway) by Hanna Sköld, Indyca
EL REPARTIDOR ESTÁ EN CAMINO documentary (Argentina, Portugal), by Martín Rejtman, Un Puma
ELECTRIC CHILD fiction (Switzerland, Germany) by Simon Jaquemet, 8horses GmbH
FACING DARKNESS documentary (France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Germany) by Jean-Gabriel Periot, Alter Ego Production
FLOATING fiction (The Netherlands, Belgium) by Quirine Racké and Helena Muskens, Family Affair Films
HALISSA fiction (Israel) by Sophie Artus, Deadline Production, July August Productions
HOLLY fiction (Belgium, The Netherlands, France) by Fien Troch, Prime Time
KABUL MELODY documentary (Afghanistan, France) by Sarah Mani, Afghanistan Dochhouse
KIPKEMBOI fiction (Canada, Kenya) by Hubert Davis, New Real Films
LA PIEL PULPO fiction (Ecuador, Mexico, Greece, Germany) by Ana Cristina Barragán, Caleidoscopio Cine
LOS ANGELES fiction/animation (Chile) by Joaquin Cociña and Cristóbal León, Globo Rojo Films
LOS COLONOS fiction (Chile, France, Denmark, Argentina) by Felipe Gálvez, Quijote Films
MAJKA MARA (Mother Mara) fiction (Serbia, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina) by Mirjana Karanovic, This and That Productions
NON MORIRÒ DI FAME fiction (Italy, Poland) by Umberto Spinazzola, La Sarraz Pictures
PAMFIR fiction (Ukraine, France, Poland, Chile) by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, Bosonfilm
PLAN 75 fiction (Japan, France, The Philippines) by Chie Hayakawa, Loaded Films Ltd.
SEM CORAÇÃO fiction (Brazil, France, Germany) by Nara Normande and Tião, Les Valseurs
SHENREN ZHI JIA (A Holy Family) documentary (Taiwan, France) by Elvis A-Liang Lu, Volos Films Ltd.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OMAR SHARIF (WORKING TITLE) documentary (Sweden, Egypt, United Kingdom) by Axel Petersén and Mark Lotfy, Fedra
THE SECRET OF PLACES documentary (Germany, Switzerland, Norway) by Wim Wenders, Road Movies
THE SILENT TREATMENT fiction (Belgium, The Netherlands, Hungary) by Caroline Strubbe, Minds Meet

13 VIRTUAL REALITY IMMERSIVE STORY PROJECTS:

13 VR Immersive Reality Story projects (10 from Europe and 3 international), including fiction, documentary, animation film and other interactive installation based experiences. The projects include both original concept and adaptations. All projects have secured 30% of their budget and have this financing in place.

ABANDON (Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar) by Farah Shaer, Fig Leaf Studios
ANON VR (Germany) by Jan Lachauer and Clarens Grollmann, K5 Factory GmbH
BLOOD SPEAKS: MAYA – THE BIRTH OF A SUPERHERO (United Kingdom, France) by Poulomi Basu and CJ Clarke, Just Another Production Company, Floréal Films
BURIED IN THE ROCK (Series: Extraordinary People Extraordinary Places) (United Kingdom) by Shehani Fernando, ScanLAB Projects
CAFÉ GLASER-MÜLLER (Sweden, The Netherlands) by Gorki Glaser-Müller, GGM Film
CONFIDENT (France) by Jérome Blanquet andBertrand Jeandel, Maneki Films, Wise Bird
EMPEREUR (France) by Marion Burger and Ilan Cohen, ATLAS V
ESCAPE (Italy, Portugal) by Rossella Schillaci, MyBoss srl
FIGHT BACK VR (France, USA) by Céline Tricart, Red Corner, Lucid Dreams
KNIGHT OF THE WAILING STARS (France, Russia, Italy) by Denis Semionov, VrrOOm
SHEPHERD (USA, Canada) by Eric Darnell, Baobab Studios, Dark Slope
SYMBIOSIS (The Netherlands) by Marcel van Brakel and Mark Meeuwenoord, Studio Biarritz, Polymorf
WINTEROVER (Canada, Israel) by Ido Mizrahy and Nir Saar, Holy City VR

11 BIENNALE COLLEGE CINEMA – VIRTUAL REALITY PROJECTS:

11 projects, that have been developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema VR, 5^th edition, and that have reached different stages of development, pre-production and post-production.

DUCHAMPIANA VR (France) by Lilian Hess, Tchikiboum
GULLIVR (Brazil) by Ricardo Karman, Delirium XR
HIGHLIFE VR (Czech Republic, France) by Tomáš Koucký, Oldrich Company
HUMAN VIOLINS (Romania) by Ioana Mischie, Storyscapes, Studioset
MATH IS WEIRD (Italy, United Kingdom) by Ana Corrie, Associazione Museo Nazionale del Cinema
ORIGEN (Argentina, Colombia) by Emilia Sánchez Chiquetti, Proyectil
SENZA FRENI by Matteo Nicoletta and Daniele Grassetti (Italy), d’Aria SRL
TALES OF THE MARCH (Germany, Italy) by Stefano Casertano, Daring House
THE BROOM (Israel) by Nim Shapira, Nim Shapira
LOS OJOS OF MILA KAOS (Spain, France, USA) by Yimit Ramírez, Free Hundred Media
THE LAST PARTY VR (Italy) by Alberto Caffarelli and Paololuca Barbieri Marchi, NOS Visual Arts Production

3 BIENNALE COLLEGE CINEMA PROJECTS :

3 projects, that have been developed during the first workshop of Biennale College Cinema, 9^th edition, and that have reached different stages of development and pre-production.

A MUTUAL GIFT (Italy) by Gianclaudio Cappai and Pilar Perrotta, Palosanto Films SRL
MADAME NEGRITUDE (USA) by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, Madame Negritude LLC
LA EXTRANJERA (Spain, Serbia, France, Cuba) by Patricia Pérez Fernández, Free Hundred Media

The new Book of Projects that gathers all the details of the selected projects for this year edition of VENICE GAP-FINANCING MARKET is already available on the section ‘VPB Programme 2021/ Downloads’ of the Venice Production Bridge Website at the following link: http://veniceproductionbridge.org/

BOOK ADAPTATION RIGHTS MARKET

The 6^th edition of the Book Adaptation Rights Market (September 3 – September 5, 2021), organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, will take place in-person at the Excelsior Hotel on the Lido di Venezia and online through the Venice Production Bridge website (veniceproductionbridge.org) during the forthcoming 78th Venice International Film Festival (September 1 – 11, 2021).

The Book Adaptation Rights Market will offer 26 selected, international publishing houses and literary agencies a dedicated area within the Venice Production Bridge and the possibility for one-to-one meetings between publishers and producers. The meetings will allow to foster lasting relationships and to make deals on the adaptation of novels, drama, children’s literature, short stories, comics, graphic novels, essays, biographies.

The Book Adaptation Rights Market will enable the invited publishers to propose their entire catalogue for film adaptation, rather than focusing on a single book, as opposed to other events dedicated to publishing within the context of film festivals.

A brochure gathering all the publishers and literary agents and their new titles as well as their catalogue will be sent to all registered producers beforehand.

The 26 publishers and literary agents invited to this year event of the Book Adaptation Rights Market are:

Actes Sud (France)
Andrew Nurnberg Associates (United Kingdom)
De Bezige Bij (The Netherlands)
DeA Planeta Libri (Italy)
Diogenes Verlag (Switzerland)
Éditions de l’Homme Sans Nom (France)
Editis (France)
Editorial Anagrama (Spain)
Editorial Planeta (Spain)
Elisabeth Ruge Agentur GmbH (Germany)
Feltrinelli Editore (Italy)
Giulio Einaudi Editore (Italy)
Grandi e Associati (Italy)
Gruppo Editoriale Mauri Spagnol (Italy)
MalaTesta Literary Agency (Italy)
Marcel Hartges Literatur- und Filmagentur (Germany)
Michael Gaeb Literary Agency (Germany)
Mondadori Libri (Italy)
Northern Stories Literary Agency (Norway)
Robert Laffont (France)
Sellerio (Italy)
Singel Uitgeverijen (Netherlands)
Sperling & Kupfer – Piemme – Mondadori Ragazzi (Italy)
Suhrkamp Verlag (Germany)
Tunué (Italy)
Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH (Germany)

Ever since its first edition during the 73^rd Venice International Film Festival, the Book Adaptation Rights Market has met with great success as proven by the publishers’ requests to participate again in this event as well as by a growing demand from the producers looking for original intellectual properties (IP).

Virtual one-to-one meetings organised online with the publishers attending in-person will also be possible for those accredited professionals unable to travel to Venice.

The new brochure that gathers all the details of the details of the invited publishers and literary agents for this year edition of the BOOK ADAPTATION RIGHTS MARKET is already available on the section ‘VPB Programme 2021/ Downloads’ of the Venice Production Bridge Website at the following link: http://veniceproductionbridge.org/

FINAL CUT IN VENICE

The 6 work-in-progress films of the 9^th edition of Final Cut in Venice have been selected. Final Cut in Venice is the project that has been providing since 2013 concrete assistance in the completion of films from all African countries and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Final Cut in Venice is one of the projects launched by the Venice Production Bridge of the 78^th Venice International Film Festival (September 1—11, 2021), directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by La Biennale di Venezia.

The workshop offers the opportunity to present films still in production phase to international film professionals, in order to facilitate post-production and film market access.

The workshop consists in three days of activities (September 5^th to 7^th 2021) on the Venice Lido during the 78^th Venice Film Festival, in which the working copies of the selected films are introduced to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and film festival programmers.

Please note that the first 2 days of the workshop (September 5^th and 6^th) are devoted to the screenings, while a special one-to-one meeting session between the selected projects and the professionals attending the Venice Production Bridge on site and online will be organized on the third day, September 7^th.

The 6 work in progress films selected are:

FICTION

Under the Fig Trees by Erige Sehiri (Tunisia, Qatar, Switzerland, France)

Mami Wata by C.J. “Fiery” Obasi (Nigeria, France)

Hanging Gardens by Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji (Iraq, Palestine, United Kingdom)

DOCUMENTARY

The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir (Morocco, Germany, Qatar)

We, Students! by Rafiki Fariala (Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy)

The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder by Inadelso Cossa (Mozambique, Germany, France, Norway, The Netherlands, Portugal)

Final Cut in Venice will conclude with the awarding of prizes, in kind or in cash, for the financial support of the films in their post-production stage.
The Venice Production Bridge gratefully acknowledges OTICONS and Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) for the two new awards generously offered.

The Prizes:

For the fifth year in a row, La Biennale di Venezia will offer a cash prize of € 5.000 to the best film in post-production; La Biennale di Venezia Prize will be awarded by a jury composed of three members designated by the Festival Director. The other prizes offered by supporting companies – which include, among the many services, color correction, sound mixing, the creation of a DCP master and subtitles – will be awarded by final and irrevocable decision of the Festival Director, in conjunction with the supporting companies and the heads of the Institutions involved.
€ 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);
€ 15.000 offered by Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris) for the sound mixing of a feature length film (up to 12 days of work, sound mixer not included);
One of the selected projects will benefit from the film composers represented by OTICONS and the original score that they will create. The production of the original score will include all relevant services, such as spotting sessions/composition/orchestration/mockups/final production, of a total value of €12,000.
for a feature-length fiction film a $ 10.000 MG or for a feature-length documentary a $ 3.000 MG for marketing, publicity and distribution in the Arab World offered by MAD Solutions for one Arab project (except for projects already funded by MAD Solutions);
Titra Film (Paris) will offer up to € 5.000 for color-grading; up to € 3.000 for the production of a DCP master, or the creation of i-Tunes, Google or Netflix files; up to € 2.000 for French or English subtitles (translation not included);
up to € 7.000 for the creation of the DCP master with 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, including audio subtitles in voiceover, in Italian or English (the subtitles and the audio-described soundtrack for the DCP will be provided) offered by Sub-Ti Access Srl (Turin).
€ 5.000 for the purchase of two-year broadcasting rights by Rai Cinema;
$ 5.000 awarded to an Arab project and an invitation to participate in the CineGouna Platform offered by the El Gouna Film Festival;
€ 5.000 offered by Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) as a refund for post-production services – delivered by societies based in one of the EU or OACPS countries (except South Africa) – of a feature-length film realised by a director from one of the ACP countries and produced or co-produced by a society based in one of the ACP countries;
“Coup de cœur de la Cinémathèque Afrique” Prize, offered by Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut Français (Paris). The prize consists in the acquisition of the non-commercial and non-exclusive broadcasting rights for 7 years for a value of € 4.000 – € 6.000 depending on the genre and length of the film and the number of available territories;
participation in the production costs of a DCP (€ 2.500), offered by the Festival International du Film d’Amiens;
participation in the production costs of a DCP (€ 2.500), offered by the Festival International de Films de Fribourg;
One of the selected projects will benefit from the Eye on Films label, which will present the film to distributors and festivals affiliated with EoF and will contribute to the communication of the film for a value of € 2.500 on the occasion of its world premiere in an A-category festival.

The new brochure that gathers all the details of the selected projects for this year edition of FINAL CUT IN VENICE is already available on the section ‘VPB Programme 2021/ Downloads’ of the Venice Production Bridge Website at the following link: http://veniceproductionbridge.org/

EUROPEAN FILM FORUM

Monday, September 6, 9.30 a.m. – 11.30 a.m., Hotel Excelsior, Spazio Incontri and streamed via the VPB Website (www.veniceproductionbridge.org)

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE SCREEN INDUSTRY: FOR AN INNOVATIVE AND RESILIENT INDUSTRY.

In association with the EU’s Creative Europe MEDIA programme, La Biennale di Venezia will organise another edition of the European Film Forum that will gather key industry leaders from all over the world.

The panel will be moderated by Marjorie Paillon and there will be different contributors amongst whom, Jan Runge, Andrea Occhipinti, Rikke Ennis TBC, Roberto Viola, Massimiliano Smeriglio TBC, Nicola Borrelli TBC.

The event will be opened by Roberto Cicutto, President of La Biennale di Venezia, and by a high representative of the European Commission.

The European Film Forum will be an opportunity to look into how the audiovisual industry has adapted to the new context and how it is reinventing itself. Cinema is bouncing back and remerging stronger from the crisis, but what are the challenges and opportunities behind this recovery?

This past year has also shown the importance of public policy, of coordination and of rapid response from public institutions – hence the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility will be in the spotlight. The facility aims at mitigating the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, while enhancing resilience through promoting the green and digital transition in Europe. Measures targeting the support of the cultural and creative sectors will in turn have a stronger societal impact and help transform national and local economies.

The cultural and creative industries have innovated rapidly, experimenting cross-over between different cultural sectors and adapting themselves to new formats and models. Beyond the short-term heavy disruption, how can the current trends drive future innovation?

Sunday, September 5 and Monday, September 6

VOD Market Days:

EUROVOD from 2.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. will organize a panel tackling the state of VOD nowadays at the Hotel Excelsior, Spazio Incontri and streamed on the VPB Live Channel (www.veniceproductionbridge.org), while on the 6^th from 9.30 a.m. – 6.30 p.m around 20 European VOD platforms and companies attending the European VoD Meetings will be able to propose their services to international distributors, rights holders and AV professionals through in-person and online one-to-one meetings. In order to book the meetings a reserved area VOD Market Day will be available to Industry delegates (Gold, Trade and Online VPB) on the website.

SERVICES

Finally, the Venice Production Bridge will also continue to offer many on-site services at the 3^rd floor of the Excelsior Hotel, such as the Industry Gold Club, to support networking among the participants, an Exhibition Area and a Business Centre, equipped with computers, Internet and Wi-Fi access. The Digital Video Library for films from the official selection and other titles will this year be held online and will be open exclusively to accredited professionals through the B2B platform Festival Scope Pro. For the second year selected international panels held at the Spazio Incontri will be streamed live through the VPB website for the public. Moreover, panels organised by third parties as part of the services offered by the VPB can be streamed upon request.