Final Cut in Venice: call for projects now open for the 8th edition / Announcing the workshop to support films

La Biennale di Venezia /
77th Venice International Film Festival /
Venice Production Bridge

Final Cut in Venice: call for projects now open for the 8th edition /
Announcing the workshop to support films
from Africa and the Middle East
a hotbed for talents and awards at international festivals

Venice, April 6th 2020. – The call for projects opens today for the eighth edition of the Final Cut in Venice workshop, which will take place from September 5th to 7th 2020 as part of the Venice Production Bridge of the 77th Venice International Film Festival (2 – 12 September 2020).

Since 2013, Final Cut in Venice offers concrete assistance to complete quality films from Africa, as well as Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The eighth edition of Final Cut in Venice will present in Venice – in the course of a three-day workshop (to be held September 5th through 7th) during the 77th Venice Film Festival –up to a maximum of six working copies of films-in-progress, giving them the opportunity to find funding for the post-production phase in meetings with producers, buyers, distributors and film festival programmers.

Over the course of its seven years of activity, Final Cut in Venice has proven to be a unique opportunity to highlight works and talents from underprivileged and little-known film industries, celebrating their diversity and creativity and contributing to their success at international film festivals. Among the many cases, Final Cut 2016 featured the debut in Venice with the documentary Obscure, of Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan, who went on to win the Lion of the Future 2018 for The Day I Lost My Shadow. Then Freedom Fields (Final Cut 2017), the first feature-length documentary by a Lybian director, Naziha Arebi, won the Bafta. Félicité (Final Cut 2017) by French-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis, won the Silver Bear – Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. And Talking about trees (Final Cut 2018) by Sudanese director Suhaib Gasmelbari, won the Original Documentary Award and Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Over the past seven years, Final Cut in Venice has received submissions of over 400 works-in-progress and has selected and presented 40 of them in Venice.

To participate in the 8th Final Cut in Venice, fill in the pre-selection online entry form available on the website www.labiennale.org, and send the materials to the email address finalcut@labiennale.org on or before June 12th 2020.

The 77th Venice Film Festival, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by La Biennale di Venezia chaired by Roberto Cicutto, will be held on the Lido from September 2nd to 12th 2020.

The Prizes for Final Cut in Venice
Final Cut in Venice will end with the awarding of prizes in kind or in cash, the purpose of which is to provide economic support for the post-production phase of the films.
The following is the list of prizes:
•    for the fourth year La Biennale di Venezia will give a prize of € 5,000 for the best film in post-production. The La Biennale di Venezia Prize will be attributed by a jury composed of three members named by the Festival Director, while the other prizes will be awarded by final and irrevocable decision of the Festival Director, in conjunction with the project supporters, the heads of the institutions, and the service companies providing the prizes. The other prizes will be confirmed and communicated later, based upon availability of the subjects and supporters 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);
• up to € 15,000 offered by Mactari Mixing Auditorium (Paris) for the sound mixing of a feature length film (up to 12 days of work, sound re-recording mixer not included);
• for feature fiction projects an MG of $10,000 or for feature documentary projects an MG of $3,000 for marketing, publicity and distribution in the Arab World for one Arab project, offered by MAD Solutions (except for projects already attached to MAD Solutions).
• up to € 5,000 for color-grading; up to € 3,000 for the production of a DCP master, i-Tunes, Google or Netflix files; up to € 2,000 for French or English subtitles (translation not included), 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 awarded to one of the Arab projects and an invitation to participate in the industry platform CineGouna offered by the El Gouna Film Festival;
•    Prize “Coup de cœur de la Cinémathèque Afrique”, offered by Cinémathèque Afrique of the Institut Français (Paris). The prize consist of the acquisition of the non commercial and non exclusive broadcasting rights for 7 years with a value of € 4,000 – 6,000 depending on the genre, length and available territories of the film;
• 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 films will have the possibility to benefit from the Eye on Films label, that will present the film to distributors and festivals affiliated to EoF and will contribute to the communication of the film for a value of € 2,500 during its world premiere in an A-category festival.

Final Cut in Venice, along with the Venice Gap-Financing Market and the Book Adaptation Rights Market, is one of the initiatives offered by the Venice Production Bridge, the film market of the Venice International Film Festival which is conceived as an opportunity for meeting and networking with all categories of professionals involved in the production of films: producers, financiers, distributors, sales agents, public and private investment funds, banks, film commissions, broadcasters, Internet platforms.

Venice, April 6th 2020
    

For further information
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