Venice Biennale College selects 12 projects

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Up to three low-budget features will be greenlit from the 12 selections.

La Biennale di Venezia has unveiled the 12 projects selected for the third round of the Biennale College - Cinema programme.

They attended the first workshop in Venice from Oct 4-13. Further workshops will be held in December and January, and up to three of the features will be greenlit to screen at the Venice International Film Festival in 2015.

The College has backed previous low-budget features including Memphis, Short Skin and Blood Cells.

The group of participants hail from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, France,, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Sri Lanka, the US and the UK.

The selections, with information provided by the Biennale, are:

Baby Bump – Kuba Czekaj (director, Poland), Madgadalena Kaminska (producer, Poland): a story centred on the fear of puberty and the sexual transformation of an eleven-year-old. As his body changes, a dark and fantastic world begins to take hold of his life.
Be Wildebeest – Simon Price (director, New Zealand), Georgina Allison-Conder (producer, New Zealand): as he obsessively shoots scenes from his infant son’s daily life, a director must learn to let go of the things he loves most – his son, his film and even his own life.
Blanka – Kohki Hasei (director, Japan), Flaminio Zadra (producer, Italy): an eleven-year-old girl abandoned by her mother decides to ‘buy’ a new one, only to discover that a family is composed of those who love you.
Fazenda Do Riberão Do Qüeba – Helvecio Marins Jr. (director, Brazil), Eliane Ferreira (producer, Brazil): a film about a forgotten and neglected side of Brazil, about life in the country, so difficult but filled with love for the land. A film that shows what can happen when the men who live on it lose that land itself.
Guarda in Alto – Fulvio Risuleo (director, Italy), Donatello Della Pepa (producer, Italy): a community lives on the rooftops of Rome with its own rules and customs. “Guarda in Alto” is the journey of a young man who sets out to discover this parallel world.
La Mujer Despierta – Martin Morgenfeld (director, Argentina), Melanie Shapiro (producer, Argentina): a young teacher in a particular emotional state leaves her life in Buenos Aires behind to embark on a journey towards her home town in the south of Argentina.
Peacock Lamenting – Sanjeewa Pushpakumara (director, Sri Lanka), Antonin Dedet (producer, France): would you give up your soul to save the life of a person you love? In an isolated village in today’s Sri Lanka, fifteen-year-old Asanka must answer that question for the good of his eleven-year-old sister Inoka. It leads him and his seven siblings into the capital, where they must face a very harsh reality.
The Drunk – André Marques (director, Portugal), Rodrigo Areias (producer, Portugal): as he looks back at his life’s failure, Rogério drinks until he loses control of his actions and ends up in a brawl at the bar. His alcoholic spree leads him towards the city’s port, where he falls asleep watching the ships go by. When a young girl appears in the night, perhaps escaping from something, Rogério offers to help her and is drawn into a nightmare he could never have imagined would become his own.
The Father – Kristina Grozeva (director, Bulgaria), Petar Valchanov (producer, Bulgaria): the day after Ivanka’s funeral, her husband and son discover that the deceased woman continues to call her neighbour’s mobile phone. Could it be a supernatural phenomenon? Or just a technical malfunction, that nevertheless ends up soothing the sense of guilt that the two men felt over the woman’s death, and helps them to rediscover their own relationship?
The Fits – Anna Rose Holmer (director, US), Lisa Kjerulff (producer, US): a coming-of-age story that explores the metamorphosis of thirteen-year-old Toni at the time her body begins to betray her. When a mysterious fainting spell strikes all the other girls in her tight-knit dance group, Toni must face her own inner demons in her attempt to adapt.
There Was Las Vegas – Alexandre Castres (director, France), Elie Meirovitz (producer, France): Sally, a transsexual who has just returned to her Mexican fishing village after working as a prostitute in Las Vegas for 15 years, wants to become a man again and be accepted by her family. But when night falls, she can’t help herself, and dresses like a woman to go to the local bar… Will she be able to keep up this double life or will she eventually have to make a decision?
Through and Through – Eleanor Burke (director, UK), Ron Eval (director, US) [pictured] Lucas Joaquin (producer, US): a one-night stand in a seedy London bar forces a husband hurt deep in his soul to reconsider the segregated life he has built for himself taking care of his wife, a stroke victim.