Final Cut in Venice: 7 work-in-progress films have been selected

The seven work-in-progress films of the 11^th edition of Final Cut in Venice have been selected. Final Cut in Venice is the industry program that has been providing since 2013 concrete support in the completion of films from all African countries and from five countries of the Middle East: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. Final Cut in Venice is one of the projects launched by the Venice Production Bridge of the 80^th Venice International Film Festival (August 30^th - September 9^th, 2023), directed by Alberto Barbera and organised by La Biennale di Venezia. The program 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 3^rd to 5^th 2023) on the Venice Lido during the 80^th Venice Film Festival, in which the working copies of the 7 selected films are introduced to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and film festival programmers.

Please note that the first 2 days of the program (September 3^rd and 4^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 will be organised on the third day, September 5^th.

In the framework of Focus on Germany, one additional film has been selected.

The 7 work-in-progress films selected are:

FICTION

• Allah is Not Obliged (Allah n'est pas obligé) by Zaven Najjar (France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Canada, USA, Slovakia) Animation
• Carissa by Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar (South Africa)
• Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti (Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar, Italy) Focus on Germany
• Life Is a Railroad (La vie est un chemin de fer) by Kevin Mavakala, Manassé Kashala, Tousmy Kilo, Isaac Sahani (Congo DR, France, Germany)

DOCUMENTARY

• Sudan, When Poems Fall Apart (Soudan retiens les chants qui s'effondrent) by Hind Meddeb (France, Tunisie)
• She Was Not Alone by Hussein Al-Asadi (Iraq, Saudi Arabia)
• Zion Music by Rama Thiaw (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Germany)

Final Cut in Venice will conclude 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 film

· For the seventh year, La Biennale di Venezia will give a prize of € 5.000 to 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 following prizes:

- € 15,000 for the colour correction of a feature-length film offered by Laser Film (Rome) for up to 50 hours of work (technician included);

- € 15,.000 offered by Studio A Fabrica (Ajaccio) 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 / mock-ups / 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 colour-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.,500 for the creation of the DCP master with Italian or English subtitles, offered by Sub-Ti Ltd. (London);

- up to € 7,.500 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 offered by Red Sea Fund (Red Sea International Film Festival);

 - € 5,000 by Rai Cinema for a first negotiation right for the acquisition of Free TV exploitation rights in the Italian territory and obligation to mention “in collaboration with Rai Cinema S.p.a.”  in the credits of the work;

- $ 5.,000 awarded to an Arab project 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.

For the second year in a row, the FCV program will benefit of the additional support of the Red Sea International Film Festival within our supporters.

The new brochure that gathers all the details of the selected projects for this year edition of FINAL CUT IN VENICE will be available on the section ‘VPB Programme 2023/ Downloads’ of the Venice Production Bridge Website at the following link: https://veniceproductionbridge.org/vpb-brochure-downloads