Final Cut in Venice: new edition of the workshop

The Final Cut in Venice workshop (September 7 - September 9, 2020) will present a limited number of quality work-in-progress films coming from all African countries and  5 Middle East countries (Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon) and will give them the opportunity of finding the post-production financing through our supporters and the participants.

The workshop will consist in three days of activities, in which the working copies of a maximum of six selected films are introduced to producers, buyers, distributors, post-production companies and film festival programmers.

Due to the current situation the entire Final Cut in Venice programme, including the screenings, workshop and the one-to-one meetings, will take place virtually this year.

The first two days of the workshop (September 7^th and 8th) will be devoted to the screenings, which will be held on the VPB Website through the platform Festival Scope Pro. The meetings between professionals attending the Venice Production Bridge and the representatives of the projects will be organized  online on the third day, September 9th .

The 6 selected work-in-progress films of the 2020 edition:

• FICTION
HADJER(Algeria, France) by Anis Djaad, Alegria Productions
HARVEST (France, Lebanon, Belgium, Qatar, USA) by Ely Dagher, Andolfi
SOULA (Algeria, France) by Salah Issaad, Issaad Film Productions

• DOCUMENTARIES
GUARDIAN OF THE WORLDS (France, Tunisia) by Leïla Chaïbi, L’image d’après
OUR CHOICES (Syria, France, Qatar) by Salah Al Ashkar, Caractères Productions
THE BLUE INMATES (Lebanon) by Zeina Daccache, Catharsis-Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy

The workshop will come to an end with the awarding of prizes, in kind or in cash, for the financial support of the films in their post-production phase. 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 supportres 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;
• € 5,000 offered by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)  to an African or Arab film from a member-country of La Francophonie;
• Prize “Coup de cœur de la Cinémathèque Afrique”, 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 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.

The brochure with all the details of the selected projects for this year’s edition of the workshop is available at Final Cut in Venice