Since 2015 the Biennale College panel has met annually, skipping 2020 due to Covid. Each year the College reviews over a thousand proposals and awards €250,000 to four filmmaking teams comprising directors and their producing partners. Selected teams workshop in Venice and are required to deliver finished films to the festival ten months later. The program favors films with strong perspectives and distinctive voices that mainstream outlets may overlook. Past College projects include Anna Rose Holmer's The Fits and Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese's This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection, which gained international acclaim. The panel is convened by Peter Cowie and includes longtime critics, new members, and program head Savina Neirotti providing context.
Since 2015, with 2020 skipped on account of Covid, I've been honored to participate in the Biennale College panel. Every year, after going through over a thousand proposals, the College awards 250,000 Euros to, in this year's case, four filmmakers. Or eight, rather-directors and their producing partners. After workshopping in Venice for a spell, they are sent out to deliver finished films to the festival ten months hence.
The program has always presented films with strong perspectives, individual voices that aren't always well-presented by the mainstream, etcetera. I remember one of the first College films I saw, Anna Rose Holmer's " The Fits," zapped me right between the eyes. And of course Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese's galvanic " This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection " went from the College to international acclaim, and a Criterion edition.
I have to say though, this year it has outdone itself. The films are all outstanding, nothing to quibble about or take issue with. In the past, I'd have bones or nits to pick with the filmmakers, who I and the other panelists would meet at a conference in person at the Biennale. This year all I could do was offer them my heartiest thanks and congratulations. They seemed to take it well.
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