Venice Market Kicks Off With Buzzy Indie Projects, Looks at Indigenous Cinema for First Time
The enduring strength of family bonds amid ecological mayhem and fears wreaked on humanity by ongoing wars are the standout themes among more than 60 projects being unveiled at the Venice Production Bridge gap-financing market which kicks off Aug. 29.
As examples of this trend, Pascal Diot, who heads the VPB, as the Lido’s indie film market is known, cited Polish director and anthropologist Aga Woszczyńska’s “Blackwater,” which involves two brothers and their partners who become trapped by an ecological catastrophe on a Baltic sea island; and Yegor Troyanovsky’s doc “Cuba & Alaska,” which follows military paramedics from Cuba and Alaska as they risk their lives in war-torn eastern Ukraine.
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All projects showcased at the Venice Gap Financing Market must have at least 70% of their funding in place.
Even before the market started, buzz has been building on several VPB titles, including “Blackwater” and Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “No Good Men,” a romantic comedy set inside a Kabul newsroom during the democratic era, before the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Diot said this year’s attendance level, which amounts to roughly 3,000 accredited attendees, is on a par with the 2023 VPB edition’s surging numbers. As is customary, the bulk of film execs are making the trek to the Lido are from Europe and Latin America. There is also a robust contingent of Asians, since Japan is one of the countries in focus. But the Chinese presence has shrunk, possibly due to tighter censorship. From the Arab world, Saudi Arabia features prominently. The North American presence is small.
For the second consecutive year, the VPB is hosting a Ukrainian Day, where producers seek co-production opportunities despite the ongoing war with Russia.
In what marks a first, the VPB is turning its attention to Indigenous cinema with a panel titled “The Rise of the Circumpolar Screen Industry: International Models, Collaboration and Innovation in the Far North,” which will explore funding models championed by the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund, the Sami Film Institute and Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office.
“Indigenous cinema is quite marginalized on the festivals and market circuit,” said Diot, who noted that it’s a space he intends to dedicate even more attention to going forward.
The 11th edition of the Venice Production Bridge will run Aug. 29-Sept. 3
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