Masterclasses and more on the Lido with Céline Sciamma, Alessandro Camon, and Edgar Reitz

Once again, Giornate degli Autori is the place to be for audiences who want to hear from the leading lights of film and television. Three events revolve around as many film figures as they share the creative process behind stories for the big and small screen – educational experiences for audiences and film students alike, courtesy of the Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and a collaboration with Isola Edipo. Masterclasses look at films from the script to the finished product; from a film’s solo conception to the teamwork of the cinematographers, editors, and musicians involved in fleshing it out. The maestros for the masterclasses will be the French female filmmaker and writer, Céline Sciamma; screenwriter Alessandro Camon, a Paduan transplanted to Los Angeles, and German film icon Edgar Reitz.

The Sala Laguna, outlier venue for Giornate degli Autori and Isola Edipo, will host the talk series with world-class filmmakers, open to both Venice Film Festival audiences and film school students.

Céline Sciamma, president of the 27 Times Cinema jury, will talk about her craft as director and screenwriter of films such as Tomboy (2011), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), and My Life as a Courgette (2016).

Screenwriter Alessandro Camon, whose credits include the Silver Bear at Berlin and an Oscar® nomination for The Messenger (2009), will discuss his career in film on the occasion of the world premiere of The Listener, closing film at Giornate degli Autori 2022, directed by Steve Buscemi.

Edgar Reitz, leading exponent of German film, whose career spans two centuries, meets festival audiences to present the restored version of his series Heimat 2, the first two fully restored episodes of which will be screened, thirty years after the series’ premiere.

“Meeting the artists has always been a hallmark of Giornate,” explain Artistic Director Gaia Furrer and General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti, “and turning our space into a veritable hothouse of ideas is de rigueur for anyone who handles independent cinema today. The dialogue between established film figures and film students plants the seeds of the film production of tomorrow and fuels the enthusiasm of all those who dream of coming to Venice one day as artists in their own right.”

“We are particularly pleased,” declares Marta Donzelli, President of the Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, “to be working again with Giornate. It represents another important milestone for the Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in broadening the curriculum and reinforcing the international ties of the National Film School, Italy’s leading breeding ground for filmmakers of the future. The masterclasses provide a quite practical look at the work of the master filmmakers invited, through concrete examples and anecdotes from the set. The recordings of these masterclasses will feed into new e-learning tools currently being designed.”

The collaboration between Giornate degli Autori and CSC – The National Film School is rounded out by an initiative promoted by BNL BNP Paribas: BNL x Cinema del futuro, an award carrying a cash prize of €3,000 for a first or second film selected from among the titles in competition at Giornate degli Autori. In fact, it will be 5 CSC students to make up the jury that will bestow this accolade on a work distinguished for its inherent courage and innovation.

The masterclass with Céline Sciamma will be held in Sala Laguna on September 7th at 12 noon. There will be two talks on September 8th, once again in Sala Laguna: with Alessandro Camon at 12 noon and Edgar Reitz at 4 pm, the latter of which to be followed by the screening of Heimat 2, Herman (episode 1) and Juan (episode 2).