Venice Topper Barbera Puts Emphasis on Emerging Talent With Biennale College
Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentLast year, the small Southern African nation of Lesotho entered the Academy Awards race for the first time with Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” one of 28 features spawned over the past decade by Biennale College — Cinema, the workshop created by Alberto Barbera for emerging filmmakers to develop and produce micro-budget feature-length films.The College was conceived by Barbera in tandem with Torino Film Lab topper Savina Neirotti, who also heads the unique Venice initiative.Instead of backing just one aspect of the filmmaking process, this lab shepherds movies through their entire production cycle, working closely with director-producer teams on their