The Venice Film Festival is not only the oldest film festival in the world, but also one of the most prestigious. The Biennale College Cinema, created in 2013 by the festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera, and the Torino Film Lab leader, Savina Neirotti, is, however, less well known.
The Biennale College Cinema is a grant program that discovers and mentors 12 feature film projects that are presented by first or second-time directors at a two-week workshop in Venice. Each year, up to four projects get fully funded with a $200,000 grant, and the program guides the movies through their entire production cycle, which concludes with a world premiere during the following year's Venice Film Festival.
The Sag Harbor Cinema will pay tribute to the grant program on Saturday at 7 p.m. with the local premiere of "The Cathedral," a film directed by Ricky D'Ambrose that was inspired by his childhood on Long Island. A multigenerational story that follows one family's rise and fall over decades, as seen through the eyes of its youngest member, the film won the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for 2023.
The screening will be followed by a conversation with Mr. D'Ambrose, Mr. Barbera, and Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan, the Sag Harbor Cinema's founding artistic director.
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film "A movie filled with restrained feeling and shimmers of beauty," and Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it "juxtaposes remembered interactions and still-life shots with a deliberate, elliptical precision, the minor-key notes building to a chord that resounds with the ache of lost time and unexpressed emotions."
" 'The Cathedral' is probably my favorite among the films the festival's grant program has produced," said Ms. D'Agnolo Vallan, who has served as U.S. programmer and selection committee member of the Venice Film Festival since 2008. "Showcasing the work of a very talented emerging local filmmaker and hosting the director of one of the most respected festivals in the world will make for a special evening."
