The 2021 Venice Film Festival will premiere a new festival sidebar, the Orizzonti Extra, a selection of experimental works that will replace the current Sconfini section.
The new sidebar, as its title suggests, will be complementary to Venice’s Orizzonti competition selection but will focus on “new trends in world cinema” and be geared towards new and up-and-coming directors. Films for the Orizzonti Extra sidebar must be at least 60 minutes long but there are otherwise no restrictions in terms of length, style or genre, the festival said.
The Venice audience will judge the selection and award a prize for best film.
Venice on Monday opened official registration for its 2021 event, which will run September 1-11. The festival will consider films that have been completed after September 12, 2020 that have not been presented in any form, even as a work-in-progress, for any section in previous editions of the Venice fest.
Due to the unique situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Venice said it would consider films completed before Sept. 12, 2020, provided they had not been completed before Sept. 7, 2019 and provided they were not previously submitted, and rejected, for the 2020 festival and that they have not been available for commercial distribution or exhibition online.
Venice will be accepting submissions until June 11, or until May 31 for VR projects for the Venice VR Expanded section.
