VENICE.- Fondazione Prada announces the opening of the call for entries for the Fondazione Prada Film Fund, the annual initiative to sustain independent cinema, on the occasion of a presentation event held at Spazio Incontri of the Venice Production Bridge at the Hotel Excelsior of the Lido di Venezia, during the 82nd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia.

The Fund, amounting to 1,5 million euros, aims to support works of high artistic value by enhancing Fondazione Prada’s twenty-year commitment in the field of cinema. The call for entries, including eligibility criteria and application procedure, is available on fondazioneprada.org and submissions will be accepted until 17 October 2025.

As stated by Miuccia Prada, President and Director of the Fondazione, “Cinema is for us a laboratory for new ideas and a space of cultural education. For this reason, we have decided to actively contribute to the realization of new works and to the support of independent cinema. For over twenty years, Fondazione Prada has been investigating these languages in different ways, thus advocating a free, demanding, and visionary idea of cinema. Through this Fund we intend to deepen and broaden a dialogue with creation and contemporary experimentation.”

According to Paolo Moretti, Head of Fondazione Prada Film Fund, “This project represents a natural evolution of Fondazione Prada’s activities in the field of cinema, which over the years have included film restoration and collaboration with international directors. The aim is to provide concrete support for creating works with high artistic value that often lack a place in market dynamics, but are fully consistent with the research that Fondazione Prada has been pursuing for over twenty years.”

Each year, ten to twelve feature films will be selected without any restriction on geography, theme, genre, or language. The decision will be based exclusively on criteria such as quality, originality, and vision, with the intent to support directors, screenwriters, and producers across the three crucial phases of filmmaking: development, production, and post-production.

With an efficient and effective approach, the Fund intends to integrate seamlessly into the complex productive processes of contemporary cinema. The financial contribution, up to 250,000 euros for each project, will be provided to the main production company as a strategic support to realize the film. Access to the call is reserved for production companies that can demonstrate reliability in resource management and ensure transparent and responsible use of funds. There will also be monitoring activities on the correct financial management, production quality, and alignment of the final work with the original proposal.

After a preliminary check to ensure applications meet the requirements, projects will go undergo two evaluation phases: an initial review by readers, followed by a final selection from an international committee composed of prominent figures from the film and cultural scene. The selected projects will be announced between January and February 2026.

Fondazione Prada Film Fund is a project developed by Paolo Moretti—curator of Fondazione Prada’s Cinema Godard program, director of the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival from 2018 to 2022, head of the Cinema department at ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne), and Director of Cinémas du Grütli in Geneva—in collaboration with Rebecca De Pas, Project Manager of Fondazione Prada Film Fund, member of the selection committee at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, art consultant for the Viennale, and co-director of FiDLab—an international coproduction platform—from 2009 to 2019.

The Fund stems from an ambitious cultural vision and editorial autonomy developed in dialogue with a group of internationally known consultants active in the fields of film programming, curatorship, production, writing, criticism: Violeta Bava, programmer and producer; Paolo Bertolin, film curator and artistic director of New Zealand International Film Festival; Émilie Bujès, artistic director of Festival Visions du Réel; Michelle Carey, consultant for international festivals and former director of Melbourne International Film Festival; Deepti D’Cunha, programmer and former artistic director of MAMI Mumbai Film Festival; Claire Diao, critic and programmer, founder of Sudu Connexion distribution company; Sergio Fant, selector and curator for European festivals; Evgeny Gusyatinskiy, programmer and critic; Daniela Persico, programmer, critic and director of the Bellaria Film Festival; Alessandra Speciale, curator and director of the FESCAAAL; Yaoting Zhang, producer.