Fondazione Prada Film Fund makes its Venice debut with "The Difficult Bride" The film by Rubaiyat Hossain, supported by the fund, is competing in the Horizons section of the Film Festival
One year after the launch of its Film Fund, Fondazione Prada reaches the Venice Film Festival with a first major milestone. The Difficult Bride, the new feature film by Bangladeshi director Rubaiyat Hossain and one of the 14 films selected in the fund's first edition, has been chosen to compete in the Orizzonti section. Selected from over 1,200 submissions received from around the world, the film is the first title supported by the Film Fund to reach a major international festival.
With a total annual endowment of €1.5 million, the Fondazione Prada Film Fund finances independent feature films at the development, production and post-production stages, providing up to €250,000 per project, open to all genres and all geographic regions. The Venice selection confirms Miuccia Prada's commitment to supporting original projects and continuing to invest in cinematic research, while Paolo Moretti, Head of the Fondazione Prada Film Fund, sees it as the first step in a journey he hopes to see repeated with the other titles. The second call for entries closes on 10 September, with selected projects to be announced in February 2027.
The Difficult Bride follows Zaineen, a young woman on the verge of marriage in present-day Dhaka, who, while planning the wedding she has always dreamed of, begins to lose complete control of her own body. Social conventions, beauty rituals and supernatural elements become intertwined, transforming the anticipation of marriage into a journey toward freedom.
Rubaiyat Hossain is a director, screenwriter and researcher born in Bangladesh in 1981 who has worked alongside women's rights organisations and has previously directed Meherjaan, Under Construction and Made in Bangladesh. The film is a co-production between France, Bangladesh, Portugal, Norway and Germany, involving Les Films de l'Après-Midi, Midas Filmes, Khona Talkies, Barentsfilm and Tandem Productions, while international distribution is handled by Films Boutique.