The Locarno Film Festival’s Locarno Pro industry strand on Sunday unveiled the winners of its industry awards, including its First Look works-in-progress section focusing on projects on the verge of completion, the co-development program Alliance 4 Development, the Antaviana Spanish Previews Award, and the third Heritage Restoration Contest.
The winners were unveiled during the Locarno Pro Award Ceremony on Sunday. The promising feature film projects that competed for the First Look awards were from this year’s focus country, Canada.
The First Look awards were handed out by an international jury comprised of Franck Finance-Madureira, film critic and president/founder of the Queer Palm and the Queer Palm Lab, Kim Yutani, director of programming at the Sundance Film Festival, and Jacqueline Lyanga, co-director of film programming at the Berlin International Film Festival.
The 78th edition of the Locarno festival runs until Aug. 16.
Check out the full list of Locarno Pro winners below.
FIRST LOOK
Urban Post First Look Award , up to €50,000 ($58,220) in post-production services .
Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, produced by Colonelle films (Canada), co-produced by Umi Films (Italy), Echo Bravo (Belgium), Ginger Light (Bulgaria), Premier Studio (Bulgaria), Sales agent Best Friend Forever, Fiction.
Synopsis: “A viral video of an 8-year-old Bulgarian artist catches the eye of a major art collector, and Mihail is sent there, 30 years after leaving his home country, to assess the value of the girl’s work and confront ghosts from his past.”
Jury statement: “This film stood out for its beautiful integration of music and art, its performances, and a captivating narrative that explores identity, exile, and the idea of home and family.”
Music Library &SFX/Acorde Award , €45,000 ($52,400) in music supervision services at Music Library & SFX’s labs.
Thanks to the Hard Work of the Elephants by Bryce Hodgson, produced by Coukuma (Canada) and Harrington Studio (Canada), fiction.
Synopsis: “Based on a true story… Elephants is a queer love fantasy that follows two teenage boys who escape an abusive youth lockdown center while high on LSD. They steal the center’s van and drive 400 kilometers to a big-box store parking lot, determined to start an alternative youth commune in a nearby suburban forest.”
Cineground Award , CHF15,000 ($18,533) in image finishing services.
Lunar Sway by Nick Butler, produced by Cloudy Pictures (Canada), Fiction
Synopsis: “Cliff is an eccentric, young man living in the small desert town of Mooncrest, looking for love in all the wrong places. His life is shaken up with the unexpected arrival of his estranged birth mother, Marg, a steely, misfit who reminds him of himself. But she brings with her a range of dangerous consequences, sending Cliff on a wild misadventure he never saw coming.”
Jannuzzi Smith Award , the design of an international poster worth €10,000 ($11,645).
Nina Roza by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, produced by Colonelle films (Canada), coproduced by Umi Films (Italy), Echo Bravo (Belgium), Ginger Light (Bulgaria), Premier Studio (Bulgaria), sales agent: Best Friend Forever, fiction.
Le Film Français Award , €5,600 ($6,520) of advertising space .
Lunar Sway by Nick Butler, produced by Cloudy Pictures (Canada), Fiction
SPANISH PREVIEWS
Antaviana Spanish Previews Award , a voucher worth €10,000 ($11,645), including editing rooms, color grading suites, sound mix rooms, and final deliveries.
Lóngquán: The Dragon Spring (Lóngquán: el Manantial del Dragón) by Adrià Guxens, produced by La Charito Films (Spain), co-produced by Anna Moragriega Farrés (Pausa Dramática Films, Spain).
Synopsis: “During the Lunar New Year celebrations, Junyi, a young Catalan of Chinese descent, gets a
call from his Mom: his grandmother has suddenly fallen ill and wants to see him. Though he barely remembers her, Junyi sets off on a journey that will make him question his roots and his increasingly blurred sense of identity.”
ALLIANCE 4 DEVELOPMENT
Masé Studio Award , CHF3,000 ($3,706) cash voucher.
Chocolat amer (Dark Chocolate) by Valentin Merz, produced by Marie Lanne-Chesnot (Andrea Film, Switzerland).
Synopsis: “Sadek, a young Tunisian, delivers pralines for a chocolate factory in Zurich. He likes to spend his free time playing roulette at the casino. When Jean-Charles Perret and his elegant mother recognize Sadek’s taste for chocolate and wealth, they pull him into their enchanted world, just as a devastating fungus threatens the cacao supply. As he climbs the uncanny factory’s hierarchy, Sadek is put to work on developing synthetic chocolate, while his face and identity begin to mutate. Meanwhile, eerie creatures lurk in the city streets, waiting for him.”
Masé Studio Post-Production Award , CHF25,000 ($30,886) in post-production services .
Im Verborgenen (In the Hidden) by Goran Rebić, produced by Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu and Bady Minck (Amour Fou Vienna and Amour Fou Luxembourg).
Synopsis: “1934, 1944, 1956. A woman — mother, friend, lover — between times, systems, and identities. The life of Eva, a social democratic activist, gets off the rails when civil war disrupts pre-fascist Vienna: Her young sons in foreign exile, her husband on the run, Eva keeps secretly fighting for her ideals and hides people in threat of national socialist persecution. Against all repression and odds, a love affair begins to blossom while the Red Army finally approaches Austria. A century’s fate, based on a true story.”
Masé Studio Post-Production Special Award , CHF10,000 ($11,645) in post-production services at the Masé studios, valid for five years .
Neige (Snow) by Jenna Hasse, produced by Olivier Zobrist (Langfilm, Switzerland).
Synopsis: “Alma, a pianist in a personal crisis, gets stuck in a luxury hotel in Zermatt during Christmas. The lack of snow wears down the wealthy guests, while the hotel desperately tries to give them the illusion of a perfect festive season. Amidst luxury, artificial snow, and encounters with hotel guests and employees, Alma slowly finds her way back to herself – and to music.”
Alphapanda Market Breakout Award, consultancy services in the value of €3,500 ($4,075) .
Das Blühen einer Chimäre (The Flowering of a Chimera) by Simon Maria Kubiena, produced by Elli Leeb & Fabian Leonhardt (Chimera Film, Austria).
Synopsis: “After a dark event, Jakob, recently turned 18, drops out of school and starts to work in a factory for pesticides close to Vienna. Meanwhile, his family grows increasingly distant from him. They are unable to face what happened, and isolating Jakob allows them to maintain fake harmony. Things start to change when he forms an unusual connection with Marius, a factory colleague who is over 30 years older than him. But as the two of them draw closer, Jakob‘s past rises to the surface.”
Alphapanda statement: “This is a radical film that explores rarely addressed topics in order to dig deep into the human soul. Thanks to a talented director with a clear artistic vision, we are convinced that this film will have a strong impact, both on audiences and on the industry. We look forward to seeing it on a big screen at a major festival very soon.”
Special Mention
Primo Viaggio by Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman, produced by Nanni Moretti and Benedetta Barroero (Sacher Film, Italy).
Synopsis: “Carlo, a 22-year-old from Naples who lives alone with his grandfather, accepts a free vacation to Malaga in exchange for driving a car full of narcotics back to Italy. But the eye-opening experiences he has while in Spain, both with his criminal handlers and an attractive young French woman, make him question his decisions and lead him on a detour that will change his life forever.”
Script Consultancy Residency at DreamAgo offered by the Valais Film Commission , worth CHF5,000 ($6,177).
Najma et Salomé (Najma and Salomé) by Anne Zinn-Justin, produced by Clémentine Mourão-Ferreira (so-cle, France) .
Synopsis: “Salomé, a nurse in her 40s, lives alone with her 8-year-old daughter Emma in a rural town. One of her patients, Marthe, a winegrower suffering from pulmonary disease, dies accidentally during a burglary. Authorities conclude that it was an accidental fall, but Marthe’s daughter, Najma, refuses to accept her mother’s death. Looking for answers, she drags a reluctant Salomé along on a quest which will lead them to uncover pollution that local economic players are trying to hide…”
Pascale Rey of DreamAgo and Tristan Albrecht from the Valais Film Commission state: “A village with two communities that don’t really get along sees its future threatened by recurring illnesses. This is the starting point for an alliance between two women determined to shed light on these strange events. DreamAgo and the Valais Film Commission are delighted to offer screenwriter and director Anne Zinn-Justin a script doctoring session with Sir Christopher Hampton for her project Najma and Salomé — a story with the feel of a firmly rooted modern western that resonates in a universal way!”
MidPoint Consulting Award , an in-depth online script consultancy with one of the MidPoint Institute experts.
Das Blühen einer Chimäre (The Flowering of a Chimera) by Simon Maria Kubiena, produced by Elli Leeb & Fabian Leonhardt (Chimera Film, Austria)
MidPoint states: “MidPoint Institute is proud to support a project that dares to explore the complex aftermath of violence without judgment, offering a path toward understanding and healing. For its courageous thematic approach, emotional depth, and promise of a distinct new voice in cinema, the MidPoint Consulting Award goes to Das Blühen einer Chimäre (The Flowering of a Chimera).”
Ticino Film Commission Residence Award , a two-day location scout worth CHF4,000 ($4,942) and Letter of Intent (LOI) for financial support for the production company worth up to CHF12,000 ($14,825), if all or part of the film will be shot in Ticino.
Solastalgia by Yosr Gasmi and Mauro Mazzocchi, produced by Ivan Casagrande Conti, Tommaso Santambrogio (Chiotto Film, Italy) and ismaël (Utopia Films, Tunisia).
Synopsis: “Aurora-Héla is a young Italian-Tunisian shepherdess with androgynous features. She lives on a mountain at the foot of Fellaria, a glacier that is irreversibly melting. While the construction of a dam threatens her community of shepherds and artists, Aurora is forced to return to her native village to bury her father’s amputated foot. From the Alps to the lunar mountains of southern Tunisia, her ritual journey weaves symbolic and geological connections between the two shores of the Mediterranean.”
Jury statement: “Here in our very own region, in Ticino, we know only too well the lingering feeling that accompanies the changing of our landscape, the gradual loss of glaciers and the places we used to visit or inhabit. For this reason, we’re happy to be able to support a duo of talented young filmmakers by helping them find the best locations to express their singular vision of Solastalgia.”
LOCARNO HERITAGE RESTORATION CONTEST
Letter From My Village (1975) by Safi Faye
