FeatureLab 2018

FeatureLab focuses on artistic & creative aspects as well as on production & promotion strategies in the development of 1^st and 2^nd fiction feature films. It is aimed at teams of scriptwriter, director and producer working on projects that are already at an advanced stage. The programme takes place over a period of 6 months.

10 projects are selected to benefit from individually tailored tools. Participants first gather for a 2-day festival, including the screening of their previous works and the first group sessions. The following days are dedicated to individual encounters with various trainers, who are internationally experienced in the main areas of filmmaking: alongside having script consultations, the participants work with experts from the fields of directing, cinematography, sound, post-production, but also of production, financing & sales, and audience engagement. This diversity of approaches helps the teams to boost the project development process throughout their participation in the programme. The writers and directors then join a week-long writing residency to focus on their script and reflect on the ideas developed during the previous week.

A final presentation of the projects during the TFL Meeting Event in November concludes and completes the training and development process: all participants present their projects publicly to an audience of international producers, sales agents and other film industry professionals, have one-to-one meetings with Decision Makers, and are granted visibility thanks to the TFL Catalogue.  Moreover, the projects are assessed by an international Jury awarding production and co-production grants, and compete for a variety of collateral awards (for further details see the pages dedicated to Funding > Production support and Funding > Collateral prizes).

TorinoFilmLab is glad to announce the partnerships with Fondazione Sardegna Film Commission, who will also host the 1st residential workshop, and with BEKRAF – Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy. Thanks to this last partnership, FeatureLab will welcome 1 project from Indonesia, whose full participation in the programme will be supported by the above-mentioned institution.

FeatureLab is dedicated to creative teams of writer, director and producer from all over the world, developing a 1^st or 2^nd fiction feature film project.

Conditions of eligibility:
- the project must be the director’s 1^st or 2^nd feature film;
- at least a first draft of the script must be ready when applying;
- shooting must not begin earlier than December, 1^st 2018.

Applicants must confirm their full availability for all the workshop and the final TFL Meeting Event.

The working language of all workshops, meetings and events is English; thus, a good knowledge of English is essential in order to participate.

Participation fee: 3.000 Euro per team of 2 people (extra fee of 2.000 Euro if a co-writer also attends the programme).

This amount covers workshop training, on-line sessions, accommodation and subsistence during the workshop & TFL Meeting Event. Participants must pay travel costs. In many countries scholarships are available for this training.

A number of partial scholarships, covering tuition costs, will be assigned to participants coming from European low audiovisual capacity countries according to Creative Europe – MEDIA criteria*.

^{* Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine.}

The requested materials – to be submitted all together in one PDF, and all in English – are:

1) Synopsis – 1 page max.*
2) Intention note – 3 pages max.*
3) Script*
4) Audio-visual references
5) Web links to previous film(s) of the director
6) Biographies of writer, director & producer
7) Production company profile – 3 pages max.
8) Detailed budget (Euro) & financing plan – including structure of co-production (names & countries of companies, and percentages of financing from each country) according to the form
9) Development/production timetable
10) Marketing & distribution strategy – 3 pages max.

* Additionally, the synopsis, the intention note and the script can be submitted in original language in a separate PDF document (N.B. Members of our reading committee are able to read in French, German, Italian and Spanish). Please note that this is optional, but all materials should in any case be provided in English.

The applications will be assessed by FeatureLab Selection Committee, composed by:

Clara Royer (France)
Scriptwriter
Clara Royer is a renowned novelist, scriptwriter and translator. She graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure (France) and is developing her academic career between Paris and Prague, where she heads the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences. She published her first novel, CSILLAG, in 2011 and started to collaborate with TFL Alumni László Nemes shortly after. She co-wrote his first feature film SON OF SAUL, awarded at Cannes Film Festival 2015 and winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as his second feature film SUNSET, developed within TorinoFilmLab (Script&Pitch 2012 and FrameWork 2015) and currently in post-production.

Maartje Alders (Netherlands)
Producer, Training
Maartje Alders has over 10 years of experience in the industry of cinema. She is specialized in documentary and Arab cinema. She co-wrote and produced the documentary UM GHAYEB: MOTHER OF THE UNBORN (Egypt) by Nadine Salib and line-produced the TV Mini-Series documentary DROOMLAND AMERIKA. She is involved in NISI MASA training programmes and recently collaborated with TorinoFilmLab on the organization of FeatureLab and SeriesLab workshops.

Marko Škop (Slovakia)
Writer/Director, Producer
Marko Škop made his debut in cinema with the documentary OTHER WORLD, awarded with the Special Mention of the Jury at the 2006 Karlovy Vary IFF and the first ever documentary in the festival history to win the Audience Award. He developed its first fiction feature within the TFL programme FrameWork 2013: EVA NOVÁ tells the story of a fallen movie star who fights hard to stay sober and make amends with her estranged son. The movie premiered in the “Discovery” section at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, winning the FIPRESCI Prize. Beside his work as writer/director, Marko is also active in production (ICE MOTHER by Bohdan Sláma, among others). He is currently shooting his second feature film as a writer and producer, expected to be released in early 2019.

The FeatureLab Reading Committee will be composed of Amra Bakšic Camo, Erica Barbiani Philippe Barrière, Pamela Biénzobas, Danka Krasnohorská, Franz Rodenkirchen & Francesco Giai Via.

Please click on the "Apply Now!" button in the right-side column of this page to access the on-line application form and submit your project. Before starting the application process, you will need to create an account on the TFL Visitor Page.

Deadline for applications: March 1^st, 2018, 12:00 p.m. CET (noon).

Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed via scheduled Skype meetings on April 24-25, 2018.

For more information please contact:
greta.fornari@torinofilmlab.it
 

^{The Selected projects of the TorinoFilmLab FeatureLab programme must indicate TorinoFilmLab support in the closing credits by displaying the TorinoFilmLab logo, together with the caption "Developed at TorinoFilmLab".}

^{The Selected and Awarded projects of the TorinoFilmLab FeatureLab programme must indicate TorinoFilmLab support both in the opening and closing credits by displaying the TorinoFilmLab logo, together with the caption "Supported by TorinoFilmLab".}

Residential workshop: 2-11 June 2018 (Sardinia, Italy)
TFL Meeting Event: 20-25 November 2018 (Turin, Italy)