Two online sessions with 20 comedy feature film projects at an early development stage.
TFL NEXT - COMEDY
Writing comedy is not easy. In our mindset, comedies are connected to humour and to funny stories with a granted happy ending. On the other side, dramas would be dark, deep, and bound to end badly. But is it really like that?
According to Aristotle and his Poetics, comedies have more to do with plot and character than with lightness and happiness, and this will be the starting point for our work. When it comes to a comedy screenplay, it’s more important to have well-developed characters and a solid structure, rather than a collection of hilarious but unrelated jokes.
Right now, there are lots of opportunities and a great need for new comedy stories. TorinoFilmLab wants to equip new and emergent comedy writers with the tools which will push their projects to the top of the commissioning editors’ pile.
The workshop is treatment-based, which means that participants exclusively work on the treatment of their comedy feature film projects.
The workshop is divided into 2 development sessions:
- a first 5 day-long session, where participants discuss their work in group sessions and one-on-one meetings with their tutors
- then, participants have 2 weeks to rework their materials
- a second 2 day-long session, where participants share and discuss their work again in individual meetings with their mentors and group sessions with other participants.
To discover the application’s requirements, click here.
For more information please contact: costanza.fiore@torinofilmlab.it
20 comedy feature film projects at an early development stage presented by international scriptwriters or writers/directors together with a producer (if on board) have been selected and divided into 5 groups.
The participants will work on their treatments alongside peers and a tutor with a substantial international experience as a script consultant, implementing the fundamental techniques and skills necessary to develop and produce successful comedy feature films.
Let’s know them a bit more!
A JOKER (I THOUGHT I WOULD CHANGE THE WORLD)
Ahmed Dahroug (Egypt)
Adam gets out of the mental hospital, lives back with his parents and his girlfriend breaks up with him. To make it as an actor is the only thing left for him to do.
ALPHA HOTEL
Yenni Lee (Norway)
EMELIE (35) participates in a sadistic casting workshop for a film at The Alpha Hotel on a remote island for 12 days.
BEAU-TOX BEYROUTH
Konstantin Bock (Germany)
Former star-designer Riccardo Pugnetti arrives in Beirut for the first time in his life, on a short and lucrative mission: to meet Madame Cherfane, the wife of a high-ranking politician, who has commissioned him to make a dress for her.
BEFORE THE SUMMER
Nikola Kupresanin and Anja Matkovic (Croatia)
A love story between two ‘helpless’ people in the whirlwind of local handymen, cafe´ owners, eco-friendly marijuana breeders, famished wild cows, all bathed in sun and sea and the smell of the upcoming summer.
CHEAPER THAN STEALING
Pedro Collantes and Victor Alonso Berbel (Spain and France)
JAREK, a young Uber driver struggling to sustain his family in Paris, finds out that a photo of him and his grandmother is used without permission in an offensive advertising campaign.
CHILI LOVE
Ninni Saajola and Solina Riekkola (Finland)
Love is easy. Growing chili peppers is not.
CONFUSIA
Roberto Cavallini and Cecilia Bozza Wolf (Italy)
In a village in the Alps, three Drag Queens find themselves blackmailed to participate in a Lumberjacks’ contest to rise the women’s quota. Only a series of mysterious murders will help them to find their own purpose in life.
FOREIGNERS’ CLUB
Sofija Sztepanov (Hungary)
Five misfits, determined to resolve their inner struggles, take a cross-country road trip in Iceland to the event of the year – an alleged UFO landing.
HEAVENGLOW
Anna Mellin (Finland)
Unemployed Katri accidentally finds a new meaning to her life by building wings with local market meat.
JIGGELYPOPS
Matilda Bayley and Lena Vurma (UK)
An increasingly fickle teenager from South London struggles to lay claim to her selfhood amid the chaos of her home life with her autistic brother.
K-POPS
Josh Kim and Pornmanus Rattanavich (USA)
A flamboyant Thai cop and a jaded Korean detective must team together to stop a serial killer on the loose in the streets of Bangkok.
MONTY INCARNATE
Vanessa Caswill and Mike Smith (UK)
Seven-year-old Maggie recruits her cynical Uncle Harry to help her investigate her past-life memories as a man called ‘Monty’, taking them on a transatlantic quest.
RAGE AGAINST TIME
Emily Lucienne (UK)
Two friends tormented by their body clocks fly to Barcelona to freeze their eggs and chase the last of summer.
RAVE-BROADWAY
Anastasia Ivaniuk (Ukraine)
To maintain his position, the director of the children's theater stages the capture of himself as a hostage to set up his main competitor.
SURGES
Birgit Stauber (Austria)
A woman ´s rape trauma is brought back to light 20 years later. On her journey to heal she stumbles through passionate sex, painful realizations and funny encounters.
THE BRAZILWOOD WOMEN
Thais de Almeida Prado (Brazil)
Thais, Nathalia, Julia and Tetembua decide to open a "Men’s Escort Company” as a solution to women's desires in search of casual sex.
THE KING WHO HAD A DAUGHTER
Amelia Eloisa Martìnez and Ana Karen Guzmàn (Mexico)
Soco is an unmarried woman in charge of taking care of her demanding father with Alzheimer’s. When she gets the opportunity to work as a costume designer for a high school dance troupe, she must hide the truth from her family and deal with her new double life.
THE LITTLE DIFFERENCE
Fanny Nussbaumer and Rajko Jazbe (Switzerland)
Remy wants a successful life thanks to a leg extension. But at the clinic he falls in love with the cheerful trans woman Lea, who doesn‘t fit into his classic world view at all.
THE SAD LIFE OF HAPPY PIG!
Christy Whaibe and Christelle Younes (Lebanon)
When Chady, 35 years-old, recognizes the assassin of his father, he decides to get revenge with his “Happy Pig” costume.
WHEN I GROW UP, I WANNA BE AN ALCOHOLIC
Anastasia Vorotniuk (Ukraine)
"Most seven-year-olds want to be policemen, firemen or astronauts, when they grow up. Lola, our protagonist, is also seven, but she wants to be an alcoholic. Should all kids follow their dreams?"
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