The 79th edition of Locarno Film Festival (5th – 15th August) is ready to open its gates to 7 directors that entered the TFL community by participating at the laboratory organised by Museo Nazionale del Cinema – and supported by Creative Europe – MEDIA Sub-programme of the European Union – with previous titles.
Competing in Concorso Internazionale, Hearing (Thính Giác) by Lê Bảo, alumnus FeatureLab 2017 with his debut feature Taste (released in 2021), and winner of the TFL Co-Production Award (€ 50.000), thanks to the support of Creative Europe - MEDIA Sub-programme of the European Union.
In the same section, Objet a, directed by Ann Oren, who participated at TFL Extended - Feature Film in 2019 with the project Piaffe, which also premiered in Concorso Internazionale at 2022 Locarno Film Festival.
Fuori Concorso, Roma Elastica by Bertrand Mandico, presented in world premiere in May at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The director was selected for the first edition of FeatureLab (then called FrameWork) in 2008, with The Man Who Hides the Forest.
Selected in Semaine de la Critique, Pablo Aparo with The victors (Los vencedores). Aparo worked at the script of the project Small Country during ScriptLab 2020.
At Panorama Suisse, Tristan Forever, directed by Tobias Nölle and Loran Bonnardot. Nölle developed his previous title Aloys (2016) within Script&Pitch 2009 and FrameWork 2010.
Lastly, competing in Pardi di Domani - Concorso Corti d’Autore, And if Thuy Didn’t Exist (Et si Thuy n'existait pas) by Carlo Francisco Manatad, already in Locarno for the world premiere of his debut feature Whether the Weather Is Fine (2021) – awarded with Cinema e Gioventù Prize – developed during FeatureLab 2017. He participated at ScriptLab 2023 with Brilliant Melody.
With him, Deepak Rauniyar presents his short film Private Property. His previous feature title, The Sky is Mine, was beneficiary project of the TFL Co-Production Fund in 2019 and then of the TFL Audience Design Fund in 2024. In the same year, he also participated at TFL Next Screens of tomorrow as story editor trainee.
Locarno has chosen 4 more TFL talents as jury members of this edition:
- Marco Alessi (alumnus FeatureLab 2022, Green Film Lab 2022) in the Concorso Internazionale Jury;
- Mounia Akl (alumna FeatureLab 2018, ScriptLab 2025) and Antonio Piazza (alumnus Script&Pitch 2007, FrameWork 2009) in the Pardi di Domani Jury;
- Mo Harawe (ScriptLab 2022, Main Jury in the TFL Meeting Event 2025) in the Pardo for Change Jury.
Congratulations to everyone, TorinoFilmLab will be rooting for you!