Out of the 179 application packages received, TFL picked 10 fiction projects, 6 debut features and 4 second works, developed by 22 professionals – 10 writer-directors, 2 writers, and 10 producers – coming from 13 countries: Argentina, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Italy, Norway, Panama, Senegal, Spain, and the United States.
Each creative team will work on artistic and creative development, along with production and promotion strategies together with the pedagogical team: the Head of Studies Violeta Bava (Argentina) and the Curator Amra Bakšić Čamo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The first workshop features the following trainers: Marta Andreu (creative producer, Spain), Jorge Jácome (editor, Portugal), Chiara Laudani (script consultant, Italy), Miguel Machalski (script consultant, Argentina), Vasco Pimentel (sound designer, Portugal), Marija Razgute (producer, Lithuania), Stefano Tealdi (pitching trainer, Italy), Athina Rachel Tsangari (director, Greece) and Marietta Von Hausswolff von Baumgarten (script consultant, Sweden).
The intense training experience will bring them to a residential workshop in Oslo, Norway (June) and Turin, Italy (November) – as well as one online module in September. The programme concludes with our co-production market, where each team will pitch its project in front of a carefully selected audience – having also the chance to compete for a range of prizes, including the TFL Production Awards, Green Filming Awards, and several partner-supported recognitions.
So, who are we talking about?
LA CANÍCULA - 1st feature film (fiction)
Logline: Dolores, in her 50s, a hermit caring for her ailing mother and aunt in a decaying Dominican estate, yearns to escape her isolated life. When a long-lost aunt returns, she stirs up painful memories, forcing Dolores and the elder women to confront their generational traumas in a surreal world haunted by mongrel dogs.
Writer/Director: Rod Llaverías (Dominican Republic)
Producer: Wendy Espinal (Dominican Republic)
Production Company: 1981 Cinema Collective / Dominican Republic
CULEBRA CUT - 2nd feature film (fiction)
Logline: In 2000, following a century of American occupation, Panama regained control of the Canal Zone territory. A Panamanian soldier enters the old military bases for the first time. While assigned to clean an artificial lake, he stumbles upon a mysterious woman in the jungle. She is revealed to be the former leader of the Culebra community’s resistance who had once fought against forced displacement. Their encounter sparks a journey of personal transformation, forcing the soldier to confront his own roots.
Writer/Director: Ana Elena Tejera (Panama)
Producer: Tomás Cortés (Panama)
Production Company: Mestizio Cinema / Panama
THE DOG TRAINER - 2nd feature film (fiction)
Logline: Despite his deformed body, a small, immobile man is the best Belgian Malinois trainer in the country. He lives with his nurse and his twenty dogs trained to kill. The arrival of a young soldier, sent by the National Army, destabilizes the delicate balance of power that kept the house standing.
Writer/Director: Federico Luis (Argentina)
Producer: Fernando Bascuñán (Chile)
Production Company: Planta / Chile
INVERNO - 2nd feature film (fiction)
Logline: Within a week, the lives of three teenagers intertwine around the burning of a Roma camp. Alessandra is raped, Thomas is accused and Alex has to choose between the truth and bigger interests at play.
Writer/Director: Matteo Tortone (Italy)
Producer: Alessandro Carroli (Italy)
Writer: Zelia Zbogar (Italy)
Production Company: EIE film / Italy
LUCKY GIRL - 1st feature film (fiction)
Logline: During a vacation in Bordeaux, Lili, 4, and her brothers, aged 9 and 20, find themselves left to their own devices when their flamboyant mother returns without them to Gabon to run her restaurant- discotheque. Torn between the desire to return to her lost paradise and the duty to take her "chance" while making her mother proud, Lili will grow up, use all the strategies to survive, succeed and find the lights of her native Africa.
Writer/Director: Linda Lô (France/Senegal)
Producer: Didar Domehri (France)
Production Company: Maneki Films / France
MAR DE LEVA - 1st feature film (fiction)
Logline: Elena travels to her childhood beach house in a remote region of Colombia. There, she meets Teo, a 3-year-old boy, who disappears at sea just hours after their meeting. Haunted by the event, Elena returns to the city, forced to face her crippling doubts about becoming a mother.
Writer/Director: Mariana Saffon (Colombia)
Producer: Franco Lolli (Colombia)
Production Company: Evidencia Films / Colombia
THE PASSION OF ANGELA SIMMONS - 2nd feature film (fiction)
Logline: Amid the rituals of Texas sorority life and debutante season in 2004, a college girl spirals into obsession and a haunting sense of divine purpose after witnessing a traumatic collapse during rush and a near-suffocation at a wrestling match—unraveling her identity as she searches for meaning, or madness, within the pageantry that once defined her.
Writer/Director: Lucy Kerr (United States)
Producer: Megan Pickrell (United States)
Production Company: Conjuring Productions LLC / USA
THREE AGES - 1st feature film (fiction)
Logline: Xiaowei, a 7-year-old Chinese boy, arrives at Barcelona in 1992 to reunite with his parents who emigrated to Spain when he was still a baby. Kaiwen, his mother, struggles to create a bond with him, but Xiaowei is unable to correspond. Their difficult relationship will extend throughout his adolescence and adulthood, facing various moments of crisis such as the divorce of his parents and the closure of the family business.
Writer/Director: Jiajie Yu Yan (Spain)
Producer: César Esteban Alenda (Spain)
Production Company: SOLITA FILMS / Spain
TO LEAVE, TO STAY - 1st feature film (fiction)
Logline: On a Cambodian fishing island, Mera is turning 18. She rejects a marriage arranged by her aunt and instead organizes a trip with her close friend Bopha to a remote rocky island to visit a soldier who she met online. Weeks later, Mera vanishes. Bopha’s search begins. As the weeks pass without resolution, Bopha starts to understand the inner secrets and hidden desires of her missing friend, and her own.
Writer/Director: Danech San (Cambodia)
Producer: Daniel Mattes (United States)
Production Company: Anti-Archive / Cambodia
WOMAN WALKING - 1st feature film (fiction)
Logline: When his wife suddenly begins to wander endlessly and unresponsive around a meadow on their farm, Sigurd is thrown into an absurd and heartbreaking struggle to bring her back – while his nine-year-old daughter slowly slips away from him, and the truth about their family threatens to tear them apart.
Writer/Director: Kerren Lumer- Klabbers (Denmark)
Writer: Emil Wahl (Norway)
Producer: Ingvil Sæther Berger (Norway)
Production Company: Motlys as / Norway
More about the selection on the Screen International article.
FeatureLab 2025 is organised by TorinoFilmLab - National Museum of Cinema and co-funded by Creative Europe - MEDIA Sub-programme of the European Union, in partnership with Norwegian Film Institute, Oslo Film Fond and Oslo Film Commission which are planning to host the 1st residential workshop.