41 film and TV series projects at the 17th TFL Meeting Event and 6 TFL FILMS at the 42nd Turin Film Festival

8 Novembre 2024

41 film and TV series projects at the 17th TFL Meeting Event and 6 TFL FILMS at the 42nd Turin Film Festival

For seventeen years, the TorinoFilmLab, an audiovisual laboratory organized by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, has concluded its year of activity in November with the industry event TFL Meeting Event.

A co-production market that brings together in Turin the professionals who have participated in the annual training and development courses, giving them the opportunity to present their projects in front of an audience of professionals from all over the world selected and invited, as potential partners with whom to bring their ideas for films and TV series to life.

The 17th TFL Meeting Event closes an exceptional year and will be held in Turin from 21 to 23 November, in relay with the Torino Film Festival, whose program this year also includes six films made thanks to the TorinoFilmLab, including one international premiere and three in competition.

In fact, 2024 saw the debut of 29 works supported by the TFL, including two titles that also met with the favor of the Italian public: “All We Imagine As Light” by Payal Kapadia, winner of the Grand Prix at the last Cannes Film Festival and supported through the TFL Audience Design Fund 2024, and “Vermiglio” by Maura Delpero, Italian representative for the Oscar race for Best International Film and winner of the Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize at Venice 81, whose screenplay was developed within the ScriptLab path in 2021.

While since its birth in 2008 there have already been 220 titles including feature films and TV series also created thanks to the TorinoFilmLab.

Furthermore, to create connections between the Italian and international industry, TorinoFilmLab proposes a new edition of the Boost IT Lab workshop, in which national and foreign projects work together on co-production models to develop their potential on a global scale, and culminates with the presentation of the projects at the TFL Italia event hosted by Torino Film Industry, on November 21st.

17th TFL MEETING EVENT: November 21st - 23rd, Turin

On Thursday 21st, Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd November, over 200 audiovisual professionals, including producers, sales agents, broadcasters and distributors, will reach Turin to listen to the project presentations during the pitch sessions and meet the participants of the TFL 2024 programs, thanks to one-to-one and networking moments.

This 17th edition is enriched by the presentation of the ComedyLab and SeriesLab projects, two programs involved for the first time in the Meeting Event:

  • 4 COMEDY FEATURE FILM projects developed during the first edition of ComedyLab among 89 applications: the screenplays were the subject of a year-long journey during which they worked with script tutors and comedy authors/performers;
  • 9 ORIGINAL TV SERIES projects selected among 143 applications for SeriesLab: the TV series, which began their journey with the Lab in an initial development phase, are presented by 18 screenwriters, directors and producers accompanied by 3 aspiring story editors, coming from 13 nations.

The cornerstone of the event are the long-standing programs of the TorinoFilmLab:

  • 10 FeatureLab projects selected from 175 applications: 7 first works and 3 second works in an advanced stage of development, on which 10 creative teams made up of a director and a producer worked, who during the year focused on writing, production, sound-design, distribution and other aspects of filmmaking, supported by 16 trainers over the course of 3 online and residential workshops.
  • 16 ScriptLab projects selected from 612 applications: 8 debuts, 5 second works and 3 more mature works on which the 19 participants worked, focusing on the screenplay, guided for 9 months by 5 tutors and 4 aspiring story editors during the 5 online and residential workshops.
  • 2 projects close to completion received the TFL Co-Production Funds: a contribution of €50,000 each combined with a series of ad hoc consultancy.

A total of 41 projects were presented by 74 participants, of which over half were female professionals, coming from 35 countries, demonstrating how the TorinoFilmLab is a place of research and support for talent.

Among the 74 participants were also eight Italians: Andrea Gatopoulos, an Italian-Greek director, producer and distributor who opened the Venice Critics' Week this year with his short film made entirely in AI “The Eggregores’ Theory” and - thanks to the TFL ScriptLab program - worked on “The Hallucinations”; the two directors and screenwriters Stefano La Rosa and Luca Renucci with the project “L’ultima regina” - developed in the context of the ComedyLab program; from the FeatureLab program, the director and screenwriter Angelica Gallo and the producer Andrea Gori with “La notte brucia”; the Italian author Cecilia Gragnani and the Italian-French Tatiana Delaunay – both participants of the ComedyLab program - and Giulia Campagna, producer of “Past Future Continuous”, with which she won the TFL Co-Production Fund 2024 of €50,000.

The market, scheduled mainly between the Centro Congressi Unione Industriali and the Turin Palace, will end on the evening of November 23 with the Awards Ceremony, an opportunity to assign projects a series of prizes for a total of €376,000, also thanks to the collaboration with international partners, to support development, production and a sustainable approach to the film industry.

Four TFL Production Awards (worth €40,000 each) will be awarded to FeatureLab projects by a prestigious dedicated international jury: Maneki Films President and Producer Didar Domehri (France), British Film Institute Director Kristy Matheson (UK), Films Boutique Head of Sales Julien Razafindranaly (France/Germany), Director and Felucca Films Co-Founder Nada Riyadh (Egypt) and ARTE Film & Fiction Editor-in-Chief Holger Stern (Germany).

FeatureLab projects will compete for the ARRI Award (€10,000) offered by the company of the same name that produces professional cinema equipment, the Sub-Ti Access Award (up to €5,000) and the Sub-Ti Award (up to €2,000) awarded by Sub-Ti, and three Green Filming Awards (up to €4,000 each for a maximum of three projects) dedicated to the implementation of the Green Film rating system and allocated by the TFL and Trentino Film Commission.

ScriptLab projects will instead be awarded the CNC Award of €8,000 offered by the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, awarded to participants by a specific jury, and the ArteKino International Award (€6,000). In addition, the project that best combines themes related to sustainability and positive change will receive the TFL White Mirror (€5,000).

In 2024, the Eurimages Co-production Development Award of €20,000 may be awarded by the jurors to a ScriptLab or ComedyLab project. While all participants will compete for the IEFTA Award, awarded by the International Emerging Film Talent Association, which consists of a €3,000 contribution aimed at directors from emerging territories.

In addition, for the first time, the SeriesLab Development Award (€20,000 for one or two series projects) and the ComedyLab Award (€5,000) will be awarded at the Meeting Event by two dedicated juries.

While the historic partners APostLab in collaboration with Filmmore and Posta will award the Post-Production Award (€20,000 in services) to a project that participated in the TFL programs in previous years.

The three-year certification process of the Meeting Event, started in 2023, continues, according to the international event management standard ISO 20121, to monitor and improve the social, economic and environmental impact of the event.

SIX TORINOFILMLAB FILMS AT THE 42nd TFF

There are six titles that the TorinoFilmLab worked on between 2019 and 2024 and that have been selected by the 42nd Torino Film Festival, including 3 in the competitive sections.

These are works that have debuted in recent months at the major international film festivals and that will be Italian premieres at the TFF, with the exception of one, which will have its international premiere in Turin; this is “Holy Rosita” by Belgian director Wannes Destoop. The film, whose screenplay was developed within the TFL Next path in 2020, is part of the Feature Film Competition, and explores the desire for motherhood.

Also in the main competition of the 42nd TFF is “Nina” by Spanish director Andrea Jaurrieta (who in 2021 participated in the TFL path reserved for films in pre-production FeatureLab), a film about the feeling of revenge previewed at the 27th Málaga FF.

Taking part in the Documentary Competition - after its premiere at the last Semaine de la Critique in Cannes - is the work directed by Nada Riyadh - who will also be a juror at the 17th TFL Meeting Event - and Ayman El Amir, “The Brink of Dreams” (TFL Audience Design Fund 2024) which follows, from childhood to adulthood, a group of girls in remote Egypt.

Finally, the non-competitive Zibaldone section is joined by the 2022 ScriptLab project “The Village Next to Paradise” by Somali-Austrian director Mo Harawe, which was presented in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and focuses on a Somali family and their daily struggles during a hot summer; and two projects from the 2019 FeatureLab class. “Crocodile Tears” by Indonesian director Tumpal Tampubolon, set in a crocodile reserve and part of the selection of the last Toronto Film Festival, and “Shambhala” by Nepalese Min Bahadur Bham, which follows the story of the young bride Peema in the heart of the most traditionalist Himalayas and arrives in Turin after its debut in Berlin last February.

The TorinoFilmLab is organized by the National Cinema Museum, with the contribution of Creative Europe - MEDIA sub-programme of the European Union and MiC Ministry of Culture - Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual.