Projects and participants of the 2nd edition of ComedyLab
19 Marzo 2025
After the success of 2024, a new edition of ComedyLab is ready to start, a laboratory organized by TorinoFilmLab - Museo Nazionale del Cinema dedicated entirely to the comedy film genre and the first in Europe to unite professionals from all over the world, thanks to the support of Creative Europe - MEDIA Sub-programme of the European Union.
Making use of the skills developed in the field of higher education and film development in 17 years of activity, with the ComedyLab program TorinoFilmLab brings together directors/screenwriters and authors/performers to work on film comedy projects. Thanks to the synergy between tutors and participants and a tailor-made approach that focuses on the needs of the projects and the selected professionals, ComedyLab aims to broaden the reach of comedies towards a global audience.
To make up the class of 2025, from a pool of 112 applications from 44 countries around the world, four comedy projects were selected, each representing a different nuance of this genre, as the Head of Studies of the program, Alec Von Bargen, explains: «The Spanish duo composed of Francesca Català Margarit and Àlex Maruny, will participate in ComedyLab with The Flowers, a mysterious story set in a flower shop, with a cast of enigmatic customers who populate one of the gentrified neighborhoods of Barcelona; the Anglo-Belgian screenwriter and director Frédérique de Montblanc brings Fruits & Nuts, in which a hyper-dedicated stay-at-home husband desperately tries to juggle his marriage, his son's alternative education and, ultimately, his own sanity; German-Indonesian screenwriter and director Berthold Wahjudi will work on his A Summer Tale, a coming-of-age story that follows a boy during the 2006 FIFA World Cup; finally, from Germany, Julia Penner, a TFL alumna who participated in the SeriesLab program in 2020, offers us How To Become A Trophy Wife In 10 Days… a title that speaks for itself! The collaboration between screenwriters with projects and authors/performers has proven to be a fundamental resource for the development of each film, so much so that we have added another stand-up comedian to the group.»
ComedyLab will support the development and writing of the scripts of the 4 projects that will be the subject of the year-long path, thanks to the match with the five authors and performers from different fields, such as theater and stand up: Martine Bakker, Dutch comedian author of several theater texts, articles and satirical books; Laura Fincias Marin, Spanish stand-up comedian, author and producer; Mark Harris, a Canadian performer with an eclectic background; Rosie McKaig, an English comedian specializing in improvisation, sketches and character creation; and Ryan Walker-Edwards, an Englishman of Jamaican origin, explores issues of class, sexuality and race relations within Afro-Caribbean communities through comedy.
In total, 10 professionals, six women and four men, from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Spain, who give the program an international character and who will meet in Brussels (Belgium) in April for the first one-week workshop, in Berlin (Germany) in June and also in two subsequent online sessions, to culminate in the final presentation session during the Meeting Event, the co-production market of the TorinoFilmLab, which will be held in Turin in November 2025.
The team of experts who will follow the participants of ComedyLab 2025 is led by the multidisciplinary artist and creator Alec Von Bargen (USA), who structured the program with the collaboration of the educational consultant Savina Neirotti (Italy). With them the two script consultants, as well as TFL alumni, Philippe Barrière (France) and Laura Piani (France), who will support the participants in the development of the scripts; and Thomas Pibarot (France), former head of acquisitions at Le Pacte, who will assist them in identifying the commercial potential of their films, defining the best production strategies to foster future connections with the industry.
The curators of TorinoFilmLab composed the 2025 class after a preliminary session held in Turin at the beginning of March. During this meeting, through group and plenary sessions, visualization and improvisation exercises, they created the perfect match between directors/screenwriters and authors/performers. The aim was to focus on the context of the projects, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, trace the genesis of the stories and delve into the idea behind the structure and characters. All in a protected and open environment, designed to work in depth and overcome preconceptions.
ComedyLab is organized by TorinoFilmLab - National Cinema Museum with the support of Creative Europe - MEDIA Sub-programme of the European Union. ComedyLab 2025 is realized in partnership with CCA – Centre du Cinéma et de l’audiovisuel and Der Divan - Das Arabische Kulturhaus; and in collaboration with the Festival CineComedies and the Torino Fringe Festival. Media partner Cinecittà News.