26/11/2018 - 15 prizes were awarded at the TorinoFilm Lab to support the development, production and distribution of first and second films, with a total of €433,000 up for grabs

Group photo with TorinoFilmLab 2018 prize winners and members of staff

The 11^th TFL Meeting Event production awards (23 and 24 November 2018 during Turin Film Festival) were awarded to a far-reaching countries, from Italy all the way to Japan, stopping off in Finland, France, Lebanon and China along the way. The TFL Production Award (€40,000 each) went to the Italian director Laura Samani for her project Small Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Samani
film profile] –presented last year as part of the ScriptLab programme, a gothic fairy tale set in Marano Lagoon in Friuli, with filming on due to kick off at the end of 2019 (producer: the Italian outfit Nefertiti Film, co-producer: the Slovenian company Vertigo) – and the Finnish Mikko Myllylahti for The Woodcutter Story (Aamu Film Company) – already selected for the Next Step programme at Cannes International Critics' Week in 2018. The Finnish director’s project also scooped up the Amsterdam Post Lab award, which includes €7,500 in post-production services at Filmmore Studios and €7,500 to be used at the Warnier-Posta Sound Studio. 

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The 4 TFL Production Awards (€ 50,000 each) were awarded to Costa Brava, Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Mounia Akl, an ambitious project, inclusive of visual effects, co-produced by Lebanon, France, Sweden and Norway (Abbout Productions, Cinéma Defacto, Silver Films, Barentsfilm), The Settlers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felipe Gálvez
film profile] by Felipe Gálvez (Chile/Argentina/Denmark) about the brutal genocide of the indigenous Ona in the early nineteenth century in Patagonia (producers: Don Quijote Films, Rei Cine, Snowglobe Film), the Chinese social drama and psychological thriller Blood and Water by Jianjie Lin, in which a family faces the possibility of having a second child and You Are There by Nicole Midori Woodford (Singapore/Japan), starring a young woman who communicates with the afterlife. 

"We were looking for sincerity in projects," revealed the Iranian director Babak Jalali, former TFL alumnus with Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and now an international jury member alongside Cameron Bailey, Teresa Cavina, Ankica Jurić Tilić and Paolo Moretti. "We paid particular attention to stories that urgently needed to be told, not necessarily personal stories, but ones that had passion and originality in the way they wanted to be represented." 

Among the other prizes awarded at TFL 2018 were the 3 TFL Audience Design Fund Awards (€40,000 each), awarded to support innovative strategies foraudience engagement during distribution. The winners were A Land Imagined [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Yeo Siew Hua, Made in Bangladesh [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Rubaiyat Hossain and The Play [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alejandro Fernández Almendras, while the CNC Award(€8,000), dedicated to the development of a ScriptLab project, went to Alcarràs, the new film by the Catalan director Carla Simón.

To date, TorinoFilmLab boasts a community of 700 film professionals developed internally, more than 40 international partners, 93 films already produced and 20 due to go into production in 2019.

The full list TFL Meeting Event 2018 prize winners: 

2 TFL Production Award
Small Body [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Samani
film profile] - Laura Samani (Italy/Slovenia) (€40,000)
The Woodcutter Story - Mikko Myllylahti (Finland) (€40,000)

4 TFL Co-Production Award
Costa Brava, Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Mounia Akl (Lebanon/France/Sweden/Norway) (€50,000)
The Settlers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Felipe Gálvez
film profile] - Felipe Gálvez (Chile/Argentina/Denmark) (€50,000)
Blood and Water - Jianjie Lin (China) (€50,000)
You Are There - Nicole Midori Woodford (Singapore/Japan) (€50,000)

3 TFL Audience Design Fund Award
A Land Imagined [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore/France/the Netherlands) (€40,000)
Made in Bangladesh [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Rubaiyat Hossain (France/Bangladesh/Denmark/Portugal) (€40,000)
The Play [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Alejandro Fernández Almendras (Chile/France/Czech Republic/South Korea) (€40,000)

CNC Award (€8,000)
Alcarràs - Carla Simón (Spain)
Special Mention
The Root Crown - Katarzyna Gondek (Poland)

Hamilton Behind The Camera Award – Talent for the Future (€5,000)
Therefore I Am - Wregas Bhanuteja (Indonesia)

Amsterdam Post Lab Award
The Woodcutter Story - Mikko Myllylahti

Digital Production Challenge II Award
Thanatos - E del Mundo (the Philippines/USA)

Sub-ti Award
Titanic Ocean - Konstantina Kotzamani (Greece)

Sub-ti Access Award
Three - Juanjo Giménez (Spain/France)

(Translated from Italian)