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TORINOFILMLAB 2021

The 4 winners of the 2021 TFL Funds have been announced

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- Among the recipients of the co-production and international distribution funds made available by TorinoFilmLab is the Locarno-selected film Whether the Weather is Fine

The 4 winners of the 2021 TFL Funds have been announced
Whether the Weather is Fine by Carlo Francisco Manatad

The 4 winners of the 2021 TFL Funds have been announced, moneys which the TorinoFilmLab hands out on an annual basis to support co-production and international distribution, and totalling €185,000 thanks to a financial contribution from the Creative Europe – MEDIA programme and its Support for International Co-production Funds.

The Co-production Fund (TFL Co-production Fund, now in its third year - €50,000) aimed at European producers who are collaborating on the production of a feature film with non-member state partners, was awarded to Christoph Friedel of Pandora Film (Germany), for the work he is carrying forwards on the project entitled PUÁN, a feature film co-directed by María Alché and Benjamin Naishtat (Argentina), made possible by way of a network of producing partners from Argentina (Pucará Cine and Pasto), Italy (Kino Produzioni), Germany (Pandora Film) and Bolivia (Color Monster).

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Currently in development, the film revolves around Marcelo, a man who has dedicated his life to teaching philosophy at the Public University of Buenos Aires and whose mentor and superior suddenly dies. Disoriented by this unexpected turn of events, Marcelo presumes he will inherit the position left vacant by his predecessor and is wholly unprepared for the interest which Rafael Sujarchuk, a charismatic philosopher who has studied at the best European universities, shows in the role. As explained in the selection committee’s written statement, “Puán isn’t just the name of a street, it’s also a universe of relationships, symbolic of our ironic and dishevelled world. It is a real pleasure for TorinoFilmLab to be awarding these funds to a comedy, since the initiative is always on the hunt for projects which reinterpret and blend together different genres”.

Stealing focus among the 3 winners of the TFL Audience Design Fund – a fund established in 2014 and dedicated to the development of innovative marketing strategies to enhance audience involvement in the various countries where the films will be distributed (awarding €45,000 to each of the winners) – is one particular title which has been selected for the upcoming Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present line-up and which already scooped a TFL Co-Production Award (€50,000) in 2017: Whether the Weather is Fine [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, a first work by Philippine director Carlo Francisco Manatad. Unfolding from the day following Typhoon Haiyan, the film is produced by the Philippines (Cinematografica, planc., iWantTFC, Globe Studios, Black Sheep, Quantum Films and CMB Films), France (House on Fire), Singapore (AAND Company), Indonesia (KawanKawan Media), Germany (Weydemann Bros.) and Qatar.

Another title set to receive funds is Daughter of Rage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Baumeister
film profile
]
by Laura Baumeister: the first Nicaraguan woman to have shot a feature film in her country. Homing in on a unique and creative little girl who lives in a rubbish dump in the capital of Nicaragua, the film is produced by Nicaragua (Felipa Films), Mexico (Martfilms), the Netherlands (Halal), France (Promenades Films), Germany (Heimatfilm) and Norway (Dag Hoel), and is currently in post-production.

The third winner of an Audience Design Fund award is a documentary - also in post-production - produced by Chile (Totoral Films), Italy (Turin-based production house Stefilm) and Sweden (Laika Film & Television). Bastard. The Legacy of a Criminal, which marks the debut of Pepe Rovano, tells the tale of Pepe, who grew up without a father and who learned, while working on human rights documentaries, that his biological father was convicted of genocide in Chile and was about to die.

As stated by the selection committee of the distribution fund, “Coming out of a difficult year for film distribution, we’re particularly happy to have selected three films which are sure to arouse the curiosity of audiences as they transport us inside their worlds and ask us pressing questions, placing human dramas at the heart of their stories, which each boast their own distinctive voice”.

Films supported in previous years by the TFL Funds, include several titles which subsequently travelled to the biggest international film festivals: from the Oscars which Ciro Guerra & Cristina’s Birds of Passage [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, Alain GomisFélicité [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Gomis
film profile
]
and Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philippe Lacôte
film profile
]
, competed in, to Cannes where Boo Junfeng’s Apprentice [+see also:
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film profile
]
took its first bow, Venice which screened Tel Aviv on Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sameh Zoabi
film profile
]
by Sameh Zoabi and Locarno where Yeo Siew Hua’s A Land Imagined [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
bagged the Golden Leopard.

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(Translated from Italian)

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