The sixth edition of the Torino Short Film Market (TSFM) is a hybrid event that started on 29 November, and which will wrap on 10 December. The on-site section of the market took place in Turin and boasted a jam-packed schedule taking place from 1-3 December, during which time a sizeable number of filmmakers and industry professionals from all over Europe and beyond attended physically.

The awards ceremony was held on Friday 3 December, and a total of nine prizes were given out, with a total value of €7,000, across almost all of the pitching categories, plus the Video-Library and XR Showcases.

In the Oltrecorto pitching session, dedicated to feature-film and television-series projects inspired by an existing and already released short film, the Experience Sardegna Award, offered by the Sardegna Film Commission Foundation, which consists of an exploratory trip of the island for three members of the project team, was given to I Matter, directed by Alina Șerban. The project is a coming-of-age tale, an emancipation and self-acceptance drama that follows Rebeca, a young woman who becomes a student at an elitist acting school and meets her first love. She struggles to accept and reveal herself as a Roma person and an orphan living in an abusive social-care system. I Matter is being produced by Ada Solomon for Bucharest-based microFILM.

In the XR Content strand, which unspooled at the Museo del Cinema, and which was dedicated to immersive or interactive XR projects, the RAI Cinema Award, which includes an exclusive acquisition for the Italian territory on the RAI Cinema Channel VR App, went to Strands of Mind by Adrian Meyer, a 360-degree animated experience being produced by Laura Messner for Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. Meanwhile, in the Market Screenings, the Radiator IP Sales Film Festival Strategy Consultancy Award went to Vegetable Rising by Shreyom Ghosh.

At the very special Pitch Your Fest! pitching session, which is dedicated to representatives of festivals programming short films, the When East Meets West and MIDPOINT Institute Award will give Milan Šimánek, festival director of BRNO16, the oldest continuously running film festival in the Czech Republic, the chance to attend the upcoming WEMW event next year. The other winner in this section was the FEKK Ljubljana Short Film Festival, the largest international short-film festival in Slovenia, which was presented by its head of programme, Matevž Jerman, and which received a grant of €500.

At Distributors Meet Buyers, a pitching session for representatives of short-film distribution companies, the winner was Kapitein Kort, an Amsterdam-based short-film agency founded in 2016 by Hidde de Vries, who received a development grant. Also, a Special Mention was given to the international film agency Morethan, which was represented by Queralt Pons Serra.

In Short Comedies, the international co-production pitch for upcoming comedy short films, the winner of the development grant among the five selected projects was The Lovers by Carolina Sandvik, an animated relationship-horror flick and unromantic comedy, produced by Kerstin Übelacker for Sweden’s We Have A Plan. Finally, after the XR Stories pitching session, dedicated to narrative extended reality projects at any stage of development or production with a strong cinematic feel, the development grant was bestowed upon Dante’s Vision by Massimo Ottoni, where the viewer embodies Dante Alighieri, embarking on a journey with Virgil into the Underworld of Damned Souls. The project is being produced by Federico Turani for Ibrido Studios, in co-production with Looptales.

Here is the complete list of the award winners at the sixth Torino Short Film Market:

Experience Sardegna Award
I Matter - Alina Șerban (Romania)

RAI Cinema Award
Strands of Mind - Adrian Meyer (Germany)

Radiator IP Sales Film Festival Strategy Consultancy Award
Vegetable Rising - Shreyom Ghosh (India)

When East Meets West and MIDPOINT Institute Award
Milan Šimánek - BRNO16 (Czech Republic)

Pitch Your Fest! Award
FEKK Ljubljana Short Film Festival (Slovenia)

Distributors Meet Buyers Award
Kapitein Kort (Netherlands)
Special Mention
Morethan (Spain)

Short Comedies
The Lovers - Carolina Sandvik (Sweden)

XR Stories
Dante’s Vision - Massimo Ottoni (Italy/UK)

The Torino Short Film Market is organised by the Italian Short Film Center — AIACE Nazionale and is a member of Torino Film Industry, a network formed together with TorinoFilmLab and the Production Days by the Film Commission Torino Piemonte. The TSFM is supported by Creative Europe — MEDIA, Direzione Cinema del MiC, Regione Piemonte, Camera di Commercio di Torino, Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, UniFrance, the Swedish Film Institute, the Film Commission Torino Piemonte, the Film Commission Vallée d’Aosta, FilmCentrum and Città Metropolitana di Torino.