LOCARNO, Switzerland — Two poignant fictional documentaries from Barcelona — “Another Summer’s Dream” and “Down River, Tiger” — triumphed Sunday in the Locarno Film Festival’s Spain-focused Premiere section.
In other awards announced by Locarno Pro, the festival's dynamic industrial arm, Liliana Cavani's 1970 film “The Year of the Cannibals” won the Locarno Pro Festival's Historical Monuments Restoration Competition.
Lukas Nathrath's “The Madness of the Bourgeoisie”, a previous winner of the “First Look” competition in Locarno, won the European Co-Production Initiative “Alliance for Development” award.
Irene Bartolomei’s “Dream” consists of a series of extended still shots of Beirut streets and parts of her apartment, often evolving elliptically, as a portrait of a woman returning to Beirut after Lebanon’s 2020 financial crisis and the massive chemical explosion at the city’s port.
It's an emotional rollercoaster; Beirut and Lebanon are on the verge of collapse – sometimes literally. Documentary company Colibri Studio produces this film.
“This film can be considered an intimate thriller, a woman in crisis in a city in crisis, but also a film about a couple’s relationship. However, unlike traditional couples, this film is made up of a woman and a city, Beirut,” said Bartolome. diverse.
Victor Diego’s Downriver, a Tiger concludes an unexpected but captivating love story between Julia, a Barcelona-born photographer, and Shubham, a hairy young Indian from Goa, whom she meets in Glasgow. Meanwhile, Julia’s archival photographic research bears witness to an earlier generation of immigrants, from the Scottish Highlands, who built Glasgow.
“Downriver, Tiger is a self-financed film, made freely and radically on the fringes of the industry, built as a fairy tale to talk about immigration and its depression through a love story between two strangers,” said producer Montes Pujol Sola.
Dream and Downriver took home the biggest prizes at this year's First Look competition, with Downriver taking home two.
The four Alliance 4 Development Awards were shared equally between Nathrath, Michael Boganim's 6 Months 6 Days, Hakim Mao's Atlantic Mirage and Alessandro Grandi's Ithaca.
It was announced diverse In Locarno in 2022, where Nosrat’s debut film “One Last Evening” won the First Look award, in “Bourgeois Paranoia,” five people meet in a café over the course of a week. Soon, “insults pile up and everyday situations escalate.” “We’re aiming for a tragicomic tone, like in “One Last Evening,” but with darker elements,” said Nathrath.
Producer Mathilde Leite said 6 Months, 6 Days would be an “intimate exploration” of the characters’ confrontation with history. In the film, Juliana Cant, Germany’s richest woman, succumbs to the charms of Raphael. But he has a hidden agenda: to force the Cant family to confront their past.
“With ‘Atlantic Mirage’, we aim to make an unapologetic, exotic film set in Agadir, a region full of history and mystery,” said Mao. diverse.
Grande's song “Ithaca” addresses a shocking true story that took place in 1990s Italy in the movie “Ithaca”, where a teenager discovers that his parents are accused of kidnapping him when he was a child.
The film “Year of the Cannibals” will be fully restored by the Cinegrell film lab, represented by Minerva Pictures, and will be screened at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival.
Jamie Lang and Marta Balaga contributed to this article.
Industry Winners at Locarno Pro 2024
First Look
First Look Award at Antaviana Film Festival
Up to €50,000 ($56,378) in post-production services
“Dream of another summer” (Irene Bartolomei)
Produced by: Pierre Marzo (Studio Colibri), Irene Bartolome (IP Films), Elie Kamal (The Attic Productions)
Jury statement: “In their public and private dimensions, these works reclaim the complexity of a region marked by both the past and the desire for modernity.”
Music Library and SFX/Acorde Award
€45,000 (US$49,050) for music supervision services in the Music Library and SFX labs.
“Down the river, tiger” (Victor Diego)
Production: Montse Pujol Sola (Boogaloo Films)
Laserfilm Award for Cinema and Video
€5,000 (US$5,638), to be spent, for example, on translation, audio descriptions, watch lists, transcription, or DCP
“Down the river, tiger”
Januzzi Smith Award
International poster design worth 10,000 euros ($10,900).
““The horse”Ariadna Siuba
Produced by: Carles Brugueras, Marieke van der Berselaar (Polar Star Films), Maria Nova Lopez (Intactes Films)
French Film Award
5600 euros (6104 US dollars) of advertising space
“Cemetery with Phantoms” (Enrique Polio)
Produced by: Alejandra Mora (Quatre Films Audiovisuales), Alicia Lupiro (Cuidado con el Perro), Snezana van Huilingen (This and That), and Roberto Butragueño (Cedral).
Alliance for Development
Alpha Panda Award for Best Market Innovation
Consulting services worth 3,500 euros ($3,815)
“Bourgeois Madness” Written by Lukas Nathrath, produced by Linus Günther (Klinkerfilm Productions, Germany)
“It’s a vision of promise that we can’t wait to be disturbed by,” says Alphapanda. “The humor, the discomfort, the obsession, the revenge, the bourgeois madness are all exaggerated to the max, and we’re about to embark on this bloody journey.”
DreamAgo Screenwriting Consultancy Residency offered by Valais Film Commission
6 months and 6 days (Mikhail Boganim)
Produced by Mathilde Leite (Villanova Productions, France), and co-produced with Dorothee Bennemeier (Red Balloon Film, Germany)
Pascal Rey (Dream Ago) and Tristan Albrecht (Vallee Film Commission): “We are very pleased to present an adapted version of the screenplay to the writer, Sir Christopher Hampton, during the Plume & Pellicule exhibition in June 2025.”
Medpoint Consulting Award
In-depth online text consultation with a MedPoint Institute expert.
“Atlantic Mirage” (Mao sage)
Produced by Emma Binet and Charles Meris (Furyo Films, France)
Midpoint: “A compelling and engaging story that uniquely blends themes and genres, set against the mysterious backdrop of the cosmopolitan city of Agadir.”
Film Commission Ticino Residence Award
Two-day location scouting, worth CHF 4,000: US$ 4,640) and a Letter of Intent (LOI) for financial support to the production company (worth up to CHF 12,000: US$ 13,080), if the film is shot entirely or in part in Ticino
Ithaca (Alessandro Grandi)
Produced by Alessandro Amato and Luigi Chimenti (dispàrte, Italy)
Jury Statement: In “Ithaca,” “the landscape plays a fundamental role in expressing the violent fracture experienced by the young protagonist – kidnapped from his southern homeland and transported to a mountainous northern region.”
Heritage Restoration Competition
“Year of the Cannibals” (Liliana Cavani)
