LOCARNO, Switzerland — Two affecting doc-fiction hybrids from Barcelona – “Dream of Another Summer” and “Downriver, a Tiger”– triumphed Sunday at Locarno’s First Look pix-in-post strand, focused on Spain.
In other awards announced by Locarno Pro, the festival’s dynamic industry arm, Liliana Cavani’s 1970 “The Year of the Cannibals” won Locarno Pro’s Historical Restoration Contest.
Laureates at European co-production initiative Alliance 4 Development took in, notably, “Bourgeois Paranoia” by Lukas Nathrath, a former Locarno First Look winner.
Composed of a series of extended fixed-frame shots of the streets of Beirut and parts of am apartment, Irene Bartolomé’s “Dream” builds, often elliptically, as a portrait of a woman returning to Beirut after Lebanon’s 2020 financial crash and a massive chemical explosion in the city’s port.
She’s on an emotional slide; Beirut and Lebanon are – sometimes literally – near to collapse. Doc feature specialist Colibri Studio produces.
“This film could be seen as an intimate thriller, a woman in crisis in a city in crisis, but also a film about a couple’s relationship. However, unlike conventional couples, this one is formed by a woman and a city, Beirut,” Bartolomé told Variety.
Directed by Víctor Diago, “Downriver, a Tiger” wraps an unexpected but engaging love story between Júlia, a Barcelona-born photographer and Shubham, a hirsute young Indian from Goa, who she meets in Glasgow. Meanwhile, Júlia’s archive photo research pays testimony to an earlier generation of immigrants, hailing from the Scottish highlands, who built the city of Glasgow.
“‘Downriver, a Tiger’ is a self-funded film, made with freedom and radicalness on the margins of the industry, built as a fable to talk about migration and its melancholy through the love story of two strangers,” said producer Montse Pujol Solá.
“Dream” and “Downriver” took the biggest prizes in kind on offer at this year’s First Look, “Downriver” scoring double.
Alliance 4 Development’s quartet of awards were spread evenly between Nathrath, Michale Boganim’s “6 Months 6 Days,”“Atlantic Mirage,” by Hakim Mao, and “Ithaca,” directed by Alessandro Grande.
Announced to Variety at Locarno in 2022, where Nasrath’s debut, “One Last Evening” won First Look, in “Bourgeois Paranoia,” five people meet in a café over a course of one week. Soon, “insults pile up and everyday situations escalate.” We aim for a tragicomic tone, like in ‘One Last Evening,’ but with darker elements,” Nathrath said.
“6 Months, 6 Days” will frame an “intimate exploration” of the characters’ confrontation with history,” said producer Mathilde Leite. In it, Juliana Kant, Germany’s richest woman, succumbs to the charm of Raphaël. But he has a hidden agenda: to force the Kants to confront their past.
“With ‘Atlantic Mirage,’ we aim at making an unapologetically queer genre film, set in the city of Agadir, a territory full of history and mystery,” Mao told Variety.
Grande’s “Ithaca” references a shocking true story that took place in the 1990s in Italy in “Ithaca,” where a teenager finds out his parents are accused of kidnapping him when a baby.
Represented by Minerva Pictures, “The Year of the Cannibals” will receive a full restoration progress by film lab Cinegrell and be shown at the Locarno Film Festival 2025.
Jamie Lang and Marta Balaga contributed to this article.
LOCARNO PRO 2024 INDUSTRY WINNERS
FIRST LOOK
Antaviana Films First Look Award
Up to €50,000 ($56,378) in post-production services
“Dream of Another Summer,” (Irene Bartolomé)
Produced by: Pere Marzo (Colibrí Studio), Irene Bartolomé (I.B. Films) and Elie Kamal (The Attic Productions)
Jury statement: “In its dual public and private dimensions, it restores the complexity of a territory marked by the past and the drive for modernity.”
Music Library & SFX/Acorde Award
€45,000 ($49,050) in music supervision services at Music Library & SFX ’s labs.
“Downriver, a Tiger,” (Víctor Diago)
Produced by: Montse Pujol Solà (Boogaloo Films)
Laserfilm Cine y Vídeo Award
€ 5,000 ($5,638), to be spent, for example, on subtitles, audio descriptions, spotting lists, transcriptions or a DCP
“Downriver, a Tiger”
Jannuzzi Smith Award
The design of an international poster worth € 10,000 ($10,900).
“Mares,” (Ariadna Seuba)
Produced by: Carles Brugeras, Marieke van der Bersselaar (Polar Star Films), María Nova López (Intactes Films)
Le Film Français Award
€ 5,600 ($6,104) of advertising space
“Bodegón con fantasmas,” (Enrique Buleo)
Produced by: Alejandra Mora (Quatre Films Audiovisuales), Alicia Yubero (Cuidado con el Perro), Snezana van Houwelingen (This and That), Roberto Butragueño (Sideral)
ALLIANCE 4 DEVELOPMENT
Alphapanda Market Breakout Award
Consultancy services in the value of € 3,500 ($3,815)
“Bourgeois Paranoia,” by Lukas Nathrath, produced by Linus Günther (Klinkerfilm Production, Germany)
Alphapanda states: “A promising vision that we cannot wait to cringe about. Humor, discomfort, obsession, revenge and bourgeois paranoia are stretched to the limits and we’re in for the bloody ride.”
Script Consultancy Residency at DreamAgo offered by the Valais Film Commission
“6 Months 6 Days,” (Michale Boganim),
Produced by Mathilde Leite (Vilanova Productions, France), co-produced by Dorothe Beinemeier (Red Balloon Film, Germany)
Pascale Rey (DreamAgo) and Tristan Albrecht (Valais Film Commission): “We are very happy to offer the writer a script doctoring by Sir Christopher Hampton, during Plume & Pellicule in June 2025.”
Midpoint Consulting Award
A in-depth online script consultancy with one of the Midpoint Institute experts.
“Atlantic Mirage,” (Hakim Mao)
Produced by Emma Binet and Charles Meresse (Furyo Films, France)
Midpoint: “A compelling and gripping story that uniquely blends themes and genres, set against the mysterious backdrop of the cosmopolitan city of Agadir.”
Ticino Film Commission Residence Award
A two-day location scout, worth CHF4,000: $4,640) and letter of intent (LOI) for financial support for the production company (worth up to CHF12,000: $13,080), if all or part of the film will be shot in Ticino
“Ithaca,” (Alessandro Grande)
Produced by Alessandro Amato and Luigi Chimienti (dispàrte, Italy)
Jury statement: In “Ithaca,” “landscapes play a fundamental role in expressing the violent rupture that its young protagonist experiences – being kidnapped from its southern homeland and moved to a northern, mountainous, region.”
HERITAGE RESTORATION CONTEST
“The Year of the Cannibals,” (Liliana Cavani)
