Night

Source: FIDLab

‘Night’

Projects by UK director Beatrice Gibson, Slovenia’s Gregor Božič, Berlin-based Ann Oren and Turkey’s Burak Cevik are among 10 selected for this year’s FIDLab, the co-production incubator of French festival FIDMarseille.

The 15th edition of the showcase, known for its focus on experimental fiction features and documentary, is set to be held from July 6-7. The 10 selected projects have been whittled down from 430 entries.

Gibson will attend with Night, a UK-France co-production about a woman wandering the streets after an abortion, embarking on a series of quiet encounters. It is Gibson’s first feature length film after shorts such as Two Sisters Who Are Not Sisters which played in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2019 and I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead which was at Toronto in 2018.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Turkish director Cevik, whose Forms Of Forgetting world premiered in the Berlinale Forum section this year, comes to FIDLab with Fragments Of Beauty. Set in 1977, it focuses on two men in the days before they cause the death of 34 people in one of Turkey’s bloodiest political massacres.

Oren’s debut feature Piaff world premiered last year in international competition at Locarno, where it was picked up by Chinese sales agent Rediance. She will be at FIDLab with Objet A, about two hand surgeons with objectophilia who are lured into a surreal dialogue with nature by a mysterious girl.

Božič attends FIDLab with Tales Of Fruits And Monsters, about a Slovenian filmmaker-botanist and a Japanese neuroscientist who join forces to investigate the case of a pear tree believed to hold a miraculous power to defy time. Božič’s Stories From The Chestnut Woods, which premiered at Toronto, was Slovenia’s official entry for the best international feature award at the 2021 Oscars and was a hit on the festival circuit.

Spanish director Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe comes with her feature debut Anekumen, which is set in 1978 and sees radical factory works in San Sebastian join a libertarian commune in the mountains of Navarra.

Documentary feature Cagarros Assembly by US director Ellie Ga has contributions from marine biologists, citizen scientists and the visually impaired community, and narrates the connections between birds and people, sound and light, empathy and indifference around the Azores.

Argentina’s Alan Martín Segal comes with fiction feature Class Camouflage, set amid the art scene at a time of political violence in 1960s Argentina.

Also from Argentina is Jazmín López’s fiction project Fausto set during a period of dictatorship in the country.

From France comes Julien Ticot-Guillet’s Disco Fever, a documentary-fiction project about young Canadian actor who comes to the US to shoot the pilot of a new series about Gaëtan Dugas, the infamous AIDS Patient Zero who was accused of spreading HIV all over America.

Portugal’s Salomé Lamas attends with Pantheras, a non-fiction project set in the Niger Delta.

The international jury for FIDLab comprises producer Alexa Rivero (Altamar Films, France), Mabel Tapia, deputy director of the Museo Reina Sofía (Spain), and producer Dan Wechsler (Bord Cadre, Switzerland).

“Enriched by their geographical diversity and unique writing styles, this selection blends energy and playfulness, delicacy and soaring creativity, encompassing political, ecological, historical, fanciful, queer, utopian, and artistic themes” said FIDLab director Fabienne Moris, FIDLab Director

FIDLab 2023 selection

Anekumen (Sp)
Dir: Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe
Prod: Apellaniz y de Sosa

Cagarros Assembly (US-Swe)
Dir: Ellie Ga

Class Camouflage (Arg)
Dir: Alan Martín Segal
Prod: FiImy Wiktora

Disco Fever (Fr)
Dir: Julien Ticot-Guillet
Prod: Toni Films

Fausto (Arg)
Dir: Jazmín López
Prod: Maravilla Cine

Fragments Of This Beauty (Turkey)
Dir: Burak Çevik
Prod: Fol Films, Vayka Film

Night (UK-Fr)
Dir: Beatrice Gibson
Prod: Somesuch, Norte

Objet A (Ger)
Dir: Ann Oren
Prod: Schuldenberg Films

Pantheras (Por-Fr)
Dir: Salomé Lamas
Prod: Cima Film

Tales Of Fruits And Monsters (Slov-Fr)
Dir: Gregor Božič
Prod: Nosorogi, Bocalupo Films