Upcoming projects from Jessica Hausner, Lav Diaz and Ursula Meier are among the 38 films selected for the 13th Venice Gap-Financing Market (September 4-6).
The market is a part of the Venice Production Bridge and provides the projects with the opportunity to close their international financing through one-to-one meetings. This year’s focus is on projects from Greece and Switzerland.
Austrian filmmaker Hausner, who has played in Competition at Cannes with Club Zero and Little Joe, brings Toxic – a drama that explores workplace culture. Her 2009 film Lordes won four prizes at Venice in 2009.
Filippino auteur Diaz, who was at Cannes in 2025 with Magellan, is readying An Entry Into A Portuguese Woman’s Sadness with Films Boutique. Previous films by Diaz to play Venice include Genus Pan, The Woman Who Left, Melancholia and Death In The Land Of Encantos.
French filmmaker Meier, who competed at the Berlinale in 2022 with The Line, has Quiet Land, which follows a state trooper investigating two fatal accidents who fears there may be a third victim.
Further titles include Cábula from Mexico’s Lila Aviles, whose Totem played in Competition at the Berlinale in 2023; Kurinji from India’s Payal Sethi, which is also set for Busan’s Asian Project Market; and Don’t Let The Sun Go Up On Me from Morocco’s Asmae El Moudir, who won the Golden Eye and best director at Cannes with The Mother Of All Lies, which premiered in Un Certain Regard in 2023.
The three-day market will present 66 projects in the final stages of development and funding, which also comprise immersive projects and Biennale College Cinema projects.
The feature-length films include 31 fiction projects – 20 from Europe and 11 from around the world – which have at least 70% of funding in place. A further seven documentary projects have been selected.
A Year Without Summer (Switz-Ger)
Dir Flurin Giger
Prod co: Beauvoir Films, Heimatfilm
African Grey (Greece-Bul)
Dir Yorgos Goussis
Prod co: Plankton Films
All Clear (Ukr-Ger-Lux)
Dir Christina Tynkevych
Prod co: Evos Film
An Entry Into A Portuguese Woman’s Sadness (Fr-Phil-Port)
Dir Lav Diaz
Prod co: Films Boutique
Ballad Of The Phoenix (Mex)
Dir Rodolfo Ambriz Rendón and Arturo Ambriz Rendón
Prod cos: Woo Films, Cinema Fantasma
Cábula (Mex-Sp)
Dir Lila Avités
Prod co: Pimienta Films
Chocolat Amer (Switz-Ger-Fr)
Dir Valentin Merz
Prod co: Cinédokké
Untitled Water Documentary (Chile-Can)
Dir Carola Fuentes
Prod cos: La Ventana Cine, Intuitive Pictures
Don’t Let The Sun Go Up On Me (Mor-Nor-Fr-Chile)
Dir Asmae El Moudir
Prod cos: Insight Films, Haut et Court Doc, Quijote Films, Lofoten Film
Faux Bijoux (Fr-Leb-Bel)
Dir Jessy Moussallem
Prod co: Vixens
Holiday (Fr-It-Greece-Leb)
Dir Wissam Charaf
Prod cos: Aurora Films, Intramovies, Marni Films, Né à Beyrouth Films
Kurinji (India-Fr-Ger)
Dir Payal Sethi
Prod cos: FilmKaravan, Blue Monday Productions, 70 Steps
Kyūshū Moon (Switz-Fr)
Dir Stéphanie Argerich
Prod cos: Intermezzo Films, Les Films du Bélier
La Manche (Pol-Ger-Fr)
Dir Damian Kocur
Prod cos: Kijora Film, Les Contes Modernes, Oma Inge
Land Of Savages (Col-US-Chile)
Dir Fernando Guzzoni
Prod co: Oso Films
Light Boxes (Bul-Can-Fr-Bel-Pol)
Dir Theodore Ushev
Prod co: Cinelibri
Lionfish (Greece-Ger)
Dir Thanasis Trouboukis
Prod cos: asterisk*, Studio Zentral
Magnum Opus (Rom-Pol-Bul-Moldova)
Dir Bogdan Mirica
Prod co: deFilm
News From Lod, A Letter To Chantal Akerman (Fr-Bel)
Dir Michale Boganim
Prod co: Blue Train Films
Patrimonial Fears And Other Illusions (Greece-Neth-Cyp)
Dir Elina Psykou
Prod cos: Jungle Films, Homemade Films, StudioBauhaus, Studio Ruba, Bark Like a Cat Films
Primo Viaggio (It-Fr)
Dir Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman
Prod cos: Sacher Film, Halley Production
Quiet Land (Switz-Fr-Can)
Dir Ursula Meier
Prod cos: Bande à part Films, Paradise City Films
Salut Robert (US-Switz-Fr)
Dir Laura Israel
Prod co: Correspondent
Shitballs (Ice-Can)
Dir Alfrun Ornolfsdottir
Prod co: Compass Films
Something Strange Happened To Me (Ukr-UK)
Dir Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Prod co: Mellivora Production
Stallions (Mor-US)
Dir Rita Baghdadi
Prod co: Lady & Bird Films
The Amateurs (Chile-Arg)
Dir Felipe Solari Yrigoyen
Prod co: Quijote Films
The Funeral (Bra-Port-Rom)
Dir Carolina Markowicz
Prod co: Biônica Filmes
The Horsemen Of The Apocalypse (Nor-Swe-Ger)
Dir Lene Berg
Prod co: Twentyone Pictures
The Langfang Republic (Japan-Fr-Taipei)
Dir Katsuya Tomita
Prod co: Kuzoku
The Rope (It-Switz)
Dir Alberto Fasulo
Prod co: Nefertiti Film
The Smuggler (Switz-Greece-Fr)
Dir Kaveh Bakhtiari
Prod cos: Beauvoir Films, Homemade Films, TS Productions
They Burn In The Same Way (Arg-Bra)
Dir Clarisa Navas
Prod co: Gentil Cine
Toxic (Austria-Ger-Fr-Swe)
Dir Jessica Hausner
Prod co: Schubert
Urihi – The Forest-Land (Bra)
Dir Morzaniel Iramari
Prod co: Aruac Filmes
Wake (Greece-Cyp-Ser)
Dir Thelyia Petraki
Prod co: Filmiki & Out the Box
Wolfmother (Fr-Mor)
Dir Ismaël El Iraki
Prod cos: Special Touch Studios, Kasbah Films
Ya & Niki (It-Fr-Leb)
Dir Rä Di Martino
Prod co: Dugong Films
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