TorinoFilmLab selects 33 participants for ScriptLab 2023 (exclusive)

TorinoFilmLab (TFL) has selected 20 projects for its ScriptLab 2023, plus five story editors, in what it describes as the first ‘fully international’ iteration of the annual development scheme.

The 20 projects come from 20 writer-directors and eight co-writers, and have been selected from 550 submissions.

Scroll down for the full list of participants

Those selected will take part in three week-long residential modules in April, June and November; with two online modules in September and October. The participants will be divided into five groups, and tutored by script consultants Philippe Barriere, Severine Cornamusaz, Aleksandra Swierk, Marietta von Hausswolff and Gino Ventriglia.

For the second successive year, one group will be composed only of writers wanting to make comedies.

“[Comedy] is a genre within international cinema which needs boosting and active development support,” said Eva Svenstedt Ward, head of studies at TFL.

It is also the first year since the pandemic that the ScriptLab has returned to a majority residential event.

“As the work in ScriptLab is centred on peer-to-peer conversations, being able to share the moments between and after intense sessions focused on the projects, to continue the conversation in person, is invaluable,” said Svenstedt Ward.

Nine of the 20 projects are debut feature films, with eight as second films, two as third and one as fourth. Of the 33 participants including the story editors, 16 are women, 15 are men and one identifies as non-binary. Participants include Italy’s Adriano Valerio, whose debut feature Banat premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2016 and Belgium’s Domien Huyghe and Wendy Huyghe whose debut Sea Sparkle came through the TFL extended workshop, before debuting in Generation at Berlinale this year.

The five story editor trainees are Marco Compiani, Sihle Hlophe, Fernanda Polacow, Vanya Rainova and Daniel Soltysinski.

Organised by the National Museum of Cinema, ScriptLab2023 is run in partnership with the Veneto Film Commission, and supported by the Creative Europe Media programme, German Films and Flanders Audiovisual Fund. Titles developed on previous ScriptLabs include Carla Simon’s Berlinale 2022 Golden Bear winner Alcarràs, and Cannes 2021 selections La Civil by Teodora Ana Mihai, Feathers by Omar El Zohairy and Amparo by Simon Mesa Soto. 

ScriptLab 2023 projects and participants

Projects

A Perfect Family
Writer-director:  Adriano Valerio
Co-writer: Aude Py

All The Crows In The World
Writer-director: Yi Tang

Alma
Writer-director: Laura Herrero Garvin
Co-writer: Jorge Gil Munarriz

Amari
Writer-director: Domien Huyghe,
Co-writer: Wendy Huyghe 

Blind Spots
Writer-director: Ely Chevillot 

Brilliant Melody
Writer-director: Carlo Francisco Manatad
Co-writer: Jeremie Dubois

Counting Cards With My Father
Writer-director: Lydia Rui

Detour
Writer-director: Jakub Piatek
Co-writer: Marta Bacewicz 

I Can’t Dance
Writer-director: Anita Rocha da Silveira

In The Shadow Of The Horns
Writer-director: Ognjen Glavonic

Kisa
Writer-director: Alexandra Brodski 

Mar de Leva
Writer-director: Mariana Saffon

Marriage By Abduction
Writer-director: Sophia Mocorrea

Privilege
Writer-director: Floor van der Meulen
Co-writer: Bastiaan Kroeger

San Genesio
Writer-director: Jose Lorenzo Diokno

Sun In Saturn
Writer-director: Ary Zara

The Fugue
Writer-director: Ruthy Pribar

The Missing Planet
Writer-director: Marouan Omara
Co-director: Tom Rosenberg 

Watch It Burn
Writer-director: Makbul Mubarak

Who Is Afraid Of God
Writer-director: Rosa Friedrich
Co-writer: Joshua Jadi

• Belarus military abuse documentary Motherland wins CPH:DOX 2023 main prize