EXCLUSIVE: TorinoFilmLab (TFL) has unveiled the projects selected for its 2026 ScriptLab, ComedyLab and Green Film Lab programmes.
ScriptLab, TFL’s acclaimed feature film programme focused on fiction projects in the early stage of development, selected 16 projects from a record 857 submissions.
Among the participants is Lithuanian director and screenwriter Marija Kavtaradze with her third feature, Gap Year. Kavtaradze’s 2023 film Slow won the best director award in the World Cinema competition at Sundance.
Mickey Lai, Malaysian director of 2024 short film WAShhh, is attending with her debut feature, In Quiet Hands,
while Luxembourgish director Eric Lamhène, co-writer of the Netflix TV series Capitani, will participate with his second feature,The Sky Below Us.
Indonesian director Khozy Rizal, winner of the Crystal Bear for best short film for Little Rebels Cinema Club in the Generation Kplus section of the 2025 Berlinale, will attend with his first feature I Wanna Dance with Myself.
New York-based UK filmmaker Reuben Hamlyn, who won the special jury prize at SXSW for 2023 doc Another Body and whose short Bitter Weeds was shortlisted for the student Academy Award – attends with his second feature Pale Comfort.
In total, 18 professionals - 16 writers/directors and two co-writers – will present their projects at ScriptLab. They will be joined by four aspiring story editors, selected from 84 candidates, who will support the screenwriters throughout the development process.
The group will meet for the first time in Luxembourg from April 15 to 21, with participants from 21 countries, comprising 11 women, three non-binary participants and eight men.
They will also meet in Estonia and Italy and have two online sessions, focusing on the creative development of their projects. They will be presented at the TFL Meeting Event, TorinoFilmLab’s co-production market held alongside the Torino Film Festival in Turin in November.
ComedyLab
Meanwhile, TFL has selected four projects for ComedyLab, its annual programme for developing feature film comedy projects.
The four projects are: Not That Far (Pas Bien Loin) by French director and screenwriter Pablo Léridon, billed as a risky and unexpected comedy featuring a Breton teenager who is losing his sight; Plus One, a dark comedy exploring the absurdity of family bonds by Lebanese-American screenwriter and director Zayn Alexandre; The 20-Year Curse, by Korean-American director, actress and screenwriter Naomi Ko, a family comedy about the healing process of a 30-year old woman with suicidal tendencies, who wants to end the pain she shares with her father; and Thunder Tits (Russemødrene), the story of five mothers following their daughters abroad for a legendary graduation party, by Norwegian writer Julie Skaufel, renowned for Netflix’s Home for Christmas.
ComedyLab will match the projects with four performers. They are: Kat Geborys, a stand-up comedian and writer based in Berlin; Jessica González Campos, a Spanish actress and screenwriter who specialises in clown and mime; Hadi Kubba, a Canadian actor, stand-up comedian and screenwriter; and Belgium’s Jeroen Verdick, an experienced stand-up comedian.
The programme will take place in Belgium in April for the first workshop, followed by a second residential one in Poland in June and two subsequent online sessions. They will then present their work in Turin during the TFL Meeting Event (November 26-28).
TFL has also announced the projects and participants for its first Green Film Lab workshop of the year. The workshop aims to promote sustainability in both national productions and co-productions, and includes six selected projects and 24 participants who will gather in Turin for a three-day workshop.
ScriptLab projects
- Anywhere Anytime by Helio Pu (Fr), co-writer Eli Ligonnet Lam (Fr/Viet) – first feature
- Fiesta by Coralie Lavergne (Fr) – first feature
- Gap Year by Marija Kavtaradze (Lith) – third feature
- Half and Half by Hoi Ying Chu (HK/Taiw) – first feature
- I Wanna Dance with Myself by Khozy Rizal (Indo) – first feature
- In Quiet Hands by Mickey Lai (Malay) – first feature
- King of Vegetables by Arjun Talwar (Ind) – third feature
- Lampblack by Nicolò Folin (It) – first feature
- The Last Angel of Beirut by Valentin Noujaïm (Fr/Leb) – first feature
- Love in the Paleolithic by Isadora Neves Marques (Port) – first feature
- Mo Tori by Eeva Mägi (Est) – fourth feature
- Norheimsund by Ana Alpizar (Cub/US) – first feature
- The Older Sister by Rafaela Camelo (Braz), co-writer André Pereira (Braz) – third feature
- Pale Comfort by Reuben Hamlyn (UK/US) – second feature
- The Pessoptimists by Abdallah Alkhatib (Pal) – third feature
- The Sky Below Us by Eric Lamhène (Lux) – second feature
ScriptLab story editor trainees
- Esra Demirkiran (Turk)
- Naomi Lladó Quer (Sp)
- Kris Ong (Sing)
- Vėjūnė Tamuliūnaitė (Lith)
ComedyLab projects
- Not That Far – writer/director Pablo Léridon (Fr) - first feature (fiction)
- Plus One – writer/director Zayn Alexandre (Leb) - first feature (fiction)
- The 20-Year Curse – writer/director Naomi Ko (US) - first feature (fiction)
- Thunder Tits – writer/director Julie Skaufel (Nor) - second feature (fiction)
ComedyLab writers and performers
- Kat Geborys (Pol)
- Jessica González Campos (Sp)
- Hadi Kubba (Can)
- Jeroen Verdick (Belg)
- Green Film Lab projects
Green Film Lab projects
- Borderland (Inverno) by Matteo Tortone
- Piggy Baby (Bambino maialino), by Maria Giménez Cavallo
- The Nursery (Il Nido) by Claudio Giovannesi
- Concrete Music directed by Saulius Baradinskas
- Priceless, director Paul-Răzvan Macovei
- The Hottest Summer In History by Tommaso Pitta
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