TorinoFilmLab’s co-production market TFL Meeting Event has awarded prizes worth over €440,000 to 21 projects at its 2025 edition, which concluded in Turin on Saturday (November 22).
Four film projects in advanced development took home €50,000 each in the TFL Production Awards.
The winning projects are: La Canícula by Rod Llaverías, produced by the Dominican Republic’s Wendy Espinal; Lucky Girl by Linda Lô, a France-Senegal co-pro produced by Didar Domehri; The Passions Of Angela Simmons by the US’s Lucy Kerr, produced by Megan Pickrell; and Three Ages by Jiajie Yu Yan, produced by Spain’s César Esteban Alenda.
La Canícula centres on Dolores, a hermit caring for her ailing mother and aunt in a decaying Dominican estate, who yearns to escape her isolated life.
Lucky Girl is about four-year-old Lili and her brothers who, during a vacation in Bordeaux, find themselves left to their own devices when their flamboyant mother returns without them to Gabon.
The Passions Of Angela Simmons is set amid the rituals of Texas sorority life and debutante season in 2004, when a college girl spirals into obsession and a haunting sense of divine purpose.
Three Ages centres on Xiaowei, a seven-year-old Chinese boy who arrives in Barcelona in 1992 to reunite with his parents, who emigrated to Spain when he was still a baby; their difficult relationship then extends throughout his adolescence and adulthood.
The four films were chosen from 10 shortlisted FeatureLab projects by a jury composed of The Match Factory’s head of sales Thania Dimitrakopoulou, filmmaker Mo Harawe, Toronto programmer Dorota Lech and Lucky Red founder Andrea Occhipinti.
Elsewhere, TFL’s ComedyLab Award for feature film comedies, worth €10,000, was awarded to A Summer Tale by Germany’s Berthold Wahjudi. Set against the backdrop of the 2006 World Cup, it tells the parallel story of a 13-year-old German-Indonesian kid who needs to defend his social status as the class clown against a new Chinese classmate, and his father who questions the life choices that led to his emigration to Germany.
The €20,000 Eurimages Co-Production Development Award was awarded to the ScriptLab project History Of Illness by Croatia’s David Gašo. Set in a hospital, it’s about a young man’s search for answers about his tic that entangles him in a web of strange events.
The TFL Co-Production Fund prize, worth €50,000 and supported by the Creative Europe Media programme, was officially awarded to 9 Temples To Heaven by Thailand’s Sompot Chidgasornpongse.
TFL said its 18th edition was its most attended ever, with 400 audiovisual professionals from 46 countries attending three days of meetings and presentations in Turin from November 20-22.
The TFL Meeting Event marks the conclusion of a year-long training programme organised by TorinoFilmLab – Museo Nazionale del Cinema. Supported by TFL tutors, 113 writers, directors and producers worked on the development of 48 projects – 39 feature films and nine TV series – and then presented their ideas in Turin in front of an industry audience.
The projects taking part in the three-day event included: 16 feature films in the writing stage from ScriptLab, 10 films in pre-production from FeatureLab, four comedy film projects from ComedyLab, nine original TV series projects supported by SeriesLab, and eight Italian and international projects from Boost It Lab.
TFL Meeting Event winners 2025
TFL Production Awards
La Canícula, dir. Rod Llaverías, prod. Wendy Espinal (Dom Rep)
Lucky Girl, dir. Linda Lô, prod. Didar Domehri (Fr-Sen)
The Passions of Angela Simmons, dir. Lucy Kerr, prod. Megan Pickrell (US)
Three Ages, dir. Jiajie Yu Yan, prod. César Esteban Alenda (Sp)
SeriesLab Development Awards
Connection Lost, dir. Maja Costa, Melina Voss (It-Ger)
Madre Mia, dir. Emmanuelle Kesch, Mauricio Cuffaro, Francisco Carrasco (Per-Bel-Arg-It-Sp)
Special mention: Buffalo Johansson, dir. Lars Damoiseaux, prod. David Vermander (Bel-Neth)
ComedyLab Award
A Summer Tale, dir. Berthold Wahjudi (Ger)
TFL Co-Production Fund
9 Temples to Heaven, dir. Sompot Chidgasornpongse (Thai), prod. Kick the Machine Films in co-production with E&W Films (Sing) and Petit Chaos (Fr)
Alumni Grants
Nightsong, dir. Maya Da-Rin, prod. Juliette Lepoutre (Br-Fr)
Soon We Will All Be History Here, dir. Saeed Taji Farouky, together with Maria Caruana Galizia (UK-Pal-Malta)
Partners Awards
Eurimages Co-Production Development Award
History of Illness, dir. David Gašo (Cro)
CNC Award
Chosen City, dir. María Belén Poncio (Arg)
Special mention: Hold Still, dir. Shalini Adnani, prod. Sara Bonakdar (UK-Chile)
Artekino International Award
Black Hairy Beast, dir. Anna Hints & Tushar Prakash (Est-India)
Sub-Ti Award
Culebra Cut, dir. Ana Elena Tejera & Tomás Cortés (Pan)
Sub-Ti Access Award
The Passions of Angela Simmons, dir. Lucy Kerr & Megan Pickrell (US)
IEFTA Award
Hold Me (If You Want), dir. Mounia Akl (Leb)
Post-Production Award 2025
Cold Ashes Can Cause Forest Fires, by Ashmita Guha Neogi, prod. Avantika Singh Desbouvries of Salt for Sugar Films (India-Fr)
Green Awards
Greener Guest Award
Jonas Egert for having undertaken the most sustainable journey to Turin.
TFL White Mirror
Grasshopper, by Micah Magee (Den-US)
Green Filming Awards
Women Walking, by Kerren Lumer-Klabbers, Ingvil Sæther Berger, Emil Wahl (Den-Nor)
To Leave, To Stay, by Danech San, Daniel Mattes (Camb-US-It)
Lucky Girl, by Linda Lô, Didar Domehri (Fr-Sen)
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