Ten film projects from around the world have been selected to take part in the fourth edition of the Locarno Residency, an initiative of the Locarno Film Festival that has established itself as one of the most relevant writing and development programs for directors looking to make their first feature film.

The call will culminate during the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, which will take place from August 6 to 9, when an international jury of industry experts will choose three projects from the ten finalists. The selected filmmakers will then embark on an intensive process of development, mentorship, and creative exchange that will run for a year, with in-person stages in Switzerland, France, and Italy, in collaboration with Luma Arles.

The selected talents represent a wide diversity of perspectives and themes: Nigerian filmmaker Ifeyinwa Arinze presents a coming-of-age story set in a girls’ boarding school; Italian director Elisa Baccolo, a participant in the Casa Pantrovà program, explores a dystopian narrative marked by environmental struggles; while Singapore-based artist duo Mark Chua and Li Shuen Lam are developing a mythic horror film about the endless cycles of violence and domination.

Portuguese filmmaker Ágata de Pinho, co-writer of BAAN (Concorso Internazionale Locarno 2023), is working on a hybrid project that blurs the line between fiction and reality to spotlight cleaning women as figures of political resistance. Spanish artist and researcher Gala Hernández López, winner of a César Award for her short film, delves into the darker, primal aspects of motherhood.

From Algeria, Mouloud Ouyahia builds on the world of his Quinzaine-selected short with an apocalyptic vision of the desert. Serbian filmmaker Luka Papić, awarded at Visions du Réel, combines satire with medieval fantasy; Brazilian director Leonardo Pirondi, after years working in experimental cinema, brings a post-apocalyptic fable set in his native Brazil.

Completing the list are Iranian filmmaker Maryam Tafakory, known for her archive-based shorts that recover the memory of revolutionary women in the 1970s, and American artist Andrew Norman Wilson, whose work has been exhibited in major museums and who is developing a romantic thriller set in the Swiss Alps.

The development program, which will officially begin after the selection, includes an in-person residency at Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi in Venice in December 2025 and follow-up meetings in Arles in March 2026, in addition to a series of online mentoring sessions. As in previous editions, the mentoring team will include Anna Ciennik, Stefan Ivančić, Tizian Buchi, and Eddie Bertozzi, under the curatorship of Daniela Persico.

At the same time, the winners of the third edition — Timoteus Anggawan Kusno (Indonesia), Nolitha Mkulisi (South Africa/Germany), and Enea Zucchetti (Switzerland) — will present their final projects (Orphaned Atlas, Lady Pearl, and I sogni degli animali (After Lions)) to a professional audience at Locarno Pro, on Thursday, August 7 at 18:15 at the Sala Granda – Hotel Belvedere.

The official award ceremony will take place on Friday, August 8 at the Swiss Life Lounge, where the three selected projects — two international and one Swiss — will be announced, along with the winner among last year’s finalists, who will receive a CHF 5,000 prize to support the production of their debut feature film.

The jury in charge of the selection is made up of three key industry figures: Italian producer Carlo Cresto-Dina, known for working with Alice Rohrwacher and Ken Loach; Serbian filmmaker Stefan Ivančić, an experienced director, producer, programmer, and university professor; and Chinese sales manager Jing Xu, a specialist in arthouse and avant-garde cinema with a track record at festivals such as Berlin, Venice, and Locarno.

Finally, the developed projects will be presented during the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, where the winner of this fourth edition of the Locarno Residency will be officially announced, reaffirming the festival’s commitment to supporting new cinematic voices and the creation of innovative works on the international stage.

Selected filmmakers: