Emerging film producers' creations, showcased at Locarno's Match Me!, encompass a wide array of stories: from narratives on queer migration, to examinations of Amazon inequality, and a portrayal of the supposed 'kindest bank robber ever'.
The Match Me! Festival at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland is a networking platform for young producers, established in 2015 and supported by 14 national film agencies. This year's edition, held in 2023, showcased 37 companies from 14 countries, including Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay.
One of the highlighted projects at this year's Match Me! was "Vaca Muerta" by German-Argentine director Sophia Mocorrea. Known for winning Sundance and Les Arcs awards, this film interweaves four lives that unfold in the shadow of a vast fracking industry.
Another notable project was "Echoes" from Dominican director Kryss Gautier. This Black List-selected project focuses on the erasure of Blackness, queerness, and Caribbean identity in Latin American cinema.
Spain’s Liliana Torres presented "Climacteric" (Climateri), the next in her line of socially engaged and artistically ambitious projects. This film is a continuation of her 2024 SXSW winner "Mamífera."
Akira Martins' project "A Night at the Roadside" is a gender-issue murder mystery set at a remote inn during the construction of Brasilia. Dagmara Piasecka, Green Rat Production is moving at Locarno Pro with "Encounter," a low budget, guerrilla filmmaking style driven production.
"The Visitor" (WT) is a fiction film in development by Facundo Umpiérrez, Dulce Cine. This project is from scribe-helmer Lucía Nieto Salazar.
Belen Ballesteros, Bitácora Cine is focused on auteur-driven cinema and brought "The Burned Ones" to Match Me!.
Flavia Enchelli, Orca is pursuing the greatest of all experiments: classicism, shooting "Porcelain Bodies Abandoned in the Sun on a Scorching Summer in Central Italy" on 35 mm.
Rūta Kiaupaitė, Afterschool is at Locarno with "Miss Venezuela," a doc feature exploring shifting notions of home, memory, and femininity.
Ewka Hoffman, Balans is at Locarno with "I Got It From Her," a family drama with elements of a thriller and dark comedy.
Sarah Valerie Radu, Matadoras is a co-founder of Matadoras, a production company founded in 2025.
Rodrigo Díaz's project "Erratics" is a fiction film that combines fantastic elements and real characters in the confrontation between the mechanical and the spiritual.
Among Baltic projects presented was "Beatrice," developed by Stellar Film (Estonia). This company was involved with two other notable productions: "At Your Service" by German Golub, a Student Academy Award-winning writer, and "Black Hairy Beast" by Anna Hints, marking Stellar Films’ fourth collaboration with Sundance-winning helmer after successful shorts.
Valentina Huber, Trimafilm is leading the Match Me! slate of Munich-based Trimafilms with "A Robber's Tale."
Priscilla Brasil's project "Valentina" is a fiction feature with documentary elements, recreating the trail of Valentina de Andrade, leader of the Lineamento Universal Superior, accused of ordering crimes.
Alberto Favruzzo, Abisso Studio is in early development on Zaki, a hybrid fiction/animation feature inspired by the real case of human rights activist Patrick Zaki, jailed in Egypt.
Ines von Bonhorst, The Makkina is at Locarno with "Dark Tides," a narrative that blends harsh realism with poetic imagery.
Katrina Karple, White Picture is in Locarno to push "Tabita," a third collaboration with Juris Kursietis.
Andrés Sanjurjo, Acariño Films is at Match Me! with "Proto," a poetic and essayistic fiction feature.
Barbara Webel-Vaknin, UNI-SOLO Studio is at Locarno with "Good Night, Princesses," a story of transformation in late '80s/early '90s Poland.
Bastian G. Monsalve's project "The Forest Breathes in Murmurs" is a hybrid fiction-doc project, often eco-themed, in which the Chilean government announces a new road through the Alerce Costero National Park.
Dārta Vijgrieze, Mistrus Media is a notable international co-producer, at Match Me! with "She Devil."
Leonardo Birindelli, Ozono Studi is at Match Me! with Marcello Orlando’s "A Day for Everything," a doc feature following DJ Travella playing Tanzanian Singele at trendy clubs.
Sofia Monardo, Montecine is specializing in doc-fiction hybrids, such as "Level," about memories of landscapes which no longer exist.
Francisca Ponce's project "It Used to be Fun" turns on Sady, 77, his home damaged by earthquake and living with his daughter and granddaughter. When he longs to return to the past, his roles as a father, grandfather and friend will be questioned.
Fernanda Prestes' project "Remember Me" is a dramedy about a lonely and closeted retiree who sets off on a chaotic road trip with her first girlfriend.
Elisa Bogalheiro, Maria Zimbro is unveiling "Stella Maris," an intimate coming-of-age story set against Spain’s challenging 1980s transition.
Frederico Mesquita, Seara Filmes is backed by the ICA Portuguese Film Institute, the country’s PIC Cash Rebate Incentive, public broadcaster RTP and the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) for their first feature "Familiar Feelings."
Gabriele Vaičiūnaitė, Why Films is advancing on a wide-ranging slate, including animation, a kids' series, and a futuristic drama made in 2D cell animation.
Match Me! continues to bring international attention to emerging talents and foster co-production opportunities across countries and continents, with this edition featuring diverse, socially engaged, and artistically ambitious projects.
- The environmental-science aspects of climate-change are addressed in the fiction film "Vaca Muerta" by Sophia Mocorrea, which interweaves four lives that unfold in the shadow of a vast fracking industry.
- In the movie "Echoes," Dominican director Kryss Gautier delves into the environmental-science topic of climate-change, focusing on the erasure of Blackness, queerness, and Caribbean identity in Latin American cinema, providing insights into the climate-change and environmental-science dimensions of movies-and-tv and entertainment.
