Five films developed with TorinoFilmLab will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (May 12-23), among the selections of Un Certain Regard, Semaine de la Critique and the Quinzaine des cinéastes.
Four out of five are by female directors, confirming the constant attention paid to gender balance by the National Cinema Museum ‘s Feature Film and TV Series Development Lab, which has been active for 19 years thanks to the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA Subprogram of the European Union
Un Certain Regard
The Meltdown (El Deshielo), second feature by Chilean director and actress Manuela Martelli, was developed during the TFL FeatureLab 2023 program with producer Alejandra GarcÃa of Wood Producciones. Together they won the €50,000 Coproduction Award (awarded thanks to support from Creative Europe).
In 2022, Manuela made her Cannes debut with her first feature film, 1976, at the Directors’ Fortnight. In 2025, she received the Leopard for Best Performance at the Locarno Film Festival for Croatian director Hana JuÅ¡ić’s film God Will Not Help(Bog Neće Pomoći), whose screenplay was developed as part of the ScriptLab 2020 program.
The Meltdown is a murder mystery set in an isolated mountain hotel in 1992, in the post-dictatorship period.
Inés, a nine-year-old girl, befriends teenager Hanna, a German skier whose sudden disappearance brings to light long-hidden secrets.
It is a Chile-US-Spain-Mexico co-production between Wood Producciones, Ronda Cine and Cinema Inutile. International sales are handled by Losange Films
Titanic Ocean is the debut feature film of Greek director Konstantina Kotzamani, developed at FeatureLab 2018 with compatriot producer Maria Drandaki, and then a project beneficiary of the TFL Co-Production Fund in 2023, supported by Creative Europe – MEDIA subprogram of the European Union. In 2023, the director had participated with the same title in the Next Step Vol.II 2023 program, organized by the Semaine de la Critique.
The film is set in the glittery, pop world of a Japanese boarding school that trains teenage girls to become professional mermaids, 17-year-old Akame learns to hold her breath, perform in front of adoring crowds and swim alongside sharks.
Underneath the silicone mermaid tail, Akame will find her mermaid voice, discover her first love and experience a metamorphosis, turning performance into transformation.
Handling international sales is Paradise City Sales.
Semaine de la Critique
Viva is the debut feature by Spanish director Aina Clotet, who developed the screenplay through TFL Next – Feature Film in 2021 and plays the main protagonist.
Produced by Ikiru Films and co-produced by Funicular Films, both from Spain-and sold by France’s Loco Films – Viva is a bittersweet comedy set in a Catalonia suffocated by an extreme drought.
Its protagonist is Nora, who, after risking her life, is consumed by an urgent need to feel alive.
She plunges into overwhelming relationships with Tom and Marx, two very different men whose opposite natures reflect her inner conflict. But when neither can fill the void, Nora is forced to face reality and the deeper fear that feeds her hunger for life.
Also in 2021 Aina had also participated in TFL with the TV series This Is Not Sweden, which passed through the Next – TV Series program and, in 2022, Green Film Lab. And winner of Cannes Series 2024 and Prix Europa 2023 forBest Fiction for TV.
Quinzaine des cinéastes
Temples to Heaven (9 วัด สู่สวรรค์), is the second feature film (first fiction) by Thai director Sompot Chidgasornpongse. In 2025, the project received support from the TFL Co-Production Fund, worth €50,000. The film is produced by Kick the Machine (Thailand), co-produced by E&W Films (Singapore), Petit Chaos (France) and Needle in the Haystack (Norway). The sales agent is Playtime (France).
It’s about a family that accompanies their grandmother to visit 9 temples in one day, hoping to prolong her life. As time passes, their relationships are tested along the way.
Too Many Beasts(L’Espèce explosive) is signed by Italian-Swiss director Sarah Arnold, who worked on the screenplay for her first feature film during the 2019 ScriptLab program. The film is a French production involving 5à 7 Films with France 3 cinema and Playtime – which is also handling its sales.
It takes us to the French countryside, where farmers and hunters are at war. Wild boars Рtoo large and too numerous Рare devastating crops. Brun, a grain farmer pushed to the limit, loses control and then disappears. A year later, Fulda, an impulsive policewoman, and St̩phane, a barely poised psychologist, begin investigating. What they discover is bigger than anything they could have imagined. And what arises between them is, too.
In addition, as always we find in the different sections other familiar names who have participated in TorinoFilmLab in the past. In the Official Competition we find László Nemes with his third film Moulin-which comes after Sunset, with which he participated in TFL in 2012 and 2015, first working on the screenplay thanks to the ScriptLab program and then delving into various aspects of filmmaking in FeatureLab.
In the feature film competition of the Fortnight, Death Has No Master by Jorge Thielen Armand, a former ScriptLab participant in 2020.
Finally, in the Midnight Screenings program, Betrand Mandico‘s Roma Elastica, which participated in TorinoFilmLab in 2008, the first year of the Cinema Museum’s lab.
