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INDUSTRY / MARKET Italy / France

TorinoFilmLab and the Annecy Italian Film Festival launch Alpes/Alpi Film Lab

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- This new initiative aims to create two new training courses for professionals and students from France and Italy with a view to strengthening the cross-border film industry

TorinoFilmLab and the Annecy Italian Film Festival launch Alpes/Alpi Film Lab
TorinoFilmLab director Mercedes Fernandez Alonso and Annecy Italian Film Festival director Francesco Giai Via

The TorinoFilmLab is adding another programme to its repertoire: in collaboration with the biggest French festival dedicated to Italian film Annecy Italian Film Festival, the Turin laboratory is launching Alpes/Alpi Film Lab, a project which is offering up two new training courses with a view to strengthening the French-Italian film industry: one is aimed at producers and upcoming film professionals, while the other is geared towards high school and university students, whether French or Italian.

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Specifically, the objective is to provide a space where Italian and French professionals can work together on joint projects, and where students from both countries can get more closely acquainted with the cross-border film industry, learning about the work opportunities it can offer.

“At what is clearly a difficult time for the European film industry, we believe that the launch of Alpes/Alpi Film Lab sends a powerful message and is more necessary now than ever before”, stressed TorinoFilmLab director Mercedes Fernandez Alonso during the presentation of the initiative via Zoom. “We’re convinced that investing in new generations, in training and in collaboration between European countries is key to facing together the challenges which await us over the coming months and years”.

Alpes/Alpi Film Lab will unfold in two separate editions over the course of 2021 and 2022 (overall budget: €797,550), with a view to enhancing Italian-French co-productions and heightening their competitiveness on the international market. "We’re sure that this new link between Turin and Annecy will create new opportunities for exchange and collaboration between France and Italy, two countries which have a lengthy and well-established history of collaboration in the field of film, which we wish to develop even further with this project”, explained the director of the Annecy Italian Film Festival Francesco Giai Via, who is also Head of Studies at Alpes/Alpi Film Lab.

The training course dedicated to professionals will focus on the development of 8 feature film projects (works of fiction, documentaries and animation) with the potential for cross-border co-production. Each year, 24 participants (12 French and 12 Italian) will be selected to work together and try their hand at a mock international co-production, guided by a team of tutors.

These participants will be overseen by two producers with international experience: Julie Billy, Head of International Co-Productions at Parisian firm Haut et Court, and Giovanni Pompili, who has helmed Roman group Kino Produzioni since 2012 and who produced Sole [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlo Sironi
film profile
]
, Carlo Sironi’s first work which was developed by the TorinoFilmLab and celebrated at the 2020 EFAs.

The timetable for this professional programme - to be delivered in French and Italian - will consist of 3 workshop sessions held in person (Covid permitting) and 3 online sessions taking place between the end of April and the end of November 2021. The final projects will be presented to film professionals in November 2021 during the Torino Film Industry event. The application process is open until 1 March 2021.

As for the more educationally oriented course, over the course of two years this will be enjoyed by 8,000 students hailing from Italian and French high schools, universities and academies, who will get the chance to take part in screenings with guest authors and sector professionals, and attend masterclasses and meetings to find out about educational and professional opportunities within the film industry.

Alpes/Alpi Film Lab is organised by Italy’s National Film Museum – The Maria Adriana Prolo Foundation, Bonlieu Scène Nationale Annecy, TorinoFilmLab and Annecy Italian Film Festival. The project enjoys the support of the Interreg V-A France-Italy (ALCOTRA) 2014-2020 initiative - funded by the European Union - for activities which work towards social inclusion and enhance European citizenship.

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(Translated from Italian)

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