The award consists in €50,000 ($51,000) in post-production from Cinegrell, a Switzerland and Germany based services house.

The biggest prize at this year’s Locarno Pro First Look, pictures-in-post showcase of six new movies from Germany, went to first feature which delivers scathing portrait of success-obsessed society whose members don’t live up to their promise, even by their own estimate. 

Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer plays Clemens, a once budding singer-songwriter but now a depressive whose girlfriend is shaping up as the partner with a future as an on-the-rise doctor. Clemens in contrast doesn’t do shit. 

After the pandemic, our feeling was ‘Let’s shoot something this summer,’” Nasrath said.  Nasrath, Doppelbauer and producer Linus Günther at Klinkerfilm reached out to film funds, to no avail, but were happy about making the film on shoestring as “no one would interfere,” they said after Sunday night’s awards ceremony. 

“We were hugely impressed by ‘One Last Evening,’ finding its storytelling rich and nuanced. The film took us on a real emotional journey and the strong ensemble cast contributed to wonderfully detailed characterizations,” said First Look jury.  

Written by Nathrath and Doppelbauer, One Last Evening played well to industry audience at First Look which unspooled over Aug. 5-7. 

Le Film Français Award, consisting in advertising services worth €5,600 ($5,712), went to Arthur & Diana by Sara Summa, produced by Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin. 

This road movie concerns siblings Arthur and Diana, played by Summa and her brother, crossing Europe from Berlin to France to the South Tyrol. The film mixes documentary edge and fantasy, family dynamics, adult age fears and disillusionment.

Elaha

Milena Aboyan’s Elaha, a Kurd bride-to-be emancipation drama set in contemporary Germany, chronicles the struggle of Elaha (Bayan Layla), the 22-daughter of a Kurd family, for basic freedom. That battle is fought not against a hated enemy but the people she loves most, her own family.

Kinescope, which produced with Essence Films, is in conversations with potential sales agents, Elaha producer . Janina Sara Hennemann said at the ceremony.

The Village Next to Paradise

At Alliance for Development, Locarno co-development platform for film projects from Austria, Italy, France Germany and Switzerland, the Alphapanda Market Breakout Award went to The Village Next to Paradise. The Award consists of consultancy services to the value of €3,000 ($3,060).

Produced by Oliver Neumann (FreibeuterFilm, Austria) and Sabine Moser (FreibeuterFilm, Austria), the film, directed by Mo Harawe, follows Somali family and their daily struggles during one summer.

A short film director, Somalia-born Harawe plans to work with local non-professional actors. “I want to be part of the growing but still very small film infrastructure in Somalia,” he has noted.