TorinoFilmLab (TFL) has selected Awaiting Birds and Past Future Continuous to receive €50,000 production grants each through the 2024 edition of its TFL Co-Production Fund.
Awaiting Birds is the second feature from Argentine-Costa Rican filmmaker Sofia Quiros Ubeda. It follows a seven-year-old boy whose mother’s health deteriorates quickly, leading him to project the fantasy of a new mother onto his aunt.
Costa Rica’s Sputnuk Films leads production, in co-production with Argentina’s Murillo Cine, Brazil’s Vulcana Films, Spain’s El Viaje Films, France’s Promenades Films and Norway’s Staer – the last of which is the beneficiary of the TFL fund.
The film has previously been selected for the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum at San Sebastian 2022, and La Fabrique at Cannes 2023.
Ubeda’s debut feature Ceniza Negra premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2019, becoming the first Costa Rican film to participate in a competitive section at the festival, and going on to become Costa Rica’s Oscar entry that year.
Past Future Continuous is a documentary from Iranian filmmakers Firouzeh Khosrovani and Morteza Ahmadvand. It tells the story of Maryam, an Iranian immigrant in the US, who experiences the current turbulence in her country of birth through surveillance cameras.
It is produced by Iran’s FiFi Film, in co-production with Norway’s Antipode Films and the Fund beneficiary, Italy’s ZaLab Film.
Khosrovani’s debut feature, documentary Radiograph of a Family, won best film at IDFA 2020. Ahmadvand was art director on that title, and is making his feature directorial debut with Past Future Continuous. Khosrovani lives between Tehran and Rome while Ahmadvand lives in Tehran.
The TFL Fund is for feature-length projects that are international co-productions between countries that are part of the Creative Europe MEDIA strand and countries not part of the strand.
The €50,000 production grants are combined with tailored training sessions from TFL experts; and the selected project teams will participate in the TFL Meeting Event co-production forum, from November 21-23 in Turin.
Titles previously backed by the Fund include Minh Quy Truong’s Cannes 2024 Un Certain Regard title Viet and Nam and Maria Alche and Benjamin Naishtat’s San Sebastian 2023 selection Puan.
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