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Script development organisation TorinoFilmLab (TFL) has unveiled the projects and participants for ComedyLab, its annual programme for developing feature film comedies.
Launched last year, ComedyLab pairs directors and scriptwriters with comedians to help develop comedy feature film projects. From a pool of 122 applications from 44 countries, ComedyLab has selected four projects and will pair them with five writers/comedians.
Scroll down for full details of 2025 line-up
The four projects are: The Flowers by Spain’s Francesca Català Margarit and Àlex Maruny; Fruits & Nuts by writer/director Frédérique de Montblanc (Belgium/UK); How To Become A Trophy Wife In 10 Days by Germany’s Julia Penner; and A Summer Tale by Berthold Wahjudi (Germany/Indonesia).
The five screenwriters/performers who will help develop the scripts are the Netherlands’ Martine Bakker, Spain’s Laura Fincias Marin, Canada’s Mark Harris, and the UK’s Rosie McKaig and Ryan Walker-Edwards.
The selection of the 2025 ComedyLab class followed a preliminary session in Turin in early March, where TorinoFilmLab curators matched directors and writers with performers.
The participants will next meet in Brussels in April for the first week-long workshop, followed by Berlin in June and in two subsequent online sessions, culminating in a final presentation during the Meeting Event, the co-production market of TorinoFilmLab in Turin in November.
TFL launched ComedyLab last year, saying it had recognised a need for a dedicated comedy initiative. ComedyLab is supported by Creative Europe.
ComedyLab 2025 is coached by a team led by multidisciplinary artist and creator Alec Von Bargen, who structured the programme in collaboration with consultant Savina Neirotti. Two script consultants, also TFL alumni, Philippe Barrière and Laura Piani, will assist the participants in developing their screenplays; Thomas Pibarot, former acquisitions manager at Le Pacte, will help them identify the commercial potential of their films.
Von Bargen said: “The collaboration between writers with projects and performers/comedy writers has so far proven to be an asset to the development of each of the films, so much so that we’ve added an extra stand-up comedian into the group.”
ComedyLab 2025 projects
(project descriptions supplied by TorinoFilmLab)
The Flowers
Writer/director Francesca Català Margarit, co-writer and director Àlex Maruny (Sp)
Joan is a struggling actor who moves back home and works at his sister’s flower shop, where family drama is always blooming. One day, he finds a strange note in a returned bouquet. What starts as a small mystery, quickly turns into a big crime plot involving real estate corruption – and of course, his family makes everything worse in their own hilarious way.
Fruits & Nuts
Writer/director Frédérique de Montblanc (Belg-UK)
When his son Edgar suffers an eco-anxiety attack in the middle of a science class, Noah, a hyper-invested househusband, vows to save him. By trying to solve his son’s problems, Noah will be forced to confront his own. Faced with his career-minded wife Soraya, Noah feels less and less respected and has to rebuild his self-confidence. Driven by his son’s unhappiness, he will discover that another way is possible, and that it may well bring relief to everyone.
How To Become A Trophy Wife In 10 Days
Writer/director Julia Penner (Ger)
Trophy wife Erika (48, but looks like she’s in her mid-30s with her highly backcombed blonde hair), the wife of a rich but now imprisoned real estate agent Robert (79), teaches – out of financial necessity – a group of different women how to get yourself a millionaire.
A Summer Tale
Writer/director Berthold Wahjudi (Germany/Indonesia)
Set in a German suburb against the backdrop of the 2006 World Cup, A Summer Tale tells a parallel story, about Siegfried, a 13-year-old mixed-raced German-Indonesian kid, who needs to defend his social status as the class clown against a new Chinese classmate and his Indonesian father Jojok, a 50-year old Indonesian man, who reconnects with a former lover back home and has to question all his life choices that led to his emigration to Germany.
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