The Locarno Film Festival unveiled the award winners for the 14th edition of its Locarno Pro industry program on Monday (Aug. 11), which included three Canadian projects selected for the work-in-progress section First Look.

Leading the award winners in the First Look category was Nina Roza (pictured) from director Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, which won both the category’s top prize of the Urban Post First Look Award — which includes up to €50,000 (more than C$80,000) of post-production services — as well as the Januzzi Smith Award, which allots €10,000 (roughly C$16,000) for the design of an international poster.

Produced by Montreal’s Colonelle Films, along with international copro partners Umi Films (Italy), Echo Bravo (Belgium) and Ginger Light and Premier Studio (Bulgaria), the fiction project follows an art collector who returns to his native Bulgaria after 30 years to confront the ghosts of his past. In a statement, the First Look jury acclaimed the film for “its beautiful integration of music and art, its performances and a captivating narrative that explores identity, exile and the idea of home and family.”

Also taking two prizes in the program was the fiction feature Lunar Sway, which won the Cineground Award of CHF 15,000 (more than C$25,000) in image finishing services, and Le Film Français Award for €5,600 (about C$9,000) of advertising space. The project is directed by Nick Butler, who also produces through his Cloudy Pictures shingle.

Rounding out the First Look winners was another fiction project, Thanks to the Hard Work of the Elephants, which took home the Music Library &SFX/Acorde Award for €45,000 (more than C$72,000) of music supervision services at the Music Library &SFX labs. The film is directed by Bryce Hodgson and coproduced by Quebec-based prodcos CouKuma Productions and Harrington Studio.

Canada was named as the focus country for the 2025 edition of Locarno Pro’s First Look strand, via a partnership with Telefilm Canada. The annual program presents a curated slate of projects in post-production to international buyers, sales agents, programmers and reps of post-production funds, with the aim of helping filmmakers complete their films and increase their prospects for sales and festival selection.

Six projects total — four fiction features and two documentaries — were selected for the program’s Canada spotlight this year, which ran from Aug. 8 to 10. The winners in the category were selected by an international jury comprised of Franck Finance-Madureira, president and founder of the Queer Palm competition and Queer Palm Lab program at the Cannes Film Festival; Sundance Film Festival director of programming Kim Yutani; and Jacqueline Lyanga, co-director of film programming at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Image courtesy of Colonelle Films