04/08/2026 - Amid emerging talent, private capital and new co-production models, Locarno Pro is seeking concrete responses to the growing instability facing independent cinema

(© Locarno Film Festival/Ti-Press)

Ahead of the Locarno Film Festival (5-15 August), Markus Duffner presents the four pillars of Locarno Pro, and explains how First Look, Open Doors and the Locarno Investment Community aim to deliver tangible results that go beyond networking.

Cineuropa: How has Locarno Pro’s mission changed in practical terms over the past five years?
Markus Duffner: Our mission has not necessarily changed; we have adapted, defined our pillars more clearly and tried to understand where the future is heading. The post-pandemic period has brought several upheavals, not all of them connected to the industry’s usual dynamics.

Our main pillar remains talent discovery, which is part of the festival’s DNA. Locarno has always played an important role in identifying new directors, while Locarno Pro does something similar on the industry side, discovering emerging producers, filmmakers, distributors and sales agents. Every year, we select around 100 young talents who represent the new faces of the industry. Among our success stories is Matīss Kaža, the producer and screenwriter of Flow, who took part in Match Me! in 2018, while Thomas Hakim, producer of Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, is another of our alumni.

A second pillar is anticipating market trends. StepIn, the think tank that opens our professional activities, examines the most pressing issues in order to understand where the industry is heading.

The third concerns innovation in financing models. For us, innovation is not only about technology; it also means finding new tools and new ways of making independent films. Everyone is talking about the decline in public funding, and particularly in Europe, there is considerable concern about the future of Creative Europe amid such an unstable international climate. This is why we launched the Locarno Investment Community last year, bringing around 40 private investors to Locarno.

The fourth pillar is film heritage, through Locarno Heritage. We restore two films every year. At this edition, we will present Safi Faye’s Letter from My Village and the restored version of Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves. We also devote an entire day to classic cinema, featuring restorations and meetings for industry professionals.

How do you measure the success of your talents once the festival is over?
The most visible results are awards and sales. However, we remain in contact with our talents for several years and ask them to keep us updated. We cross-reference information from participants with industry news and updates from sales agents and distributors. It is an enormous amount of work, but it allows us to identify concrete results. One recent example is Nina Roza, which was presented at First Look in 2025 and went on to win the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlinale.

Returning to the Investment Community, what kind of private capital are we talking about?
It is mainly philanthropic capital because, in independent cinema – especially the kind developed at Locarno – the return on investment is not immediate. There are cases such as Flow, which was an enormous commercial success, but results of that kind are not always apparent on paper at the time of the investment.

We are mainly talking about philanthropists, philanthropic groups and foundations, but also individual investors with an interest in the sector. Together with Oxbelly, we carry out a preliminary vetting process and look for people who have already supported projects. At the last edition, we also welcomed banks with their own funds, as well as several European funds that do not finance individual projects, but rather invest in companies and their slates.

This year, StepIn will address algorithms, industry consolidation and creative freedom. Which of these phenomena do you currently consider the most urgent threat to independent cinema?
The issue is not only artificial intelligence, which is being widely discussed, but above all the role of algorithms and the way people in studios and large corporations make decisions. These tools can also directly influence the creative side.

There is a tendency to turn content into something algorithm-driven – a kind of “Netflixisation” that risks making it more superficial. Independent cinema has to resist this. At the same time, the market is becoming increasingly concentrated. A small number of films achieve box-office results equal to or greater than those of previous years, while everything else faces growing difficulties. This is a disruption that we need to discuss.

We will examine the relationship between films and formulas, algorithms, industry consolidation and creative freedom. We will also discuss sustainable financing by bringing private investors and sales agents together, as well as social relevance and audience renewal through films capable of addressing clearly defined groups of viewers.

The 15th edition of First Look is dedicated to six Uruguayan feature films in post-production. Why did you choose Uruguay at this particular moment?
We work a year or a year and a half in advance. Two years ago, we chose Spain, correctly anticipating that post-pandemic funding would bolster its industry. In Latin America, Uruguay – together with Brazil – is supporting several players across the continent and is becoming a genuine force in co-production. The crisis experienced by Argentina makes this position even more significant.

Uruguay has funding for minority co-productions, numerous bilateral agreements, and an open and welcoming environment. Through First Look, we are showcasing Uruguayan-majority co-productions, while the presence of six producers offers a clear snapshot of the country’s industry. The choice therefore came naturally.

Open Doors is in the second year of its African focus. How do you prevent the programme from merely preparing talents from the continent to enter the European system?
Open Doors is one of Locarno’s leading initiatives for talent development. Thanks to the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, we are able to offer a genuine support programme, with targeted sessions for participants. The aim is to produce a systemic impact in their home territories, rather than merely supporting individual projects. In many of the countries involved, the film industry is either absent, underdeveloped or lacking visibility. We want to bring these people to Locarno so that they can expand their networks and remain in contact with us regarding future needs, including the exchange of information.

Elephants in the Fog, which won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard, emerged from the programme. Some participating producers have also established training workshops in their own countries.

This year, we will also organise a discussion on the entire production pipeline. Speaking generically about “Africa” is misguided: there are enormous linguistic, territorial and production-related differences. At Locarno Pro, we want to give local professionals the floor so that they can explain how the various markets operate. Our approach is not to teach or mentor local talents from above, but to understand how they work and how we can collaborate with them according to their own models.

(Translated from Italian)