01/07/2024 - The second feature film project by Italy’s Rä di Martino walked away with the main prize at Marseille’s international co-production platform

Director Rä di Martino (left) with the A Fabrica Prize for her project Ya & Niki (© FIDMarseille)

Selected from among 410 submitted projects, the ten works showcased within the 16th edition of FIDLab - the co-production platform which unspooled within the 35th Marseille International Film Festival – FIDMarseille – have now been assessed by a jury composed of Madeline Robert (Visions Sud Est Fund), Dennis Ruh (the former director of the European Film Market) and Romanian producer Ada Solomon. For the record, Youth (Spring) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Wang Bing, MMXX [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cristi Puiu
film profile] by Cristi Puiu and Animal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sofia Exarchou
film profile] by Sofia Exarchou were also recently foregrounded in the FiDLab event.

The A Fabrica Prize, a main prize awarded to a project produced or co-produced by a European firm and consisting of 15,000 euros in post-production sound aid, went to Ya & Niki by Italy’s Rä di Martino. Unearthed in Venice in 2017 (within the festival’s Cinema in the Garden section) by way of The Stand-In [+see also:
trailer
interview: Rä di Martino
film profile], the filmmaker is also the writer behind this second fiction feature film project, revolving around Nicole, an Italian teen and TikToker who’s on holiday with her parents, a once proud couple who are now crushed by fading beauty syndrome. The family is in Egypt at an all-inclusive resort and Nicole starts playing an online video game to escape her boredom and the paradoxical environment she’s landed in. In the game, she meets Ya, an avatar eerily resembling her own who’s also a much better fighter than she is. The two avatars are instantly intrigued by each other, and, over time, they begin to feel an attraction which is as unexpected as it is sensual. Straying from the battlefield, they continually embark on side quests and seek out intimacy amidst the surrounding virtual landscapes. But then Nicole’s avatar, Niki, finds out that Ya is actually Yamen, a young Syrian refugee stranded in a camp in Beirut. This discovery catapults them into an Orwellian conundrum, seeing them yearning for a future which might never come. The fates of Yamen and Nicole, and of their avatars Ya and Niki, intertwine, resulting in a relationship which ultimately reshapes their identities… Ya & Niki is produced by Giulia Achilli on behalf of Italian firm Dugong Films, in co-production with Georges Schoucair for Abbout Productions (Lebanon) and Norah Elkhateeb for Cats Films (Egypt).

Likewise worth a mention, among the numerous trophies to have been scooped of late, is the Commune Image Prize which was handed to The Lanfang Republic, directed by Japan’s Katsuya Tomita (who competed in Locarno 2016 with Bangkok Nites [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and steered by French firm House on Fire, and the Culori Prize which was scooped by The Book of Hours, a second feature-length documentary project by Italy’s Margherita Malerba, produced by French outfit Bocalupo Films and Italian firm Altara Films.

The full list of awards is as follows:

A Fabrica Prize
Ya & Niki - Rä di Martino
Production: Dugong Films (Italy), Abbout Productions (Lebanon), Cats Films (Egypt)

Casa de Velásquez/Impulso ECAM Prize
Tell the Water to Pass on our Dreams - Advik Beni and Nehal Vyas
Production: Luis Gutiérrez Arias (USA)

Commune Image Prize
The Lanfang Republic - Katsuya Tomita
Production: House on Fire (France), House on Fire International (Taiwan), Kuzoku (Japan)

Culori Prize
The Book of Hours - Margherita Malerba
Production: Bocalupo Films (France), Altara Films (Italy)

Camargo Foundation Prize
The Art of Escape - Leonardo Mouramateus
Production: Blenda Filmes (Portugal), Quarta-Feira Filmes (Brazil)

Kodak – Silverway Prize
Malpaís - Paula Rodríguez Polanco
Production: L’Heure d’été (France), Mutokino (Colombia)

Label 42 Prize
La Grande Vacance - Chloé Galibert-Laîné
Production: Darjeeling (France)

Préludes Prize
Drop! Cover! Hold On! - Stéphanie Roland
Production: Dérives, Sound Image Culture, Brussels Audiovisual Centre (Belgium)

Sublimages Prize
South Sea - Riar Rizaldi
Production: New Pessimism (Indonesia), Dogmilk Films (Australia)

Vidéo de Poche Prize
Late Autumn - Dan Sallitt
Production: Ravenser Odd (USA)

VOD DAFilms Platform Prize
La Grande Vacance - Chloé Galibert-Laîné
Drop! Cover! Hold on! - Stéphanie Roland

Nebulae Prize
The Art of Escape - Leonardo Mouramateus

(Translated from French)