20/01/2026 - Tropical Malaise has earned the Swiss-Colombian filmmaker the online platform’s prize, while Catherine Maximoff’s The Legend of Salamanders bagged a Special Mention

Steered by the professional online platform Coprocity (see our interview), which works in partnership with 18 co-production markets, the fourth Coprocity Development Prize has been awarded to Tropical Malaise, the first feature-length project by Swiss-Colombian director Jorge Cadena (highly acclaimed and handed multiple trophies for his short films Flores del Otro Patio, Soeurs Jarariju and El Cuento de Antonia).

Out of ten pre-selected contenders (see our article), the jury chose to single out this "daring project tackling issues around climate injustice, colonial exploitation, and queer erasure, which promises to be a thrilling and poetic film calling for resilience and resistance".

Produced by Yan Decopet and Gabriela Bussmann on behalf of Swiss firm GoldenEgg Production, in co-production with Juliette Lepoutre for French outfit Still Moving, Tropical Malaise is set in northern Colombia near indigenous territories ravaged by the country’s largest open-cast coal mine, and follows a group of queer activists who join forces with indigenous communities. Together, they embark on a powerful and flamboyant struggle to defend their right to exist and to protect their land from environmental degradation and cultural loss, offering up a colourful testament to resilience and solidarity.

A Special Mention was awarded to another first feature film project, an animation on this occasion, by French director Catherine Maximoff. The Legend of Salamanders is "a family story seen through the eyes of a child which resonates with our current world thanks to the ecological and humanistic themes it explores by way of a visually rich journey, combining natural wonders and inner reflection". Loosely based on Czech writer Karel Čapek’s sci-fi novel, War with the Newts, the story revolves around ten-year-old Juliette who’s stranded on a wild island with her father and who meets an astonishing giant salamander. The animal and its kin have been vegetating on a small island nearby, surrounded by sharks. The girl and the beast become friends. However, old Pramana, the guardian of the island, has already warned her that if the salamanders are released, the balance on the island will be disrupted... Production is steered by Patrice Nezan on behalf of Les Contes Modernes.

The Coprocity Development Prize jury consisted of German distributor Bianca Obermaier (Weltkino Filmverleih), French international sales agent Léo Hervada-Seux (Loco Films) and the writer of this article. Endowed with 3,500 euros, the trophy will be awarded next week within the Göteborg Nordic Film Market (running 28 – 30 January 2026).

For the record, the Coprocity Prize was previously won jointly by Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maura Delpero
film profile] and Frida Kempff’s The Swedish Torpedo [+see also:
film review
interview: Frida Kempff
film profile] in 2022, by Manuela Martelli’s The Meltdown (El Deshielo) in 2023, and by Cristina Sánchez Salamanca’s Malmirada in 2024.

Coprocity’s partner co-production markets are CineMart IFFR, Brussels International Film Festival Co-Production Market, When East Meets West, TorinoFilmLab, connecting cottbus, Les Arcs Industry Village, Baltic Event, Thessaloniki - Agora Crossroads and Agora Docs, Milano Industry Days MFN, Sofia Meetings, Ventana Sur, Young Horizons Industry, Dot.on.the.Map, Göteborg Industry, D'A Film Lab Barcelona, New Horizons Polish Days and Karlovy Vary IFF Eastern Promises.

(Translated from French)