Another vital writer’s retreat on the film festival circuit unveiled their invites today – Italy’s TorinoFilmLab (TFL) selected a sweet sixteen film project for its 2025 edition of ScriptLab and among the notables we find Anna Hints moving into fiction with Black Hairy Beast after Estonian Smoke Sauna and Costa Brava Lebanon‘s Mounia Akl returns to directing cinema with Hold Me (If You Want) – this after having worked on various television series and we will see her in front of the camera in Cyril Aris’ It’s a Sad and Beautiful World. And finally, American indie filmmaker Matthew Puccini moves beyond the short form with what might be his debut feature in Hearth. Here are the (seven debut features and nine second features) select of just under 700 project submissions. Screen Daily reports that the programme features five sessions taking place in Belgrade, Berlin and Turin between April and November 2025 plus there is some coin awards – €20,000 Eurimages co-production development award.
Black Hairy Beast – Anna Hints (Estonia), co-writer/co-director Tushar Prakash (India)
Chosen City – Maria Belen Poncio (Argentina)
Goldfish – Aditya Ahman (Indonesia)
Grasshopper – Micah Magee (US-Denmark)
He Is Cat – Anette Sidor (Sweden)
Hearth – Matthew Puccini (US)
History Of Illness – David Gaso (Croatia)
Hold Me (If You Want) – Mounia Akl (Lebanon)
Hold Still – Shalini Adani (Chile-UK-India)
Ismaelillo – Tommaso Santambrogio (Italy)
Radical Hope – Steffi Niederzoll (Germany), co-writer Sina Ataejan Dena (Iran-Germany)
Summer Echo – Miwako Van Weyenberg (Belgium)
Walk Slow – Yvonne Zhang (UK)
Wolf Days – Emilija Gasic (Serbia)
Words That Burn – Alois Sandner Diaz (Spain)
Wrecking Ball – Clara Stern (Austria)
