Locarno Pro Defies Summer Lull With Stacked Program Bookended By StepIn Industry Confab & Marco Perego-Saldaña Conversation
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- Locarno Pro will welcome more than 1,000 industry professionals to its 15th StepIn think-tank, which kicks off Thursday with 60 invited participants including distributors from Lucky Red, Filmin, Vue Lumière, and Neon, sales agents from LevelK and TrustNordisk, and producers Margherita Chiti, Ed Guiney, Mike Goodridge, Christine Vachon, Thorsten Ritter, and Juan De Dios Larraín
- StepIn director Markus Duffner said the program's focus has shifted to algorithms, indie finance, private investors, activism, and gender equality, noting that the industry now anticipates trends one or two years out rather than three or four — and that sales agents have evolved into co-producers and financiers 'just to stay alive' after pandemic-era closures and mergers
- Locarno Investment Community, a new Locarno Pro initiative launched with nonprofit Oxberry, will bring around 45 private investors to interact with roughly 100 incubated talents from the Alliance 4 Development, Match Me!, and Open Doors programs, positioning European private financing as a growing alternative to public funds and North American capital
- Open Doors, now in the second year of a four-year cycle devoted to 42 African countries, will host 25 participants for six days of mentoring, with featured projects including Mozambique's Ique Langa's Chapa 100 and Tanzanian director Neema Ngelime's feminist drama The Ones With the Tempered Flowers
- Alliance 4 Development will pitch 11 feature-length projects from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, including upcoming work from Bruce LaBruce, Azerbaijani filmmaker Hilal Baydarova, and Swiss-Egyptian director Tamer Ruggli
- Locarno Pro will close its talks program with an onstage conversation featuring U.S. producer Marco Perego-Saldaña, who produced this year's Cannes Palme d'Or winner Fjord and announced earlier this year plans for a curated community called Artists' Haven
Why it matters: Locarno Pro is channeling roughly 100 incubated filmmakers and projects toward ~45 private European investors, expanding the indie financing pool beyond the public funds and North American capital that have long dominated — a concrete channel for the roughly 1,000 accredited pros expected to attend. The Locarno Investment Community signals a structural shift: per Duffner, sales agents now must package and co-finance films to survive, reshaping deal-making on the festival circuit before the fall awards push.
