Locarno First Look Puts Uruguay in Spotlight With 6 Films
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- Locarno Pro's First Look section unveiled six Uruguayan film projects for its 15th edition — the section's first country spotlight — in partnership with Uruguayan film institute ACAU.
- The selection spans fiction and documentary, ranging from "Maltrato animal" (a Montevideo veterinarian pulled into illegal breeding operations and pharmaceutical trafficking) to Lorenzo Tocco's "El surubí," where miraculous apparitions turn a dying industrial town into a mystical tourism destination.
- Three of the six projects are documentaries rooted in family reckoning: Maximiliano Martínez's "The Other Side of the Net" about confronting his father over decades of domestic violence, Paola Perkal's "Perkal" addressed to her grandmother — an immigrant and war survivor — and "Our Little Band of Justice," set in 1983 Montevideo.
- International co-production threads through the slate — Spain co-produces "The Other Side of the Net" and "Perkal," Argentina co-produces "Our Little Band of Justice," and Brazil co-produces "El surubí."
- A three-person jury — Ana David (Berlinale), Susana Santos Rodrigues (IndieLisboa) and Triin Tramberg (Tallinn Black Nights) — will award five prizes, led by a €45,000 Music Library & SFX/Acorde Award for music supervision, plus €10,000 from Jannuzzi Smith for international poster design and €5,600 in Le Film Français advertising space.
- Winners will be announced at the Locarno Pro Award Ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 9; Locarno Pro runs Aug. 5-11 during the Locarno Film Festival.
Why it matters: Locarno Pro director Markus Duffner framed the partnership as a vehicle to strengthen the international positioning of Uruguayan production companies, and ACAU president Gisella Pevitali called Uruguay's role as First Look protagonist 'a strategic moment' for the country's cinema. With over €60,000 in cash and in-kind prizes (including €45,000 in music supervision) flowing to works still in post-production, Uruguayan filmmakers gain a concrete pipeline to international festival circuits — exactly the kind of career-propelling stage First Look was built for.
