TFL Films & Series
MATERNAL and THE FEVER score a total of 7 distinctions at Locarno!
August 17, 2019
We are delighted to announce that MATERNAL by Italian-born, Argentina-based Maura Delpero and THE FEVER by Brazilian Maya Da-Rin collected no less than 7 awards at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival!
The Jury Special Mention went to MATERNAL. The only Italian production to be selected in Locarno’s International Competition this year also took home two parallel prizes aimed at supporting the distribution phase: the Europa Cinemas Label, which encourage the film’s run on European screens, and the Prize of Ecumenical Jury supporting the film’s distribution in Switzerland. It also won the Second Prize of the Junior Jury Awards.
Documentarist Maura Delpero’s first fiction feature depicts the life of teen mums in a religious shelter located in Buenos Aires with a cast that mixes professional and non-professional actors – the former being headed by actress Lidiya Liberman, who had already worn the religious habits in Marco Bellocchio’s BLOOD OF MY BLOOD. It is produced by Campo Cine (Argentina), dispàrte (Italy) and Vivo film (Italy), in co-production with RAI Cinema (Italy) and was supported with the TFL Audience Design Fund 2019.
The Leopard for the Best Actor went to Regis Myrupu, the main actor in Maya Da-Rin’s THE FEVER. Regis Myrupu plays the role of Justino, a 45-year-old member of the indigenous Desana people who works as a security guard at the Manaus harbor. As his daughter prepares to study medicine in Brasilia, Justino comes down with a mysterious fever. THE FEVER also scored the FIPRESCI Prize as well as the Special Prize “Environment and quality of life”.
Produced by Tamanduá Vermelho (Brazil) and Enquadramento Produçoes (Brazil), in co-production with Komplizen Film (Germany) and Still Moving (France), the project was developed within ScriptLab 2015 and FeatureLab 2016 and was awarded a production grant of € 50.000 through the TFL Co-Production Fund.
Last but not least, we also congratulate TFL Alumna Yulia Evina Bhara, producer of Yosep Anggi Noen’s THE SCIENCE OF FICTIONS, which also won a Jury Special Mention!