Locarno Development Pitches: Fish Man, Watermelon Film

The Locarno Film Festival’s industry section has unveiled a typically eclectic slate of upcoming projects, with this year’s development pitches ranging from a surreal transformation narrative to a coming-of-age musical and a story centered on watermelon shooting. The lineup, presented to international financiers and producers this week, underscores the festival’s ongoing commitment to nurturing unconventional and artistically ambitious cinema.

Among the most intriguing concepts is a film that follows a man’s gradual metamorphosis into a fish. The project, described by insiders as a meditative blend of body horror and ecological fable, explores themes of alienation and environmental decay through its protagonist’s physical and psychological unraveling. While the exact director and cast remain under wraps, the pitch has reportedly drawn strong interest from European co-producers looking for challenging, auteur-driven material. The film’s premise suggests a stark departure from mainstream studio fare, fitting neatly into Locarno’s reputation for showcasing work that pushes narrative boundaries.

Another project generating buzz is a feature described around the act of “shooting watermelons,” an image that evokes both absurdist comedy and pointed social commentary. While specific plot details were not immediately available, the pitch appears to use the act as a metaphor for destruction, privilege, or perhaps rural tradition, depending on the filmmaker’s vision. Industry attendees noted that such a logline could cut either way - toward a dark satire in the vein of early Yorgos Lanthimos or a more grounded, character-driven drama with a sharp ironic edge. The vagueness of the description has only fueled curiosity among buyers seeking original voices.

On the more melodic end of the spectrum, a coming-of-age musical is also on the table, aiming to blend the earnestness of teenage discovery with a contemporary songbook. This project seeks to capture the emotional turbulence of adolescence through original compositions, reportedly mixing indie-pop sensibilities with more theatrical numbers. Given the recent resurgence of original movie musicals on the festival circuit, this pitch appears timed to capitalize on an audience hunger for fresh, non-IP-driven sing-along experiences. The producers are likely banking on a breakout performance from a new young lead to anchor the emotional core.

Rounding out the headline-grabbing concepts is a project with the working shorthand “Humanoid.” While the term could evoke sci-fi tropes involving robots or androids, sources suggest the pitch leans more toward a philosophical exploration of identity and what it means to be perceived as less than fully human. In a festival context, this could manifest as a slow-burn study of social outcasts or a genre-tinged narrative about artificial intelligence. The ambiguity is intentional, leaving room for the filmmaker to define the world in their own image during the development phase.

The Locarno development platform has long served as a bellwether for the kind of bold, idiosyncratic cinema that often graduates to the main competition lineups of major festivals like Cannes, Venice, and Berlin. Projects teased here frequently spend the following year touring the international circuit, refining their edits and securing distribution based on the strong impressions made during these intimate pitch sessions. For emerging directors, landing a slot at Locarno’s Open Doors or similar industry strands can be a career-defining step.

The inclusion of such disparate ideas - a fish-man, explosive fruit, teenage songs, and synthetic beings - highlights the festival’s curatorial willingness to embrace risk. It also reflects a broader trend in European arthouse funding, where public broadcasters and regional funds increasingly back singular visions over proven formulas. In a marketplace dominated by sequels and franchises, these pitched projects offer a reminder that the medium’s most vital ideas often come from the margins.

As the festival continues through the week, many of these projects will enter formal financing discussions, with sales agents likely to emerge for the most promising titles. For now, the buzz in Locarno’s lakeside cafés is less about star power and more about the richness of the concepts themselves. The man turning into a fish, in particular, has become a talking point, with delegates debating whether it will result in a profound metaphor or a delightful oddity - either way, it’s the kind of gamble that keeps this festival indispensable to the global art-house ecosystem.

The final selections for full production funding are expected to be announced in the coming months, but the initial pitch presentations have already set a distinct tone for the industry gathering. With producers on the hunt for the next breakout festival gem, these early proposals signal a strong year for original, risk-taking screenwriting. Locarno, as always, is betting on the power of the strange and the personal to find its audience.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter