Oscilloscope Laboratories Acquires Ann Oren's 'Objet a' Ahead of Locarno World Premiere
Ann Oren's second narrative feature, Objet a, has landed a US distributor. Oscilloscope Laboratories bought American rights to the film ahead of its world premiere in the main competition at the 2026 Locarno Film Festival, as Variety reported exclusively on 21 July. The 95-minute film is Oren's follow-up to Piaffe, her 2022 debut, which also premiered in Locarno's headline competition (Variety).
The film centres on Ingeborg and Adam, two specialists in complex hand surgery living in an unnamed German city. Ingeborg is a kleptomaniac drawn to stolen vintage objects; Adam is a submissive with an asphyxiation kink. Their desires converge, literally, at a leather-and-steel leg brace crafted at a shop called Objet a — a detail that recalls the brace Rosanna Arquette wore in David Cronenberg's Crash (Variety).
The cast pairs two German actors with rising international profiles. Aenne Schwarz, known for the 2018 drama All Is Well, plays Ingeborg. Louis Hofmann, recognised from Netflix's All the Light We Cannot See, plays Adam. Simone Bucio, the star of Piaffe, returns for Oren's second feature in the role of Gaia. IMDb also lists Georg Friedrich and Sofia Kokkali in the cast (IMDb).
Production wrapped in Germany and Luxembourg in mid-2025, with Screen Daily reporting the wrap on 28 July of that year and describing the project as a fetish feature (Screen Daily). Germany's Schuldenberg Films produced, with Tarantula Luxembourg and Greece's asterisk* as co-producers (Cineuropa). Bendita Film Sales handles international distribution outside the US (Instagram). The film is a German-Luxembourgish-Greek co-production, per Oren's official website (annoren.com).
The project's path to Locarno began early. In 2023, Objet a won the Ticino Film Commission Residence Award at the Locarno Pro First Look development programme — a two-day location scout valued at 4,000 Swiss francs, roughly $4,580 (Variety). Two years later, the finished film is screening in the same festival's top competition.
Variety described Objet a as a natural progression after Piaffe and called Oren a visionary artist in its acquisition coverage (Variety). Oscilloscope, a New York-based distributor founded in 2008, has built a catalogue around festival titles with distinctive voices; the pickup signals confidence that Oren's blend of body horror and eroticism can find a US arthouse audience. No domestic release date has been announced.
