The trailer for Argentine filmmaker Lucila Mariani's first feature film, The Days Off (Los días libres), has been revealed ahead of its world premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival on August 7, 2026. The Hollywood Reporter debuted the footage on August 2. The film screens in the Filmmakers of the Present competition, a section dedicated to emerging and innovative directors.

The Days Off follows Bego, a 12-year-old girl navigating an endless summer break as a solar eclipse approaches. She struggles to find her place within her family and among girls her age. When Bego meets an online friend named REN__, she discovers "shifting" — a practice in which teenagers believe they can access other realities through lucid dreaming. The film runs 84 minutes and is in Spanish and Portuguese.

Mariani, who was born in Buenos Aires, wrote and directed the film. Her credits behind the camera include cinematographer Victoria Pereda and editor Maximiliano Passarelli. The cast features Antonia Robolini, Luiza Quinteiro, Laura Paredes and Guillermo Berthold. The project was selected for La Fabrique Cinéma at the Festival de Cannes in 2023, a development programme for first- and second-time filmmakers from the global south.

The film is a four-country co-production involving Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and France, with Persona Non Grata serving as a co-producer. Inwave Films is handling international sales — the company that will pitch the title to distributors and festival programmers at Locarno's industry market. Co-productions of this kind, pooling resources and tax incentives across multiple territories, have become a common path for Latin American art-house cinema seeking a path to international screens.

Mariani has said the film explores themes she has been drawn to throughout her career: horror, female identity, the relationship with technology and the virtual world, and the limits of cinematic language. She described The Days Off as "an open love letter" to the internet and a refuge for those who don't quite fit in.

The Locarno Film Festival, held annually in the Swiss lakeside town, runs through August 17. The Filmmakers of the Present competition — Concorso Cineasti del Presente in the festival's Italian-language programming — focuses on debut and second features, making it a natural home for Mariani's first film. The Hollywood Reporter published the trailer and production details on August 2.

For a first-time filmmaker, a Locarno competition slot carries weight with the arthouse buyers and sales agents who attend the festival's industry days. Whether The Days Off lands distribution beyond its co-production territories will depend on how it plays to its first audience on August 7.