A debut feature with no dialogue and no conventional action will world-premiere at the 79th Locarno Film Festival on 10 August, in the Filmmakers of the Present competition — a section devoted to emerging and established auteurs pushing form. Nicolaas Schmidt's September Afternoon runs 70 minutes, is shot in colour and black and white, and carries the subtitle Grainy Eyes / Sandy Tears on the director's own website. The film screens at 18:00 in DCP 4K with 5.1 surround audio. The Hollywood Reporter

The premise is spare. A couple refuse to accept that summer is over and head to the coast for one last encounter with sand and seawater. Strong wind and encroaching elements push back. In a director's note, Schmidt said the film uses "dead time" as raw material, stretching mundane moments until they collapse in their emptiness. He describes the film, which he also wrote and edited, as "A Post Postmodern Persistence Parable." The Hollywood Reporter

Schmidt was born in Leipzig and lives and works in Hamburg as a filmmaker, video and conceptual artist. On his website he calls himself a "gréyalisateur" — a coinage joining "grey," for midpoint, average, relativity and ambivalence, with the French word for director, réalisateur. The cast features Amin Motallebzadeh, Katharina Grossmann, Hedi Grossmann and Ada Kurzhöfer. Maxi Haslberger and Balthasar Busmann produced; Thomas Oswald handled cinematography. Kino Rebelde is handling international sales. The Hollywood Reporter

This is Schmidt's second trip to Locarno. His short First Time [The Time for All but Sunset — Violet] premiered there in 2021 and received a special mention in the Pardi di Domani section, which is dedicated to short and medium-length works. The 2026 festival, programmed under artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, runs 5–15 August. The Hollywood Reporter

What makes September Afternoon sit apart on the slate is its insistence on stripping away the scaffolding audiences expect. No spoken words, no plot engine in the usual sense — just two people, a beach, and weather that will not cooperate. Whether that austerity finds a wider audience beyond the festival circuit is a question for the buyers in the room.