Ann Oren's 'Objet a' to World-Premiere at Locarno, with Oscilloscope Taking North America
Ann Oren's second feature film, Objet a, will world-premiere in the international competition of the 79th Locarno Film Festival on Tuesday, 11 August, at 14:00 at the Palexpo (FEVI) venue, screening in its original German with English subtitles (The Hollywood Reporter, 2026; Locarno Film Festival). Oscilloscope Laboratories has already acquired North American rights, and a German theatrical release through Grandfilm is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film stars Aenne Schwarz as Ingeborg and Louis Hofmann as Adam — two hand surgeons bound by love, control and what the production describes as irresistible fixations. Their lives are upended by an enigmatic woman named Gaia, played by Simone Bucio. Oren wrote the screenplay with Geoffroy Grison; Juan Sarmiento G. serves as cinematographer and Hansjörg Weißbrich as editor (The Hollywood Reporter, 2026).
Oren, a Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker whose debut feature Piaffe premiered in 2022, conceived Objet a from a deceptively simple observation: people now touch flat screens more than they touch their lovers' skin. She has said her first feature dealt with the sense of sound, and that Objet a turns to the sense of touch. In a director's note, she described her interest in human desire and how it connects people to other species (The Hollywood Reporter, 2026).
The film is a co-production of Germany, Luxembourg and Greece. Schuldenberg Films leads the producing team — Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried — with co-production partners Tarantula, asterisk* and ERT (The Hollywood Reporter, 2026; Locarno Film Festival). Production wrapped in Germany and Luxembourg in mid-2025 (Screen Daily, 2025). The Locarno festival lists the film as a 2026 production, presented in DCP 4K and in colour (Locarno Film Festival).
Objet a passed through the Locarno Pro Alliance 4 Development project market before reaching the festival's main competition — a path that connects films seeking co-production financing to the same festival that ultimately programmes them (Locarno Film Festival). Bendita Film Sales is handling international sales.
For Oren, the Locarno premiere marks a return to the festival circuit that launched Piaffe — this time with a bigger production footprint, multiple co-production partners across three countries, and North American distribution already in place before the first public screening.
