Florian Hoffmann's 'Yazz' Takes Top Prizes at Locarno Pro's Alliance 4 Development Awards
Florian Hoffmann's Yazz won the two main Alliance 4 Development prizes at the Locarno Pro Awards on 9 August 2026, beating out 10 other projects from across five European countries. The film, a Swiss-German-French co-production from Tellfilm, NiKo Film and Eaux Vives Productions, centres on Yasmin — nicknamed Yazz — a sixteen-year-old free-spirited Swiss girl growing up on a UN compound for international staff in the Central African Republic (Variety; Swiss Films).
The Alliance 4 Development is a co-development platform — essentially a matchmaking programme where filmmakers from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland pitch projects to industry partners and compete for in-kind awards. The 2026 edition ran 7–9 August during Locarno Pro, the industry arm of the 79th Locarno Film Festival. Selected filmmakers get a three-day schedule of one-on-one meetings, pitching sessions and workshops (Locarno Film Festival).
Yazz collected two studio awards. The Nebel Studios Award, estimated at CHF 30,500 ($37,678), covers three days of studio use and five days of camera equipment. The Studio13/Valais Film Commission Award, worth close to $14,825, provides five days of studio time at Studio13 in Valais, Switzerland. Together, the prizes give the production roughly $52,500 in practical resources rather than cash — the kind of support that offsets budget lines for equipment and facility rental. The film is planned for release in the fourth quarter of 2028 (Variety; Swiss Films).
Several other projects picked up awards across the programme. The Masé Studios Post-Production Award, worth nearly $31,000 in post-production services, was shared by Cuore Matto — a queer and feminist coming-of-age musical by Tamer Ruggli, produced by Tipimages Productions — and Les Orages Magnétiques (Magnetic Storms), Wendy Pillonel's coming-of-age tale about becoming a woman in a misogynistic environment, produced by Close Up Films. Les Orages Magnétiques also took the Midpoint Consulting Award, an online script consultancy with a Midpoint Institute expert.
Antonio Donato's Sparare alle Angurie (Shooting Watermelons), produced by Cinedora in Italy, received the Masé Studios Award — a cash voucher worth more than $3,706. The film follows an authoritarian father and his two sons on vacation after a difficult separation, exploring power, masculinity and patriarchy. Jessica Puppo's Le Règne des Silures (Reign of Silures), produced by Rumble Fish Productions in France, won the Ticino Film Commission Residence Award: a two-day location scout worth nearly $5,000, plus a letter of intent for financial support up to CHF 12,000 ($14,824) if the film shoots in Ticino. Bruce LaBruce's Third Take, produced by Local Films in France, took the Alphapanda Market Breakout Award, consisting of consultancy services worth about $4,320 (Variety).
Separately, the festival's Heritage Restoration Contest — running since 2022 in collaboration with Zurich-based Cinegrell film lab — awarded its prize to Anne-Marie Miéville's 1997 film Nous sommes tous encore ici (We're All Still Here), a three-part meditation on philosophy and everyday life featuring Jean-Luc Godard in a rare on-screen role. The jury comprised Amy Homma, director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Academy Collection; Leslie Vuchot, CEO and founder of The Festival Agency; and Nicole T. Allemann, head of film restoration and lab at Cinegrell. The film will undergo a complete restoration at Cinegrell and premiere at the 2027 edition of the Locarno Film Festival (Variety).
What makes the Alliance 4 Development prizes quietly significant is their shape: they are not cheque-writing honours but practical production assets — studio days, camera packages, post-production services, script consulting. For a film like Yazz, still two years from its planned 2028 release, winning roughly $52,500 in equipment and facilities at this stage means the money that would have gone to rental budgets can move elsewhere on the ledger.
