The first six months of 2023: a look at productions

A TV series, feature films, documentaries and short films: in the first months of the year, our region also welcomed several film sets. The Ticino Film Commission thus continues in 2023 to work towards the attractiveness of our canton from a cinematographic and audiovisual point of view, also being able to count on valuable partners such as BancaStato and the world of tourism. The following is an overview of what has been filmed in our canton since the beginning of the year and of some ongoing projects.

The beginning of 2023 saw the shooting of the TV series Alter Ego by Erik Bernasconi and Robert Ralston, produced by Lugano-based Amka Films and RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera for the SRG SSR networks. The first nationwide series shot entirely in Ticino, this six-episode police thriller stars Italian actor Gianmarco Tognazzi. Filming took place in the Bellinzona area between February and April, and is scheduled to air next autumn.

Spring was all about short films. Once again this year, the TFC supported two post-diploma works by the CISA (Conservatorio Internazionale di Scienze Audiovisive), Christian Morano's Le scarpe abbandonate and Sara Fiechter's La morte dei bombi, shot in various locations in Ticino. Still on the short film front, Central Productions filmed Soffia by the young Ticino director Lorenzo Fedon (his first professional work) and in the coming months has scheduled the filming of two other short films in our canton (Jolly by Gioacchino Balistreri and Il nostro faro by Zurich-based director Stephan Eigenmann).

Regarding documentaries, two Frama Films productions have been shot in Ticino in recent months: Dentro la luce by Vanja Tognola and Jan-David Bolt and Erich Maria Remarque è vivo by Victor Tognola. Ventura Film also filmed a week in the Locarno region for the documentary Nitroglycerin by Christoph Kühn. On the other hand, from beyond the Gotthard, the Basel-based production company Mira Film with Filmtank Hamburg is filming Michele Cirigliano and Anton von Bredow's documentary on Europe's largest casino, Rien ne va plus - Architektur des glücks, in Campione d'Italia.

Thanks to the close cooperation with the tourism industry, Ticino was also the location for a few days of filming for the digital summer campaign organised in cooperation with Switzerland Tourism Germany, as well as for a Korean TV programme, a Dutch reality show and an episode of the Italian TV programme Donnavventura.

Some location scouting that has taken place over the past few months has already borne fruit. In mid-June, scenes from Gloria!, the feature film directorial debut of Italian singer and actress Margherita Vicario, were shot in Malvaglia. Ticino actress Jasmin Mattei is also in the cast of this production by the Italian Tempesta Film in co-production with Zurich's Tellfilm.

As far as regional funds are concerned, there are already two projects that will be eligible for financial support from the Mendrisio Film Fund in 2023: Una finestra sul parco, a feature-length documentary film by Bruno Bergomi produced by mediaTREE productions, and Fade to Black, a fiction short film by Mariangela Marletta and Giovanni Greggio, produced by Associazione REC.

Finally, the fund for the promotion of the Italian language in Swiss cinema was also successful during the first six months of the year. For the development of scripts, screenplays or subtitles, financial support has already been granted to a dozen projects.