Arthouse movies are increasingly made for younger audiences who are replacing ageing stay-at-home baby boomers at Europe’s upscale cinema theaters. That impact is now working its way through new arthouse projects, seen at Locarno’s 2026 Match Me!, its vibrant co-production meet this year welcoming projects from Europe and Latin America, where a younger generation move center stage or featue at least as co-protagonists. 

Later this Festival, a comment on market trends. For the moment, a close look at the producers attending Match Me! and a top project they are brining to market: 

Brazil

Amadeu Alban, Movioca
Behind “Drag Me as a Queen” (NBCUniversal/E!), the first Brazilian reality show exported globally with formats in the Netherlands and Germany, Alban notes, and doc feature “Anatomy of Chaos,” a current Brazilian box office hit.

At Match Me! with “The Girl Who Bled Woman” where Dinha, 13, is forced to marry her older sister’s widower, the marriage only being consummated after her first menstruation. Dinha battles to hide her body changes. A coming-of-age drama/survival thriller. 

Amina Sophia Nogueira, Capivara Movies
With a 20-year career, taking in a decade as Globo’s talent manager, now developing her first features at Capicara, founded 2024, including “The She-Devil.” Set in working-class Rio de Janeiro during the booming ‘90s, Araí, 11, develops an obsession with an imaginary killer who attacks girls in their neighborhood, while adoring Iara, an aunt who offers guidance and inspiration through her transgressive way of living. Emerging voices Clara Ferrer and Tainá Bevilacqua direct.

Chile

Francisco Gallardo Soto, Equeco
Behind “Designation of Origin,” a 2025 B.O. phenom in Chile from Tomás Alzamora (“Little White Lie”) and now “The Chilean,“ playing Locarno’s Piazza Grande, a sign of its perceived broad audience appeal. At Match Me! with “Falling Waves,” set in a remote southern Chile fishing community where a teen girl’s secret entwines with environmental catastrophe. Suggesting “how guilt, faith, and reality begin to blur as the sea rots under the weight of an environmental collapse,” Reyes tells Variety.

Catalina Miles, Villano
Producer of “The Red Hangar,”a Malaga and Guadalajara top winner and sales hit, now at Locarno with “Champ,” from Pelayo Lira, behind Ventana Sur/Sanfic WIP “Kingdoms,” a millennial generation portrait. “Champ” is set in Chile, 2000. Samuel, 11, battles to enter an elite school after moving to a wealthy area. But in the race for success, he soon learns, every victory demands a sacrifice of identity.

Denmark

Mikkel Smidt, Napkin Productions
Founded in 2025 by six producers from the same The National Film School of Denmark’s graduation class, pooling experience from Zentropa, Nordisk Film and Danish Documentary. Moving at Match Me! Its first feature film, Mone Frogg’s intriguing mystery drama “Glossy Pictures”: When a son brings his volatile, gambling-addicted mother to an isolated hotel, a casino jackpot and a sudden death pull him into an investigation that unravels everything he thought he knew about his mother.

Giulia Triolo, Snowglobe 
A key European producer and co-producer involved in a dazzling lost of films from top filmmakers in Scandinavia, Latin America and beyond, such as Hlynur Pálmason (“Godland”), Joachim Trier (“The Worst Person in the World”), Gabriel Mascaro (“Divine Love”) and Christian Mungui’s 2026 Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Fjord”).  At Locarno with “Grasshoper,” turning on isfit Luka (15, she/they), a summer intern who finds in the blackberry-stained lips of curly-haired Frida — a tentative first love — a sense of belonging and path to their future.

Dominican Republic

Pablo Lozano, Sky Films

Sky Films, founded by Pedro García and Rafael Llaneza, counts among its highlights the award-winning Berlinale screener “Ramona” and “The Godfather Part II” documentary “From Sicily to Santo Domingo.” At Locarno with “Gagá,” a documentary currently in post that follows Geo, a white Dominican, and Britis, a Black Haitian-Dominican — spiritual leaders, brothers of the road and keepers of sacred knowledge. “[B]ound since youth by an initiation the state doesn’t recognize, [they] embody the kinship that nationalist politics is working to erase,” says Lozano.

Isaac Morantus, El Güeso Films

Headed by Isaac Morantus and by Viviana Sánchez, El Güeso Films focuses on stories deeply rooted in Dominican culture but characterized by emotionally universal narratives. Recent works include Sánchez’s award-winning “Nueva Forma” and Morantus’ short “Camina Ven,” which he is now adapting into a feature film. The buddy road trip movie follows a young man seeking to confess his love to a girl before it’s too late. “‘Camina Ven’ is about finding the courage to speak before regret becomes permanent,” Morantus says.

Estonia

Inger Põder, Homeless Bob Production

Known for bold artistic choices, original stories, and auteur cinema, it says, such as Rainer Sarnet’s Tribeca title “November” and Locarno splash, the “zany” “The Invisible Fight.” One of her Match Me! Projects: “Beyond The Visible Flowers,” where Anna investigates Paradise, a closed community where her mother shelters from her father, a PTSD victim during the Soviet-Afghan war. “The film examines how what happened in the war 35 years ago has affected one family today,” says writer-director Jaanika Arum.

Laura Raud, Nafta Films

Founded in Tallinn in 2009, one of the Baltics’ biggest production companies, producing and providing services from offices in all three Baltic countries. Behind “Melchior the Apothecary.” At Locarno with “Think of Something Nice” (aka “The Bicycle Thief”), about Sigrit, 10, living in a small town. She receives a new bicycle for her birthday, only for it to be stolen the next day. The film’s central bilingual family is tender, funny, damaged and morally ambiguous, often all at once,” says Raud.

Finland

Hadi Nikzad, Lumina Films
Helsinki-based Lumina Films, founded by Hadi Nikzad, focuses on character-driven, socially resonant arthouse cinema with international potential while also moving into genre. Recent titles include “The Lightning Rod,” selected for Cannes La Cinef, and Jussi Award winner “My Name Is Hope.” At Match Me! with “DOR,” a paranoid thriller about an Iranian-Finnish novelist in Helsinki who suspects she is being surveilled. “[W]hat interests me in ‘DOR’ is not the machinery of surveillance but what it does to intimacy,” Nikzad tells Variety.

Pilvi Waltzer, Bufo
Described as an “ambitious and thrill-seeking company” and headed by Misha Jaari and Mark Lwoff, Helsinki-based Bufo is behind such works as Aki Kaurismäki’s Berlinale Silver Bear Winner “The Other Side of Hope” and Cannes competition entry “Eagles of the Republic.” It’s moving “Something Rotten,” about a mixed-race Finnish man who believes his Libyan father abandoned him — until a video reveals the truth and unleashes a ghost, forcing him to face trauma and his own internalized racism.

France

Alice Perrault, Alabama Production
Aiming to move from shorts to full-length titles, such as Miriam Fürniss-Yacoubi’s “The Peter Principle,” her feature follow up to the 17-minute English-language “After The Very End,” a Carte Blanche Canal+ Clermont Ferrand winner. It turns on a couple of thirty-year-olds facing an existential crisis through the ironic prism of the Peter Principle: the higher people climb, the less competent they become. This “is the next step in our shared ambition to create bold, internationally driven auteur cinema,” says Perrault.

Anne-Laure Berteau, Because the Night Productions

Founded by Berteau in 2018, its credits taking in Isidore Bethel’s debut “Liam” (Tënk) and Louise Groult’s “Gertrude and Yvan Party Hard” (France Télévisions). Now moving “Behemoth Ann Holds a Seance,” a doc feature  remembering Arthur Douglas Thayer, who spent a lifetime crocheting creatures, shot by his wife, son and Daniel Hymanson as they organise an exhibition at the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta. “Shooting and editing become ways of rewriting their lives – of transforming sorrow into a story that transcends reality,” says Berteau.

Gabriel Jumel, Belladone Films
Normandy-based, behind auteur-driven fiction and documentary projects with strong social and political dimensions, such as Yannick Kergoat’s 2025 “Sarkozy-Gaddafi: The Scandal of All Scandals.” Now developing François-Xavier Rouyer’s “Half of the World,” about a fallen YouTube star who moves into an abandoned gated community in Switzerland and discovers she’s being watched by a mysterious intruder. A “contemporary genre film with elements of comedy, exploring surveillance, social media obsession, and the  constant search for online validation,” says Juhel. 

Germany

Alec Barth, Counterintuitive Film
Behind 2023 Locarno winner “Critical Zone” and 2026 Visions du Reel screener “Opera of Horror and Salvation,” the company aims for “artistically uncompromising feature films.” At Locarno with Sina Ataeian Dena’s “Foxperson,” about an animal rights activist who, after rescuing an injured fox in Paris, is compelled to cross a moral line that transforms both himself and the city. “‘Foxperson’ explores how binary thinking can polarize a society until extreme decisions become acceptable — both politically and personally,” Barth tells Variety.

Jasper Wiedhöft, Reynard Films

Producer of Venice Days award-recipient “A Sad and Beautiful World” and the acclaimed “The Miserable Mother,” Reynard Films is partnering with Tabi360 and Creative Media Solutions on Ameen Nayfeh’s “Jo of Montreal,” about a spoiled 12-year-old gamer stranded in a remote Jordanian village. After meeting a shepherd, he rediscovers his roots and a passion for the village’s ancient heritage. The film offers a “universal theme of mentorship with a unique Levantine flavor,” says Nayfeh. It’s “Oscar-nominated ‘Theeb’ meets ‘Karate Kid,’ but without karate.”

Melissa Byrne, Allergikerfilm, Nordpolaris

Repping Munich shingles Allergikerfilm and Nordpolaris, Melissa Byrne’s credits include Venice Critics’ Week opener “Life is Not a Competition, But I’m Winning” and Cannes Critics Week prize winner “‘Vaterland’ or a Bule Named Yanto.” At Match Me! she presents Justina Jürgensen’s “The West Was Never Waiting,” a female-led Western. Set amidst the greed of the 1860s gold rush, “the landscape becomes a state of mind and the action-packed journey into the Colorado wilderness unfolds as a descent into the human soul,” Jürgensen says.

Italy

Bruno Cristaldi, Eutropia Film
Rome-based company Eutropia, headed by Bruno Cristaldi and Antonio Marzotto, aims to produce works that “inspire, provoke thought, and leave a lasting impact.” Current productions include upcoming docs “Reality is an Invitation” and “The Last Winner.” At Locarno, Eutropia presents “Manu e Vincenzina,” from  Alessandro Borrelli, which follows two sisters who dream of snow-capped mountains while on the run from a Naples juvenile center. “A road movie about survival, sisterhood, and the fragile border between danger and hope,” they say.

Camilla Gazzola, Amartia Film

Rome and Naples-based and behind Leone Balduzzi’s 2024 feature doc “Sting Like a Bee,” Amartia is moving “Reborn,” Francesco Pascucci’s doc feature made with Belgium’s Harald House and winner of a MIA Development Award and Italy’s 2025 Doc/it Women Award. It depicts a community of women forming deep emotional bonds with hyper-realistic silicone dolls resembling newborns. It asks a difficult question, Gazzola says. “What happens when our need for connection finds its answer in something that cannot respond?”

Salvatore Lizzio, Revok
Specializing in auteurist international co-productions, Revok’s recent productions include Giovanni C. Lorusso’s “Homo Sive Natura” and Marcello Di Noto’s “Pazzo & Bella.” At Locarno with Lorusso’s “Despite Evil” (“Malgré le mal”), about an elderly couple in La Reunión’s remote mountains waiting for a doctor impeded by an approaching cyclone. Facing their final farewell, they look back on their shared life. It’s an “intimate portrayal of love, loss, and mortality, told through visually powerful and emotionally restrained cinematic language,” says Lizzio.

Latvia

Grēta Grebže, Tasse Film
Riga-based Tasse Film, best known for Berlinale Crystal Bear winner “Mellow Mud” and hit series “Soviet Jeans,” arrives in Locarno with Alise Zarina’s “Not My War.” It follows Lote, a young woman preparing for motherhood, but when war breaks out across the border, her carefully planned life is suddenly disrupted. “The main themes are the uncertainty we learn to live with, women in war as sort of outcasts and the future my generation faces in these turbulent times,” says Zarina.

Līva Vernere, VFS Films

VFS Films boasts an award-winning slate of titles and international co-productions, including acclaimed docs “Bridges of Time” and “Redlight to Limelight.” At Locarno with Toms Harjo’s “In The Truth,” co-produced by Les Films d’Antoine. It follows 17-year-old Tom as he struggles to satisfy both his strict Jehovah’s Witness family and his own emerging sexual desires. Drawing from Harjo’s own experiences, it examines “a rarely seen religious community with intimacy and nuance” while “revealing the profoundly human desire to belong,” says Vernere.

Lithuania

Viktorija Rimkutė, Dansu Films

One of Lithuania’s biggest producers, co-producing “Agent Hamilton” and “Solomamma” and producing “Troll Farm,” at 2025’s Berlinale Series Market Selects. Now priming Ernestas Jankauskas’ “The Queen Of England Stole My Parents,” a semi fantasy fable exploring the challenges faced by foster parents when adopting Smiltė, a 10-year-old rebel with a vivid imagination. A Tallinn Co-Production Market favorite pitch award winner. 

Akvilė Žilionytė, Artišokai
Developing documentary and fiction films rooted in personal stories with international relevance. Its first doc-feature, “In Passing,” premiered in 2025. Teaming with Poland’s MX35 on Nuruzzaman Khan’s “Where It Rains,” co-written by Žilionytė, about a Bangladeshi father living in Lithuania writing letters to his son, trying to bridge the distance between two cultures and two homes. “At first, I thought I was making a film to preserve my son’s childhood. Somewhere along the way, I realised I was also trying to preserve my own,” says Khan.

Montenegro

Ivan Marinović, Adriatic Western

Founded by Ivan Marinović, Adriatic Western is behind award-winning films “The Black Pin” and “Forever Hold Your Peace.” At Locarno with “The Educator,” produced with Sense Production, a body-horror comedy about a teacher who remains drunk to suppress his inner monster. Chaos ensures when his pupil discovers the truth. It’s “a fresh take on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde myth,” exploring “what childhood feels like when the people meant to educate and protect you become the source of fear,” Marinović says.

Miljan Vučelić, Protos Film
Protos Film, headed by Miljan Vučelić, focuses on author-driven works, supports emerging filmmakers and develops projects with strong international potential. Recent features include “Comedown,” currently in post, and doc “About a Brother.” At Locarno with Đorđe Vojvodić’s development prize-winning “Nothing Will Be Named After Me,” produced with Bitter Frames, about a once powerful state official recovering from a stroke in his luxury hotel but trying desperately to retain power. It “moves from darkly comic character drama into psychological thriller,” Vučelić teases.

Poland

Julia Jendrysik, Rizz Films

Warsaw-based Rizz Films, headed by Julia Jendrysik and Anna Majek, develops local works and international co-productions, including Tomasz Wróbel’s Fantasia short “The Noise of Waves.” It presents at Match Me! “Mother Daughter,” co-produced with WFDiF. Based on Mira Marcinów’s acclaimed novel, the film follows Rita, who’s forced to confront memories and trauma when her mother suddenly falls ill. While it explores difficult family themes “and the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship, it never loses its sense of humor,” Jendrysik tells Variety.

Richard Karpala, Latarka Studio
Latarka Studio, launched by Richard Karpala, saw debut film “Falling Stars” premiere at Locarno, where it’s now moving “Lektor.” About a foreign film voice-over narrator who, after the fall of communism, begins hearing his own voice in every foreigner he encounters. Now jobless, he discovers it’s an unexpected asset abroad. Focusing on a dubber was ideal “for a story set in the early ’90s” about a man who “has to adapt to the cultural and economic changes happening around him,” Karbala says.

Korek Bojanowski, Amondo
A Warsaw-based collective producing films and international co-productions,” Amondo is behind Warsaw screener “Hel” and Venice entry “The Hole in the Fence.” At Locarno with Bojanowski’s “The Art of Spitting.” Warsaw’s only superhero, Julek can fly but has never saved a single life. When a disastrous encounter is mistaken for a heroic rescue, he decides to expose the truth and the charade that is his life. “A portrait of millennial disappointment, wounded masculinity and the need to feel exceptional,” says Bojanowski.

Portugal

Ana Sofia Nunes, Jângal Studios
“Focusing on emerging directors, with particular attention to new forms of storytelling and a commitment to diverse and distinctive voices,” says Nunes. Now developing “Capricorn Syndrome,” (“Síndrome de Capricórnio”), one of its first international co-productions, with Portugal’s David & Golias and Finland’s Films Films Films, “framing mental illness within a dystopian yet familiar reality, the film reflects on our growing search for certainty in an increasingly unstable world,” says director Miguel Munhá. 

Ana Almeida, Matiné
Behind “Terra Vil,” its debut feature, a Tallinn Black Nights competition contender which closed distribution deals for Spain and The Netherlands, besides the production countries Portugal and Italy. Now backing murder mystery “Sacrifice Hill,” adapting Antonio Muñoz Molina’s same-titled short story, “a tense, serene and mysterious film noir,” says its director Luis Filipe Rocha, a 2017 Portuguese Academy Award original screenplay winner for “Grey and Black.”  

Spain

David Aymerich, Ayhe Productions
Tarragona-based, founded in 2020, behind divorce drama “March 14,” and making ambitious strong-identity auteur-driven films from a new generation of filmmakers. At Match Me! with “Cara Sucia,” about Bruno, a Black teenager, marked by skin vitiligo, sentenced to work at a residential home for minors with functional diversity. Unexpectedly, he finds a safe place where he can accept himself by embracing others. “A special coming-of-age story portraying a reality rarely seen on screen,” Aymerich says. 

Eva Bodas, Entre las Piedras
One of Variety’s 2024 10 Emerging Spanish Producers, founding Madrid-based Entre las Piedras in 2022, “to produce bold, political films and giving voice to new filmmaker generations.” She hits Match Me! with “Laguna The Minister,” Antonio Llamas’ follow-up to DocumentaMadrid Audience Award winner “A Suburban Mythology.” An Atlántida – Mallorca Talents Lab laureate turning on a government minister who suddenly stops taking orders and disappear, it “addresses the visceral dissatisfaction with those who make decisions,” says Llamas.

Jesús Chora Zataraín, Lazona Zinema
Heading up Lazona Zinema, the Basque division of Lazona (“Spanish Affair,” “Gigantes”), which aims to “produce bold, risk-taking projects from emerging Basque voices and also large-scale productions and international co-productions,” he says. At Locarno with a banner new talent project, Ikusmira Berriak winner “La Koreana,” Basque writer-director Joana Moya feature debut, produced with Sirimiri Films, founded by Estibaliz Urresola, director of Berlinale winner “20,000 Species of Bees.” Another of Variety’s 2024 10 Emerging Spanish Producers.