{"id":31201,"date":"2026-08-07T15:12:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31201"},"modified":"2026-08-07T15:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:12:28","slug":"locarno-pro-2026-debates-power-people-data-in-film-in-which-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=31201","title":{"rendered":"Locarno Pro 2026 Debates Power, People, Data in Film. In Which Order?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cPower. People. Data.\u201d That is a core theme of this year\u2019s program of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/locarno-pro-industry-winners-2025-nina-roza-lunar-sway-1236341132\/\">Locarno Pro<\/a>, the industry strand\u00a0of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/2026-locarno-film-festival-program-unveiled-hong-sang-soo-1236641562\/\">Locarno Film Festival<\/a>, whose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/locarno-film-festival-poster-2026-cindy-sherman-1236579961\/\">79th edition<\/a> is currently taking place in the Swiss lakeside city. But in which order should we think about these key concepts and buzzwords? Is it maybe people, power, data? <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tYou may have your own thoughts, and the opening day of the 15th edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/locarno-pro\/\" id=\"auto-tag_locarno-pro_1\" data-tag=\"locarno-pro\">Locarno Pro<\/a>, led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/markus-duffner-named-head-of-locarno-pro-4108214\/\">Markus Duffner<\/a>\u00a0in his sixth year, showed that there are very different ways to think about the order of and relationship between the three. After all, a three-person panel shared three different approaches and thoughts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tModerated by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/independent-film-risks-ticket-pricing-ai-locarno-pro-stepin-1236379934\/\">AC Coppers<\/a> of The Catalysts, the panel featured Yasmine Talli, acquisitions manager at sales agent, producer and distributor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/mk2\/\" id=\"auto-tag_mk2_1\" data-tag=\"mk2\">mk2<\/a> Films, Andrea Occhipinti, president and founder of Italian producer and distributor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/lucky-red\/\" id=\"auto-tag_lucky-red_1\" data-tag=\"lucky-red\">Lucky Red<\/a>, in which StudioCanal recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/studiocanal-lucky-red-51-percent-deal-italy-1236513728\/\">acquired a majority stake<\/a>, Doris Ruth Eikhof, CEO of the University of Glasgow spin-out company Design Otherwise, which focuses on helping organizations to improve inclusion and diversity in the cultural sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAsked about how she thinks about the order of and relationship between the three words in focus of the discussion, Eikhof offered her take: power, data, people. \u201cPeople will be people. They\u2019ll be more or less wise or more or less flawed,\u201d she explains. \u201cSo, we sort out the power structures first and the stories that we tell about ourselves \u2013 that\u2019s what data really is. Then we have the best chance at creating a space in which everyone can prosper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOcchipinti had a different approach. \u201cI\u2019ll go with people first,\u201d he said. \u201cJudgment, sensitivity and experiences come first. Then comes power. And data is a very important tool that we have to use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAnd Talli shared this thought: people, data, power. \u201cIt\u2019s probably true that people need to gather some data in order to keep power,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tA key topic the industry players were asked about was how much they make decisions about films based on conviction versus data and algorithms. \u201cWe don\u2019t use algorithms to choose a film that we want to distribute or produce,\u201d shared Occhipinti. \u201cWe go very much on instinct, sensitivity and experience. If there\u2019s something that clicks in that film, in that story, even if data or comparables or whatever says don\u2019t do it, often we have proved the contrary\u201d is true.<\/p>\n<p>He mentioned examples, too. \u201cWe saw a film like <em>Ida<\/em> [by Pawel Pawlikowski] \u2013\u00a0a Polish film, black-and-white,\u201d Occhipinti noted. \u201cWe saw it twice. This cannot work, but we still thought it\u2019s a great movie. Or [Barry Jenkins\u2019] <em>Moonlight<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>His takeaway was that there are clearly \u201cmovies that on paper are not going to be successful,\u201d but<br \/>conviction can trump data. Not that Lucky Red doesn\u2019t look at data. As a distributor, the firm has a community that responds to films, which is a form of data, he told the panel audience. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what they are looking for, but we test what they react to,\u201d Occhipinti concluded. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHow does mk2 make its decisions? Talli outlined a similar approach. \u201cWhen we consider projects, \u2026[we use] emotion, taste and the human aspects, but we also have what we want to believe gives us some more certainty that a film is going to work,\u201d she said. \u201cThe things that we mostly pay attention to [include] the track record of a director, checking which festivals he or she attended with his or her previous work. The people around that director also matter. Who is the producer? The cast also gives a pretty big indication for us when we consider the potential in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/international\/\" id=\"auto-tag_international_1\" data-tag=\"international\">international<\/a> market,\u201d mostly for English-language films. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tTalli shared that mk2 is also looking at \u201ccomparables, films that have premiered in recent years that for some reason feel that they could be compared to the projects we are evaluating, not necessarily because the story is similar.\u201d She explained that it is more of \u201ca market comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All in all, at mk2, \u201cit\u2019s a process that actually involves a lot of people,\u201d Talli concluded. \u201cWe have a pool of readers. If the readers are recommending something, then we go to the next level to people in the acquisitions team. So, it\u2019s very much a group decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe panel session was part of the 2026 StepIn kick-off event session, following a debate-inducing presentation by film industry data analyst Stephen Follows, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/top-films-nepo-baby-creative-locarno-pro-stephen-follows-1236665694\/\">raised eyebrows with data points<\/a> and hard truths in a presentation entitled \u201cFear, Lies, and the Illusion of Control.\u201d Among the issues he covered were the likes of how many of this century\u2019s 100 top-grossing films have a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/top-films-nepo-baby-creative-locarno-pro-stephen-follows-1236665694\/\">nepo baby creative<\/a>\u201d and what low percentage of indie films generate a profit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cPower. People. Data.\u201d That is a core theme of this year\u2019s program of\u00a0Locarno Pro, the industry strand\u00a0of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival, whose 79th edition is currently taking place in the Swiss lakeside city. But in which order should we think about these key concepts and buzzwords? Is it maybe people, power, data? You may have your&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LCB05518.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}