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Debuting Italian director Margherita Ferrari is at the Busan International Film Festival with “Föa – Once Upon a Future,” an innovative coming-of-age drama that also marks Paolo Sorrentino‘s debut as a producer.

Set in Genoa during the tragic days in July 2001 when the G8 summit led to deathly clashes between protesters and police, “Once Upon a Future” tells the story of Nicole, an 18-year-old girl who is eight months pregnant and takes three protesters into her home. Using a fable-like tone, the film provides a fresh perspective on the G8 violence that became a watershed moment in the anti-globalization movement.

“’Föa’ begins with a wound that history never quite managed to close,” Sorrentino said in a statement to Variety. “Margherita Ferrari turns the memory of Genoa into something intimate and dreamlike, where the past quietly returns to question the future.”

“Föa – Once Upon a Future,” which stars emerging talents Gaia Ravina, Clara Tramontano, Iker Urgoiti and Gabriele Falsetta, was co-produced by Sorrentino′s production company Numero 10, with The Apartment and PiperFilm. PiperPlay is handling international sales.

“At a time when imagination needs to be protected, supporting new authors and their singular visions feels more important than ever,” Sorrentino continued. “I am particularly proud that Numero 10 begins this journey with a film told through such a powerful female gaze — a story that reminds us that even after the future seems to have disappeared, it may still be waiting for us.”

The film started as Ferrari’s graduation short at Rome’s Centro Sperimentale film school, after which she had the opportunity to pitch the expanded project to Sorrentino. Below, Ferrari speaks to Variety about what sparked “Once Upon a Future” creatively and its fortuitous production journey.

How did the “Föa – Once Upon a Future” story germinate?

On July 20, 2001, I was only 4. I remember the windows and the typical green shutters of our living room in Genoa had to be closed because outside there was smoke and noise. So, even though it was summer and sweltering inside, we had to barricade ourselves in, staying in the dark. Shut away. That image came back to me during the pandemic. I had sought out that same feeling — of solitude, isolation and even powerlessness — while something much bigger than me and all of us, something powerfully collective, was happening outside. On a more personal level, I’ve always felt a certain disillusionment regarding the limits of my own power; how little impact I can actually have on the world or on contemporary reality. It’s a feeling that hits me every time I speak about this subject.

Tell me more.

I know I’m not just talking about me. I see this reflected in so many of my peers, and perhaps in people in general, who are experiencing the world as it is today. So there is that, combined with the lingering wound of those days and all the traces they left behind. Speaking as someone from Genoa, I felt a desire to tell a story that, even though it’s set in 2001, is really about the future and about today. How do you do that? Usually, fairy tales are set in the distant past. Yet they’re actually meant to speak to the present. So, that’s more or less how it all came about.

Starting with the title, “Föa – Once Upon a Future,” this film is a fable of sorts. Talk to me about this narrative choice, which is unusual in dealing with historical fact.

The Genoese term “Föa” actually means “story,” in the sense of a made-up story, a little tale or a fable. That aspect interested us [myself and my co-writers] partly because we wanted to blend history with a capital H, the kind you study in books, with a fictional tale about a character who doesn’t exist. It also suggests that to tell the truth about reality, you somehow need invention and metaphors, and therefore cinema and fables too. We also wanted to approach this historical event from a more emotional, dreamlike perspective, focusing on the almost unconscious traces that were left within us by those days. This applies even to those, like us, who experienced the aftermath of the Genoa G8 events. In a way, we always felt like we were inside Nicole’s womb, so to speak. The child Nicole is carrying in the film would be 25 or 26 years old today. In a sense, he has been carrying the same question we have, which is: “What will the future awaiting us actually be like?”

I’d like to add that I hope this film offers more than just the questions that are raised by those events. I hope it allows the audience to imagine that things might turn out a bit better. It’s like in fairy tales, I always envisioned a moment of relief at the end, a breath of fresh air that leaves room for that possibility.

What was it like to have Paolo Sorrentino as your producer?

Paolo was very involved during both the initial writing phase and the editing process. But not on set. He treaded lightly in that phase. He just stopped by once to say hello. I tried to get him involved, but he didn’t want to. Basically, he was very keen on not being intrusive and to respect the boundaries of the set. I view that gesture as an act of great tenderness on his part. Even though I’ve always loved getting his advice, it never scared me, I find Paolo to be very patient. I think he had often already thought out certain solutions before we did. But he waited for me, or for me and the editor, to get there on our own, to reach the direction in which the film needed to go. He helped me pursue and protect my vision all the way to the end, while supporting my work as a director through every single phase. It was a beautiful creative process from the start. It also helped me grow, helped me bring the film to the screen and become the person I am today. That’s more or less how it went.

He’s been one half of one of the most cherished on-screen duos in history, yet has famously never spoken a word. That is, up until now.

Gromit, the whip-smart and eye-rolling four-legged friend to cheese-loving inventor Wallace across numerous stop-motion classics from Aardman Animation and “Wallace & Gromit” creator Nick Park, is getting his first autobiography and, with it, an audiobook.

In step Martin Freeman, who will narrate “Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit, as Told to Nick Park,” a book in which, according to the description, Gromit “finally breaks his silence.”

“When you create a character who has no voice, and whose facial expressions are everything, what do you do when your publisher reminds you there’ll be an audiobook? Who could possibly be the voice of a character everyone feels they know, but nobody’s actually heard?” said Park, winner of four Oscars, including three for Wallace & Gromit films “The Wrong Trousers,” “A Close Shave” and “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”

“The more I thought about it, the more I realised Martin Freeman was the obvious choice really. I was genuinely thrilled and honoured when he said yes.”

Recording took place earlier this month at Penguin Studios, with both “Grand: The Autobiography of Gromit” and the audiobook now due for release Oct. 22.

But Park, having previously stated that Freeman was “the voice” of Gromit, in almost the same breath attempted to (doggy) walk back the de-muting of his plasticine hound.

“Martin is not doing a Gromit ‘voice’ as such,” he said. “He’s reading Gromit’s story as Gromit put it; his inner thoughts, his candid insights and endless witticisms, bringing to them his usual colour, thoughtfulness and wry humour.” now from all major audiobook retailers.

Brad Bird, Roger Deakins and the teams behind “Toy Story 5,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Project Hail Mary” head to Turin next week for the 27th View Conference, where AI and the economics of animation and VFX are set to dominate the agenda.

Four of the films being unpacked at the Oct. 12-16 event — “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “The Odyssey,” “Toy Story 5” and “Project Hail Mary” — have collectively generated more than $6 billion worldwide this year. Those sessions sit within a lineup spanning Pixar, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Animation, Disney Animation and Aardman, alongside senior executives from Industrial Light & Magic, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Skydance Animation.

The gathering comes as animation and visual effects companies navigate pressure on production economics, global competition and investment in artificial intelligence. Across five days, View’s filmmaking presentations and executive discussions offer different perspectives on how those pressures are reshaping production.

Five developments to watch:

Animation’s Franchises and Original Ambitions

Brad Bird returns to Turin with “Ray Gunn,” his long-gestating animated sci-fi noir, on a program that brings original projects into the same conversation as some of Hollywood’s most established franchises.

Pixar presents “Toy Story 5” and “Hoppers,” while DreamWorks directors Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado discuss “Forgotten Island.” Sony Pictures Animation brings “GOAT,” and Disney Animation producer Yvett Merino presents “Hexed.” Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham addresses stop-motion filmmaking.

Bird’s project offers a different timescale from the industry’s emphasis on faster production. Developed across decades of changes in financing, studio ownership and technology, “Ray Gunn” provides an opportunity to examine how an original animated feature retains its creative identity over a prolonged development process.

Studio Leaders Confront the Business

The executive program may offer the clearest view of the decisions shaping where and how films are made.

Michelle Grady, president of Sony Pictures Imageworks; Holly Edwards, president of Skydance Animation; and Janet Lewin, senior VP, general manager and head of ILM, join Cinesite Group VFX COO Shawn Walsh and other senior figures for Industry Executives Shaping the Future of Cinema.

At last year’s View, Tippett Studio CEO Gary Mundell described AI as a tool to accelerate production, saying the challenge was to make it serve the studio’s purposes rather than the other way around. The question for this year’s executive panel may be how such ambitions translate into investment, staffing and sustainable business decisions.

Their companies operate across different parts of the production business, but face overlapping questions: how to manage capacity, retain experienced artists, compete internationally and assess investment in new tools while protecting margins.

Those decisions have consequences beyond individual productions. They influence where work is commissioned, which skills companies recruit and how much scope filmmakers have to develop increasingly complex vfx and animation within a fixed budget.

Inside the Year’s Major Productions

Presentations on “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “The Odyssey,” “Project Hail Mary,” “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” and “The Mandalorian & Grogu” move the discussion from corporate strategy to production practice at the peak.

The sessions go deep each with an hour on stage; with their peers in attendance. Quality is high, often taking in how shots developed, which elements were achieved practically, what moved into postproduction and how teams coordinated the work.

These sessions also provide a useful counterpoint to claims that filmmaking is moving toward a single production model. Large-scale features continue to draw on combinations of physical construction, photography, animation and simulation, with the balance determined by the requirements of each sequence.

AI Moves Into the Production Debate

“AI will be the most hotly debated topic at VIEW Conference 2026,” VIEW CEO and executive director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez told Variety.

Runway co-founder and co-CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela and Nvidia global media and entertainment VP Richard Kerris headline panel Every Pixel Will Be Generated. Other sessions examine AI-native production and changing entry points into animation and VFX.

For studios and suppliers, the commercial question extends beyond what generative systems can produce. It is whether those outputs can be controlled, and integrated into a production pipeline reliably enough to deliver savings, and how companies grapple with the ethical questions those savings raise.

That brings the technology debate back to familiar concerns about creative authority, staffing, schedules and accountability.

Cinematography Closes the Conversation

Friday’s program brings several of the week’s themes together. “Toy Story 5” shares the day with Every Pixel Will Be Generated, presentations on “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “Project Hail Mary,” and Aardman’s stop-motion filmmaking.

Two-time Oscar winner Roger Deakins and James Ellis Deakins then close the conference with a session on cinematography.

After so much discussion of what machines might make, and what companies could afford, the conference will end with two people considering how an image comes to mean something. It is a fitting conclusion. For the industry’s questions are not merely those of invention or economy; they concern the relation between the tools at its disposal and the stories us humans want to tell.