An Industry Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Cagnolino
Genre: Crime, Drama
Length of film: in word(s) / number(s)
Date: January 2020
Director: Hugo Diego Garcia
Producer: Pietro Mercieca, Lorenzo Bentivoglio, Malo Garcia, Jordan Evrard, Hugo Diego Garcia
Writer: Hugo Diego Garcia
Cinematographer: Vincent Beck
Production Company: ILLIS
Budget: NA
Financing: Self financing
Shooting Format: text
Screening Format: 4:3
World Premiere: Houston WorldFest Best Thriller and Best Scoring, Open World Toronto Best Actor for Hugo Diego Garcia
Awards: NA
Website: NA
The Official Trailer for Cagnolino
Watch The Trailer for Cagnolino
A Short Biography of Hugo Diego Garcia
Hugo Diego Garcia is a French and Spanish actor director of Italian descent. Garcia pursued both boxing and Law school before his undeniable passion for acting took precipice. He went on to study theater and cinema in Paris and Los Angeles before adding writer and director to his resume. His first two short films, Tony and Cagnolino screened at numerous festivals worldwide and garnered several awards.
His performance in it was highly praised and Tony was named one of the Best 10 Short Films of 2019 by the UK Film Review and from Silver Bear winners, Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo (La Terra Dell Abbastanza, Favolacce). Hugo’s credits include Touchées, Alexandra Lamy’s first feature film and of the leading roles in Hulu’s Career Opportunities in Murder and Mayhem.
Hugo wrote, produced and co-directed alongside Lorenzo Bentivoglio his first feature Vache Folle in which he plays the lead. The movie by the duo LOGO will be released in 2022.
The Hugo Diego Garcia Interview
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Hugo Diego Garcia (HDG): Cagnolino, which means little dog in Italian, is a genre film about the unfortunate encounter between small-time thugs from the hood and a group of rich kids.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Hugo Diego Garcia (HDG): Cagnolino got selected in several festivals, including Carmarthen Bay Film Festival, Barnes Film Festival, Houston WorldFest (where it won Best Thriller and Best Scoring), Dances With Films, Woodstock Film Festival and HollyShorts. Hugo Diego Garcia got nominated in the Best Actor category for his leading role as Dario at Open World Toronto Film Festival. It’s currently doing the festival circuit and about to screen in more film festivals.
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
HDG: One summer night, a group of dropout hoodlums goes looking to make easy money, driving around in search of prey. When they come across four rich kids, things take an unexpected turn for the worse.
Development & Financing?
HDG: I was working on a feature film for a while and knew it was going to take a long time to achieve it. I decided to test some of its ideas and components in a short movie. Although different in genre and essence, the two projects share common elements.
On top of wanting to actually shoot and move forward, the project served both as a test and a testament of what I could do, as an actor and director, within this world. It served as an experience builder, as well as a showcase, but ultimately should be considered a finished artistic product. The story has a beginning, a middle and an end. For financing, we used mostly our own financing and got some support from the city of Oyonnax, France, where my team and I come from.
Production?
HDG: I wrote the movie rather quickly and after a few back and forth exchanges with supervisors, we set up a date. We left LA where we reside, with my team composed of producer and lead actor Pietro Mercieca, and Jordan Evrard, to Oyonnax, France, to join with Malo Garcia, our composer and producer and lead actor Lorenzo Bentivoglio.
Once the team was reunited, we started casting. We had open calls in France and found very talented actors, including rising French sensations Idir Azougli and Samir Decazza. We worked hard in our French offices for about a month, which is a rather short time and started shooting, over 8 days.
After wrapping up we moved to Paris to edit it, and had to work on it for a few months, mostly retouching, re-cutting, adaptations, subtitles and sounds, and we finished with coloring and sound mixing back in January, 6 months after we shot. Working between Los Angeles and Paris made us lose a few months.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
HDG: As a crime drama genre film, with a sensitive and arguably sensitive topic, we targeted festivals open to such movies. We looked for edgy festivals with solid line-ups. Ultimately, we got several selections, which was a great thing as we were virtual outsiders, with no PR team, no easy subject and no push behind. The pandemic obviously affected us as we missed a few deadlines, couldn’t attend live and pushed back some of our targeted festivals.
The Release?
HDG: The movie hasn’t yet been released and we look to sell it to a distributor eventually.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
HDG: More pre-prod, solid script-supervisor, don’t forget the AD, and there’s never enough money.
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