Le Laboratoire Central is a production company dedicated to the development and production of independent and ambitious films that explore the personal universe of their authors. Created in 2003 with the desire to consider production as a tool at the service of the artistic process, Le Laboratoire Central (formerly: “Les films de la dernière heure”) brings together the skills of Nadejda Magnenat, producer, François Bovy and Pierre-François Sauter, both directors.
Nadejda Magnenat is a film producer. She devotes herself to projects with an asserted poetic and aesthetic potential and considers that film production is above all an artistic gesture. She graduated in film directing at ECAL School of Art and Design and has directed several short films and worked for production companies for about ten years as an assistant, screenwriter and production manager. Aside to her work as a producer, she is writing a PhD at the University focusing on the links between poetry and cinema.
Since 2012, she is on the Cinéforom Selection Committee panel of experts.
E-mail: nadejda@lelaboratoirecentral.com
Pierre-François Sauter is a filmmaker. After growing up in Mozambique during the period of decolonization, he moved to Europe as a teenager. He first worked in the arts, then as a film director for RTBF, in Belgium, and SF1-DRS, in Switzerland.
In 2009, he directed FACE AU JUGE, a feature-length documentary that was released at Visions du Réel and selected, among others, at the Beijing Independent Film Festival 2010 (Songzhuang, China) and for « Le Prix de Soleure ». This film was distributed at the cinema in Switzerland.
CALABRIA, his second feature-length documentary, was premiered in the international competition at Visions du Réel in 2016, where it received a special jury mention. CALABRIA was then selected in more than forty international festivals where it was awarded four major prizes (DocLisboa in Portugal, Fidba in Argentina, Flahertiana in Russia and Sanfici in Colombia) as well as the award for excellence at the ConstruirCine festival in Argentina. CALABRIA was released in Switzerland in 2017.
FAR WEST, his third feature film, was selected in the international competition at Visions du Réel in 2024. This project had previously been part of The Films After Tomorrow selection at the Locarno Festival in 2020.
François Bovy is a filmmaker. He shares a homebase between Switzerland and Colombia. He is currently working on his new documentary feature film project entitled INSECTICIDE.
In 2005, he did his first feature-length documentary, MELODIAS , in Medellin. That film won the European Film Academy nomination for the Arte Prize (European Film Award for Best Documentary); it went on to be selected for numerous festivals and to garner a number of prizes (a.o. Visions du Réel, Pampelona, Milan).
François Bovy had previously directed BEL CANTO, a short film that attracted a great deal of attention on the festival circuit (a.o. Prix Canal + in Clermont-Ferrand, Jury Prize in Poitiers). He wrote the screenplay of a feature fiction film, SOIF [Thirst], for which he received a grant from the Société Suisse des Auteurs (the SSA – Swiss Authors Society).
Besides his work as a filmmaker, François serves as both head cameraman and scriptwriter.
Marí Alessandrini grew up in Patagonia. At a very young age she started working in photography, scenic arts and contemporary circus, travelling in South & North America. At the age of 26, she left Argentina to study cinema in Europe. She graduated in Film Direction and Visual Arts at the University of Geneva -HEAD.
Marí Alessandrini made several documentaries and short fiction films selected in Internationals Festivals & Art Centres. She was chosen by the Cinéfondation from Cannes Festival to develop her first feature ZAHORÍ that she shot in the steppe of Patagonia. ZAHORÍ won the Pardo of the Swiss selection of “The Films After Tomorrow” at the Locarno Film Festival in 2020. The film, produced by Le Laboratoire Central, was then selected at the Locarno Film Festival 2021 in the “Concorso Cineasti del presente”.
ZAHORÍ was released in Switzerland in November 2021 and in France in July 2022.
Contact : info@lelaboratoirecentral.com
Nicolas Wagnières is a filmaker. He graduated from HEAD (Geneva School of Fine Arts) in 2005 with a degree in filmmaking, and was then employed for five years as assistant and research collaborator for the Réseau Master Cinéma Suisse. He coordinated and worked on various workshops, including those of Peter Liechti, Eugène Green and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
After his studies, Nicolas worked as an archivist and filmmaker at the Bophana audiovisual resource center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, under the direction of Rithy Pahn.
He has directed several institutional films in Geneva and has collaborated as a filmmaker and videographer with many stage directors and choreographers in French-speaking Switzerland (Foofwa d’Imobilité, Noémi Lapzeson, Jérôme Richer, etc.).
In 2018, Nicolas directed HOTEL JUGOSLAVIJA, a feature documentary selected at the Berlinale in the Panorama section, and in many other international festivals (Sao Paolo Biennale, Taipei Doc,Thessaloniki Doc Fest, Belgrade Beldocs, Duhok International Film Fest, etc.).
HOTEL JUGOSLAVIJA was theatrically released in Switzerland, Germany, Macedonia and Albania, and broadcast on television (RTS Switzerland, RTS Serbia, TV5 monde).
He is currently preparing his second feature film, MY FRIEND GUILLAUME, produced by le Laboratoire Central.
Contact : info@lelaboratoirecentral.com
Yann Bétant is a filmaker. He trained in Belgium at the Lassaad theater school, then as a director at the Institut des arts de diffusion – IAD.
Based in Lausanne, he works as a director, cameraman and editor on various documentary and institutional projects. As a cineaste-filmer, in 2015 he directed CICI, his first feature-length documentary, in which he follows the journey of a street puppeteer of Roma origin between Romania and Switzerland. The film was selected at the Visions du Réel festival in Switzerland, Astra Film in Romania and the FIFP in Belgium. He is co-directing LES MAINS DANS LA TERRE with Kantarama Gahigiri in 2019, a feature-length documentary for RTS about urban vegetable gardens.
He is currently working on his second feature film, RADIO SEPARATION, produced by le Laboratoire Central.
Contact: info@lelaboratoirecentral.com
