Locarno Film Festival's business-focused Locarno Pro programme is bucking the traditional European summer lull, drawing more than 1,000 industry professionals for a packed schedule of talks and networking. It opens with the 15th edition of the StepIn think-tank, a one-day gathering of distributors, sales agents and producers that this year turns its attention to the growing influence of algorithms, independent film financing, private investment and issues of activism and gender equality.

Organised by Locarno Pro director Markus Duffner and project manager Marcello Paolillo, the closed-door sessions bring together around 60 senior figures, including distributors Andrea Occhipinti and Ryan Werner, sales agents Tine Klint and Susan Wendt, and producers Christine Vachon and Ed Guiney, among others. Duffner notes that industry change is accelerating, with trends now needing to be anticipated only one or two years ahead rather than three or four. He also points to sales agents increasingly taking on co-production and financing roles, and highlights new initiatives such as the Locarno Investment Community, run with non-profit Oxberry, which connects around 45 private investors with roughly 100 talents from the festival's incubator programmes each year.