Locarno Film Festival Explained

Locarno Film Festival
Location:Locarno, Switzerland
Host:Associazione Festival del film Locarno
Last:2024
Main:Current: 77th
Previous:76th
Next:78th

The Locarno Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, short, avant-garde, and retrospective programs. The Piazza Grande section is held in an open-air venue that seats 8,000 spectators.[1] [2] [3]

The top prize of the festival is the Golden Leopard, awarded to the best film in the International Competition. Other awards include the Leopard of Honour for career achievement, and the Prix du Public, the public choice award.

History

The Locarno Film Festival started on 23 August 1946, at the Grand Hotel of Locarno with the screening of the movie O sole mio by Giacomo Gentilomo. The first edition was organized in less than three months with a line-up of fifteen movies, mainly American and Italian, among which was Rome, Open City directed by Roberto Rossellini, And Then There Were None directed by René Clair (1945), Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder (1944) and The Song of Bernadette by Henry King (1943).Later, the Locarno Film Festival presented features and short films by many international directors such as Claude Chabrol, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Verhoeven, Miloš Forman, Marco Bellocchio, Glauber Rocha, Raúl Ruiz, Alain Tanner, Mike Leigh, Béla Tarr, Chen Kaige, Edward Yang, Alexandr Sokurov, Atom Egoyan, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, Gregg Araki, Christoph Schaub, Catherine Breillat, Abbas Kiarostami, Gus Van Sant, Pedro Costa, Fatih Akin, Claire Denis and Kim Ki-Duk.

Editions

The 73rd edition, scheduled from 5 to 15 August 2020, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was cancelled for the first time since World War II; in its place, the special edition called "Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films" was held. The festival had asked high-profile directors including Lucrecia Martel and Lav Diaz to select films from the festival's 74-year history for a retrospective that was screened online and in physical locations.[4] [5]

The 74th Locarno Film Festival took place from 4 to 14 August 2021. Over 75,000 people attended.[6]

The 75th Locarno Film Festival took place from 3 to 13 August 2022. It opened with Brad Pitt's film Bullet Train.[7]

The 76th Locarno Film Festival took place from 2 to 12 August 2023. For this year edition, the acting categories (Best Actor/Best Actress) became gender-neutral after the creation of the Best Performance category.

The 77th Locarno Film Festival took place from 7 to 17 August 2024.[8] This year, the festival announced the launch of a new award in collaboration with social media site Letterboxd.[9]

The 78th Locarno Film Festival will take place from 6 to 16 August 2025.

Awards

Competitive Awards

Concorso internazionale (international competition) – Awards

Former awards include:

Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Filmmakers of the Present) – Awards

Pardi di domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) – Awards

Direction and management

Artistic Directors:

Presidents:

Chief Operating Officers:

See also

External links

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Notes and References

  1. Web site: Piazza Grande. Locarno Festival. en-US. 27 July 2017.
  2. Web site: A long story... in a few words. 27 July 2017. Locarno Festival. en-US.
  3. Web site: Wang Bing interview. 14 August 2017. Locarno Festival. en-US.
  4. Web site: Grater. Tom. 20 July 2020. Lucrecia Martel & Lav Diaz Pick Titles For Locarno Film Festival Retro Program; MUBI To Screen Globally. 23 July 2020. Deadline. en.
  5. Web site: Locarno Festival: 'Germany, Year Zero,' 'Stranger Than Paradise' Among Lineup. 23 July 2020. The Hollywood Reporter. 20 July 2020. en.
  6. Web site: 2021-08-16. Le Festival de Locarno a renoué avec une partie de son public. 2021-10-17. rts.ch. fr.
  7. Web site: Locarno Opens With 'Bullet Train', Surprise Brad Pitt Virtual Appearance & Aaron Taylor-Johnson Tribute. Ntim . Zac. 3 August 2022. 10 August 2022. Deadline . en.
  8. News: Ford . Lily . Jessica Hausner Named Jury President at Locarno Film Festival . 3 June 2024.
  9. Web site: Locarno Film Festival Introduces Letterboxd Award. Roxborough. Scott. 2024-05-08. The Hollywood Report. 2024-05-09.
  10. Web site: Press Release : Carlo Chatrian, new Artistic Director. 4/09/2012 . Pardo.ch .
  11. Web site: Mitchell. Robert. 2018-08-24. Lili Hinstin Named New Locarno Festival Director. 2021-12-27. Variety. en-US.

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