The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August 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. The top prize of the festival is the

Golden Leopard The Golden Leopard () is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to be ...

, 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 Festival del film Locarno kicked off on 23 August 1946, at the Grand Hotel of Locarno with the screening of the movie ''O sole mio'' by

Giacomo Gentilomo Giacomo Gentilomo (5 April 1909 – 16 April 2001) was an Italian film director and painter. Biography Born in Trieste, at very young age Gentilomo moved to Rome, where at 21 years old he entered the cinema industry, working as a script survivo ...

. 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 ''Rome, Open City'' ( it, Roma città aperta, also released as ''Open City'') is a 1945 Italian neorealist war drama film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Sergio Amidei, Celeste Negarville and Federico Fellini. Set in Rome in ...

'' directed by

Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such ...

, '' And Then There Were None'' directed by René Clair (1945), '' Double Indemnity'' by

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Hol ...

(1944) and '' The Song of Bernadette'' by Henry King (1943). Later, the Festival del film Locarno presented features and short films by many international directors such as Claude Chabrol, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Verhoeven, Miloš Forman,

Marco Bellocchio Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Life and career Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schoolt ...

, Glauber Rocha, Raúl Ruiz, Alain Tanner,

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design ...

Béla Tarr Béla Tarr (born 21 July 1955) is a Hungarian filmmaker. Debuting with the film ''Family Nest'' (1977), Tarr began his directorial career with a brief period of what he refers to as "social cinema", aimed at telling everyday stories about ordin ...

, Chen Kaige, Edward Yang,

Alexandr Sokurov Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR (russian: link=no, Александр Николаевич Сокуров; born 14 June 1951) is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, '' Russian Ark'' (2002), filmed in a ...

, Atom Egoyan, Jim Jarmusch,

Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...

, Gregg Araki, Christoph Schaub,

Catherine Breillat Catherine Breillat (; born 13 July 1948) is a French filmmaker, novelist and professor of auteur cinema at the European Graduate School. In the film business for over 40 years, Catherine Breillat chooses to normalize previously taboo subjects ...

Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( fa, عباس کیارستمی ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of ...

, Gus Van Sant,

Pedro Costa Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in Lisbon, which focuses on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood. Biography After com ...

Fatih Akin Fatih Akin (Turkish: Fatih Akın, born 25 August 1973) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer of Turkish descent. He has won numerous awards for his films, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film '' Head- ...

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...

and

Kim Ki-Duk Kim Ki-duk ( ; 20 December 196011 December 2020) was a South Korean film director and screenwriter, noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit, rendering him one of ...

. The 73rd edition, scheduled from 5 to 15 August 2020, was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, it was cancelled for the first time since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

; 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 Lucrecia Martel (born December 14, 1966) is an Argentine film director, screenwriter and producer whose feature films have frequented Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, and many other international film festivals. Film scholar Paul Julian Smith w ...

and

Lav Diaz Lavrente Indico Anciro Diaz (born December 30, 1958) is a Filipino independent filmmaker and former film critic. Frequently known as one of the key members of the slow cinema movement, having made several of the longest narrative films on recor ...

to select films from the festival's 74-year history for a retrospective that was screened online and in physical locations. The

74th Locarno Film Festival The 74th annual Locarno Festival was held from 4 August to 14 August 2021 in Locarno, Switzerland. The opening film of the festival was '' Beckett'' by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, which had its world premiere on 4 August. The 74th edition of Loc ...

took place from 4 to 14 August 2021. Over 75,000 people attended. The

75th Locarno Film Festival The 75th annual Locarno Festival opened on 3 August 2022 in Locarno, Switzerland with film '' Bullet Train'' by David Leitch. The 75th edition of Locarno Film Festival celebrated as diamond jubilee edition screened 226 films including 105 world ...

took place from 3 to 13 August 2022. It opened with Brad Pitt's film ''

Bullet Train Bullet train may refer to: Rail * Shinkansen high-speed trains of Japan, nicknamed for their appearance and speed * Other high-speed trains of a similar appearance to Japanese trains * An ongoing project to build high-speed rail in India. Rail to ...

''.

Awards

Competitive Awards

''Concorso internazionale'' (international competition) - Awards

* Pardo d'oro (

). Grand Prize of the festival, awarded by the city and region of Locarno, for the best film in the ''concorso internazionale'' (international competition). * Special Jury Prize. Prize, awarded by cities of Ascona and

Losone Losone is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. History The peat bogs of Arcegno, the rock shelters of Quarigo and the rock carvings in soapstone and gneiss appear to confirm that Losone has been inhab ...

, for the second best film in the ''concorso internazionale'' (international competition). * Leopard for Best Direction. Prize, awarded by the city and region of Locarno, for the best directed film in the concorso internazionale (international competition). * Leopard for Best Actress. * Leopard for Best Actor. * Swatch First Feature Awards. Prize awarded by a jury of international critics to the first works presented in the sections ''concorso internazionale'', ''concorso Cineasti del presente'', ''Fuori concorso'', ''Moving ahead (ex Signs of Life)'' and ''Piazza Grande''.

''Concorso Cineasti del Presente'' (Filmmakers of the Present) - Awards

* Pardo d'oro Cineasti del presente ( Golden Leopard - Filmmakers of the Present). Prize awarded to the best film of this competition, which is dedicated to first or second features. * Ciné+ Special Jury Prize – Cineasti del presente. The French television channel Ciné+ Club offers the broadcast rights to the winning film and guarantees the broadcast on their channel. * Pardo per il miglior regista emergente (Leopard for Best New Director): Prize for the best new director. * Pardo per la migliore opera prima (Leopard for the Best First Feature). Prize which has been awarded from 2006 to 2009 to the best first work screened in the competition concorso internazionale or concorso Cineasti del presente.

''Pardi di domani'' (Leopards of Tomorrow) - Awards

* Pardino d'oro for the Best International Short Film – SRG SSR Prize. Prize awarded to the best short film in the international short film competition ''Pardi di domani.'' * Pardino d'oro for the Best Swiss Short Film – Swiss Life Prize. Prize awarded to the best short film in the national short film competition ''Pardi di domani.'' * Pardino d'argento SSR SRG for the international competition. Prize awarded to a film in the international competition ''Pardi di domani.'' * Pardino d'argento Swiss Life for the national competition. Prize awarded to a film in the national competition ''Pardi di domani.'' * Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards – Pianifica Prize. The prize, which is offered by the studio ''Pianifica'', goes to a short film made by a European director, presented in one of the two competitions. The award includes an automatic nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards. * Prize for Best Swiss Newcomer. The prize provides equipment offered by Cinegrell, Visuals SA, Freestudios SA, Taurus Studio e Avant-première SA/Film Demnächst AG. * Premio Medien Patent Verwaltung AG''.'' The winning film will be subtitled in three central European languages. This subtitling can be inserted on film, video or DVD format. * Green Pardo WWF In collaboration with WWF, the Green Pardo WWF is the prize that aims to find the film which best reflects the environmental theme in any of the Festival’s competition sections. The award constitutes a Green statue and to the director.

Direction and management

Artistic Directors: * 1946–1958: Riccardo Bolla * 1960–1965: Vinicio Beretta * 1966: Sandro Bianconi * 1967–1970: Sandro Bianconi, Freddy Buache * 1971: Commission of direction, composed of seven members from Ticino * 1972–1977: Moritz de Hadeln * 1978–1981: Jean-Pierre Brossard * 1982–1991: David Streiff * 1992–2000: Marco Müller * 2000–2005: Irene Bignardi * 2005–2009: Frédéric Maire * 2010–2012:

Olivier Père Born in 1971 in Marseilles, a French national, Olivier Père graduated with a degree in Humanities from the University of Sorbonne ( Paris IV). He joined the French Cinémathèque in 1995, and soon became in charge of the programme, organizing n ...

* 2012–2018: Carlo Chatrian * 2018–2020: Lili Hinstin *2020: Nadia Dresti (ad interim) * 2021–: Giona A. Nazzaro Presidents: * 1946–1955: Camillo Beretta * 1957–1962: Enrico Franzioni * 1963–1968: Fernando Gaja * 1970–1980: Luciano Giudici * 1981–1999: Raimondo Rezzonico * Since 2000: Marco Solari Chief Operating Officers: * 2006–2013: Marco Cacciamognaga * 2013–2017: Mario Timbal * Since August 2017: Raphaël Brunschwig (Managing Director since 2022)

Gallery

File:Piazza Grande Locarno.jpg, Piazza Grande screening venue File:Festival internazionale del film di Locarno.JPG, The screen in the Piazza Grande File:Festival-del-film-locarno-03.jpg, Night life during the Festival, Locarno City Garden.

References

External links

Festival del film Locarno Official Site
(in English and Italian)
Festival del film Locarno at Internet Movie Database
{{Authority control Film festivals in Switzerland 1946 establishments in Switzerland Film festivals established in 1946 Tourist attractions in Ticino Locarno Festival