The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

, held annually in

Locarno Locarno (; ; Ticinese dialect, Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Switzerland, Swiss List of towns in Switzerland, town and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district Locarno (district), Locarno (of which it is the capita ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. 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 b ...

, awarded to the best film in the International Competition. Other awards include the

Leopard of Honour The Leopard of Honour is a life's work achievement award at the Locarno International Film Festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. The award has been given out since 1989. The award especially denotes recognition of auteur cinema and cre ...

for career achievement, and the

Prix du Public The Prix du Public UBS is a prize assigned by the audience attending the Locarno Film Festival in Piazza Grande. Winners * 1994: '' Senza pelle'', directed by Alessandro d'Alatri * 1995: ''Smoke'', directed by Wayne Wang * 1996: Microcosmos, ...

, the public choice award.

History

The Locarno Film Festival was established by the tourist office Pro Locarno and several professionals from the movie industry. As stated by cinema historians, it emerged as a ‘grassroots celebration’ and mostly oriented on attracting tourists to Locarno, offering various entertainment events such as fashion shows and excursions. The inaugural evening took place on 23 August 1946, at the

Grand Hotel A grand hotel is a large and luxurious hotel, especially one housed in a building with traditional architectural style. It began to flourish in the 1800s in Europe and North America. Grand Hotel may refer to: Hotels Africa * Grande Hotel Beir ...

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 Painting, painter. Early life He was born in Trieste. Gentilomo moved to Rome at a young age. Career At 21 years old he entered the cinema industry, working ...

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

'' directed by

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

, ''

And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery fiction, mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, who described it as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 N ...

'' directed by

René Clair René Clair (; 11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette (), was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. H ...

(1945), ''

Double Indemnity ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. Wilder and Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay from James M. Cain's Double Indemnity (novel), novel of the same na ...

'' by

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and ver ...

(1944) and '' The Song of Bernadette'' by Henry King (1943). Until the mid-1950s, LFF was allowed to screen only the movies that were commercially distributed in Switzerland. The authorities considered LLF to be a private event and did not support it financially, which is why the festival experienced constant difficulties. The 1951 edition was cancelled due to a lack of fundings. In 1953, LFF was downgraded to the D rank in FIAPF classification. In response to such a loss of prestige, in 1954 the government acknowledged LFF as an event of national significance which allowed the festival to send invitations to film-producing countries via diplomatic channels and thus Swiss distributors could finally import movies out of their annual quota specifically for the festival. Under Vinicio Beretta, LFF opened up to national cinematographies, especially those of Eastern Europe. Since 1953, every year the festival has screened features from Eastern Germany, the USSR, etc. Managed mostly by the Pro Locarno tourists office, it strived to offer the visitors an extraordinary entertainment and stood out as an international meeting point in a neutral country. The critics, however, accused the event of communist propaganda, as the anthem of socialist countries was played before the screenings of their films and the flag was raised during the ceremony. Still, the accusations made the Swiss intelligence services closely monitor the festival, while the officials insisted on lesser selection of features from the Eastern bloc. In 1956, a commercial dispute between Swiss distributors and foreign producers amidst heavy political tension in connection to the repression of the 1956 Budapest insurrection led to cancellation of the 1956 LFF edition. This caused the Swiss authorities to ask the FIAPF to cease attacks on LFF. In 1959, the festival accessed the A-rank. It shifted to July, to higher tourist season, and introduced retrospectives in collaboration with the Cinemathèque suisse. Under Vinicio Beretta, LFF director since 1960, the festival finally procured state financial support. By then, the festival had gained a unique reputation as an alternative “to traditional commercial distribution” as it pioneered Italian Neo-Realism, Latin American and Asian Cinema, and especially Polish, Czech, and Hungarian New Waves. Another major scandal occurred when the jury of the 1960 edition awarded the highest prize to the Soviet movie ''Foma Gordeyev''. Political tensions and accusations forced Beretta to accept the creation of a “national” selection commission, offered by the authorities. The festival's most successful era was under

Moritz de Hadeln Moritz de Hadeln (born 21 December 1940 in Exeter, Devon, England) is a Swiss documentary film director and photographer, who became a Film Festival director. He was the founder of Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel. He also head ...

, who succeeded in internationalizing and stabilizing the LFF during the 1970s. Later, the Locarno Film Festival presented features and short films by many international directors such as

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

Paul Verhoeven Paul Verhoeven (; born 18 July 1938) is a Dutch filmmaker, who has worked variously in the Netherlands, the United States, and in France. He is known for directing genre films with strong satirical elements, often featuring graphic violence and ...

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech Americans, Czech-American film film director, director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the Uni ...

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 schooltea ...

Glauber Rocha Glauber de Andrade Rocha (; 14 March 1939 – 22 August 1981) was a Brazilian film director, actor and screenwriter. He was one of the most influential moviemakers of Brazilian cinema and a key figure of Cinema Novo. His films '' Black God, Whi ...

, Raúl Ruiz,

Alain Tanner Alain Tanner (6 December 1929 – 11 September 2022) was a Swiss film director. Early years and education Tanner was born in Geneva, and studied economics at the University of Geneva. In 1951, he joined the film club which Claude Goretta had r ...

Mike Leigh Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English screenwriter, producer, director and former actor with a film, theatre, and television career spanning more than 60 years. His accolades include prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin In ...

Béla Tarr Béla Tarr (born 21 July 1955) is a Hungarian filmmaker. Debuting with the film '' Family Nest'' (1979), Tarr began his directorial career with a brief period of what he refers to as "social cinema", aimed at telling everyday stories about ordi ...

Chen Kaige Chen Kaige ( zh, s=陈凯歌, link=no; born 12 August 1952) is a Chinese filmmaker. A leading figure of the fifth generation of Chinese directors, Chen is known for his visual flair and epic storytelling.Berry, Michael (2002). "Chen Kaige: His ...

Edward Yang Edward Yang (; November 6, 1947 – June 29, 2007) was a Taiwanese and American filmmaker. He rose to prominence as a pioneer in the Taiwanese New Wave of the 1980s, alongside fellow auteurs Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang. Yang was reg ...

Alexandr Sokurov Alexander Nikolayevich Sokurov, PAR (; born 14 June 1951) is a Russian filmmaker. His most significant works include a feature film, ''Russian Ark'' (2002), filmed in a single unedited shot, and ''Faust'' (2011), which was honoured with the G ...

Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan (; ; born July 19, 1960) is an Armenian Canadians, Armenian-Canadian filmmaker. One of the most preeminent directors of the Toronto New Wave, he emerged during the 1980s and made his career breakthrough with ''Exotica (film), Exotica ...

Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician. He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...

Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. His films are known for their emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions. During his career, he has received international critical and popular acclaim and List o ...

Gregg Araki Gregg Araki (born December 17, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is noted for his involvement with the New Queer Cinema movement. His ''Teenage Apocalypse'' film trilogy, consisting of ''Totally F***ed Up ''(1993), ''The Doom Generation ''(1995) ...

Christoph Schaub Christoph Schaub (born 1958) is a Swiss film director and screenwriter. He has directed fourteen films since 1987. His 2008 film ''Happy New Year'' was entered into the 31st Moscow International Film Festival. Selected filmography * '' Sterne ...

Catherine Breillat Catherine Breillat (; born 13 July 1948) is a French filmmaker, novelist and professor of auteur cinema at the European Graduate School. Life and career Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort. She decided to becom ...

Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( ; 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 over forty films, including s ...

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. He has earned acclaim as an independent film, independent auteur. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures. His ...

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 comp ...

Fatih Akin Fatih Akin (, born 25 August 1973) is a Turkish-German film director, screenwriter and producer. His films have won numerous awards and accolades, including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his film '' Head-On'' (2004), Best Scre ...

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 and of all time. Her work has dealt with themes of colonial and p ...

and

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

. In 2018, the festival welcomed

Lili Hinstin Lili Hinstin (born 10 July 1977 in France) is a French artistic director. She was artistic director of the EntreVues Belfort International Festival (2013-18) and Locarno Film Festival (2018-20). As of 2023, she is the programming director of th ...

as its new Artistic Director. Succeeding Carlo Chatrian, she became the second-only female director in the history of LFF (the first was Irene Bignardi). Hinstin actively promoted gender equality and shifted the balance so that more than 40% of features in the 2019 edition line-up were by female filmmakers. She also hired a younger programming team, launched innovative initiatives such as “Locarno 2020 – For The Future of Films”. However, under her lead Locarno’s industry side suffered, more so than its artistic side, which may have played a role in Hinstin's resignation. 2020 was marked with a major change in top positions: after Hinstin's resignation, sales exec Valentina Merli and Industry Days chief Nadia Dresti both stepped down.

Editions

2020 and further

''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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, it was cancelled for the first time since

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

; 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 ...

and

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

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 Lo ...

'' took place from 4 to 14 August 2021, featuring an attendance of more than 75,000. The 75th Locarno Film Festival took place from 3 to 13 August 2022. It opened with Brad Pitt's film '' Bullet Train''. The

76th Locarno Film Festival The 76th annual Locarno Festival was held from 2 August to 12 August 2023 in Locarno, Switzerland. French actor Lambert Wilson was the head of the Main Competition Jury. American filmmaker Harmony Korine received the Pardo d’Onore Manor. Ira ...

took place from 2 to 12 August 2023. From this edition, the acting categories ( Best Actor/

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress award ...

) became gender-neutral after the creation of the Best Performance category. The

77th Locarno Film Festival The 77th Locarno Film Festival was held from 7 August to 17 August 2024. '' The Crowd'' by King Vidor, accompanied by live music from the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, screened the night before the festival began, and '' The Flood'' by Gian ...

took place from 7 to 17 August 2024. This year, the festival announced the launch of a new award Letterboxd Piazza Grande Award, in collaboration with social media site Letterboxd. The

78th Locarno Film Festival The 78th Locarno Film Festival will be held from 6 August to 16 August 2025 in Locarno, Switzerland. American filmmaker Alexander Payne will be honoured with Leopard of Honour, Pardo d’Onore on 15 August. Rithy Panh, a Cambodian documentary ...

will take place from 6 to 16 August 2025.

Awards

Competitive Awards

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

* Pardo d'oro (

). Grand Prize of the festival, awarded by the city and region of

, for the best film in the ''concorso internazionale'' (international competition). * Special Jury Prize. Prize, awarded by cities of

Ascona 300px, Ascona Ascona ( ) is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore. The town is a popular tourist destination and holds the yearly Ascona Jazz Festival. ...

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 inha ...

, 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 Performance. (since 2023) Prize, awarded for two best performances in the ''concorso internazionale'' (international competition). * 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''. Former awards include: * Leopard for Best Actress. * Leopard for Best Actor.

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

* Pardo d'oro Cineasti del presente (

Golden Leopard - Filmmakers of the Present Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

). 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:

* 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 * 2012–2018: Carlo Chatrian * 2018–2020:

* 2020: Nadia Dresti (ad interim) * since 2021:

Giona A. Nazzaro Giona A. Nazzaro (born 1 June 1965) is the artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival. He is also the General Delegate of the Venice International Film Critics’ Week. and a member of the selection committee at the International Film Festiva ...

Presidents: * 1946–1955: Camillo Beretta * 1957–1962: Enrico Franzioni * 1963–1968: Fernando Gaja * 1970–1980: Luciano Giudici * 1981–1999: Raimondo Rezzonico * 2000–2023: Marco Solari * since 2023:

Maja Hoffmann Maja Hoffmann (born 1956) is a Swiss billionaire, art collector, art patron, documentary producer, and businesswoman. She is the founder and president of the LUMA Foundation. She is also part of the shareholder pool made up of descendants of the ...

Chief Operating Officers: * 2006–2013: Marco Cacciamognaga * 2013–2017: Mario Timbal * since 2017:

Raphaël Brunschwig Raphael was an Italian Renaissance painter. Raphael or Raphaël may also refer to: Music *Raphael (band), a Japanese rock band active 1997–2001 *Raphael (opera), ''Raphael'' (opera), an 1894 opera by Anton Arensky *Raphael (musician), American ...

(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

Literature

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 Film Festival