16/07/2008

The official selection for the 61st Locarno International Film Festival (August 6-16) – the third edition to be headed by artistic director Frédéric Maire – was unveiled this morning.

Young directors from across Europe are well represented in the international competition, which will screen 17 features from 16 different countries. These include Turkish filmmaker Özcan Alper’s debut title Autumn [+see also:
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film profile] and Lance Daly’s Irish film Kisses [+see also:
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film profile].

Films vying for the Golden Leopard include Lionel Baier’s Un autre homme (“Another Man”, Switzerland); Malgorzata Szumowska’s 33 Scenes from Life [+see also:
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film profile] (Germany/Poland); Mijke de Jong’s Katia’s Sister [+see also:
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film profile] (Netherlands); Federico Bondi’s Mar nero [+see also:
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film profile] (“Black Sea”, Italy/Romania/France); Klaus Händl’s März (“March”, Austria); Emmanuel Finkiel’s Nulle part terre promise [+see also:
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film profile] (“Nowhere Promised Land”, France); and Gideon Koppel’s Sleep Furiously [+see also:
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film profile].

With the focus on diversity, the Piazza Grande open air screenings give pride of place to European films. The section will open with UK director Julian Jarrold’s Brideshead Revisited and Denis Rabaglia’s Marcello Marcello [+see also:
trailer
film profile] will be shown on Swiss Cinema Day. The line-up also includes Austrian director Philipp Stölzl’s North Face [+see also:
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film profile] (Austria/Germany/Switzerland); German director Hannes Stöhr’s Berlin Calling [+see also:
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film profile]; Lesson 21 [+see also:
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film profile] by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco; Son of Rambow [+see also:
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film profile] by the UK’s Garth Jennings; El brau blau by Spain’s Daniel Villamediana; I Know by Slovenia’s Jan Cvitkovic; and three French films: Anne Fontaine’s La fille de Monaco [+see also:
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film profile] (“The Girl from Monaco”), Karim Dridi’s Khamsa [+see also:
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film profile] and Solveig Anspach’s Back Soon [+see also:
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film profile].

All these films are contenders for a new prize – the Variety Piazza Grande Award – to be presented by critics from the US professional magazine.

With a selection of narrative and documentary works, the Filmmakers of the Present Competition this year has a Latin flavour. The line-up includes two Italian features – Bruno Oliviero’s Napoli piazza municipio (“Naples, Piazza Municipio”) and Davide Manuli’s Beket – and three French films: Jean-Charles Fitoussi’s Je ne suis pas morte (“I’m Not Dead”), Siegfried’s Kinogamma Part 1: East / Part 2: Far East and David Teboul’s La vie ailleurs (“Life Elsewhere”). Further titles are Fernand Melgar’s La Forteresse [+see also:
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film profile] (“The Fortress”, Switzerland) and Sandro Aguilar’s A Zona [+see also:
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film profile] (Portugal).

In addition to the retrospective dedicated to Italian filmmaker and actor Nanni Moretti, the festival will also pay homage to Israeli director Amos Gitai (Honorary Leopard), who will present Later [+see also:
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film profile]; US producer Christine Vachon (Raimondo Rezzonico Award) ; and US actress Anjelica Huston (Excellence Award), who stars in Clark Gregg’s Choke.

(Translated from French)