10/07/2024 - 16 of the 17 films vying for the Golden Leopard are European (co-)productions by established auteurs such as Wang Bing and Ben Rivers and emerging talents like the Zürcher brothers and Virgil Vernier

The 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, which will unfold from 7-17 August, intends to highlight the potential of the cinematic medium, capable of involving and dialoguing with a large and curious public, but without necessarily looking for elite-level productions that flirt with pure experimentation. Always at the service of auteur cinema, as highlighted by its artistic director Giona A Nazzaro during the announcement of the full selection (read news on the Piazza Grande, Cineasti del presente and Semaine de la Critique sections), the festival, and more particularly the films of its International Competition, which includes a beautiful bouquet of well-known names, presents itself as ambitious “without ever giving up on pleasure”.

For this edition, the first with Maja Hoffmann as president, there are 225 films, almost half of which are world premieres and 5 are international premieres. 15 debut features are competing for the Swatch First Feature Award. This year, many women are honoured: great director, screenwriter and producer Jane Campion (Honorary Leopard), American producer Stacey Sher (the Raimondo Rezzonico Award), French actress Mélanie Laurent who with her compatriot Guillaume Canet will receive the Campari Excellence Award, and French-Swiss actress Irène Jacob (the Leopard Club Award). Iconic Indian actor and producer Shah Rukh Khan will instead receive the prestigious Career Leopard.

Amongst the European productions and co-productions in International Competition, which includes a total of 17 films, as many as 5 are French: 100,000,000,000,000 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Virgil Vernier
film profile], the third feature by Virgil Vernier, already selected in Locarno in 2018 in the Cineasti del presente section with Sophia Antipolis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Virgil Vernier
film profile]; Youth (Hard Times) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, winner of the Golden Leopard in 2017 with Mrs. Fang [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the second volume in his documentary series that began with Youth (Spring) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], presented in competition last year in Cannes; Transamazonia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pia Marais
film profile] by South African director Pia Marais (Tiger Award at the 2007 IFFR for The Unpolished [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) which plunges us in the heart of the Amazonian forest where ancestral beliefs, religious fervour and economic interests coexist; the intriguing Agora [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ala Eddine Slim
film profile], the third feature by established Tunisian filmmaker Ala Eddine Slim (Lion of the Future at Venice 2016 for The Last of Us), in which three people who were thought to have disappeared forever reappear mysteriously in a village in Tunisia; and Green Line [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the first feature by Sylvie Ballyot, whose particular cinematic language, between realism and oneirism, has already been recognised at the international level.

Switzerland is instead present with two films, The Sparrow in the Chimney [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ramon and Silvan Zürcher
film profile], an intriguing and conflictual story of two sisters, from the great Zürcher brothers (Ramon directs while Silvain produces), whose The Girl and the Spider [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zü…
film profile] won the Best Directing award at the 2021 Berlinale in the Encounters section; and the co-production Fire of Wind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the debut feature by Portuguese director and artist Marta Mateus. Italy and Lithuania are also present, thanks to three and two films respectively: Luce [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino
film profile] by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino, already known as an artistic duo; Weightless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sara Fgaier
film profile], the debut feature by Sara Fgaier, the story of an ethno-musicology professor grappling with terrible amnesia, and the co-production New Dawn Fades [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gürcan Keltek
film profile], the second feature by Turkish filmmaker Gürcan Keltek, which plays with the limits of human perception; and Toxic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Saulė Bliuvaitė
film profile], Saulè Bliuvaitè’s debut feature, and Drowning Dry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurynas Bareiša
film profile], the second feature by Laurynas Bareisa (after Pilgrims [+see also:
film review
interview: Laurynas Bareisa
film profile], Best Film in Orizzonti at Venice 2021), which observes the reactions of the members of a family confronted with a tragic event.

Also in attendance will be British artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers with Bogancloch [+see also:
film review
interview: Ben Rivers
film profile], a film midway between documentary and fiction which continues to observe his character Jake Williams, a man who has been living in the middle of a forest for decades; Kurdish-Austrian director Kurdwin Ayub (Best Debut Feature at the 2022 Berlinale for Sonne [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kurdwin Ayub
film profile]) with Moon [+see also:
film review
interview: Kurdwin Ayub
film profile], an intriguing second feature which follows a former professional kickboxer; German director Christoph Hochhäusler with his new film after Till the End of the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christoph Hochhäusler
film profile], awarded in competition at last year’s Berlinale, Death Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christoph Hochhäusler
film profile], which pays homage to the French police film genre (the so-called “polar”); and the Catalan filmmaker Mar Coll with Salve Maria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mar Coll
film profile], a drama about fragile maternity with touches of psychological horror. The new film by South Korean director Hong Sangsoo, By the Stream, closes the selection.

Out of competition, 10 of the 11 films are European productions or co-productions. France dominates here as well with three (co)productions: Dragon Dilatation [+see also:
film review
interview: Bertrand Mandico
film profile] by the always intriguing Bertrand Mandico, My Darling Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by actress and screenwriter Isild Le Besco which stars, amongst others, Jeanne Balibar, Elodie Bouchez and herself, and The Passion According to Béatrice [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz which, between documentary and fiction, draws the portrait of explosive actress Béatrice Dalle. Representing Switzerland, meanwhile, there will be Samir and his new docu-film The Miraculous Transformation of the Working Class Into Foreigners [+see also:
trailer
interview: Samir
film profile] and Belgian-Swiss filmmaker Bruno Deville with his mountain series Endangered Species [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Bruno Deville
series profile]. There are also two Romanian films out of competition, both signed Radu Jude: Eight Postcards from Utopia [+see also:
film review
interview: Radu Jude, Christian Ferenc…
film profile], a documentary assembled exclusively from ads from post-socialist Romania co-directed with Christian Ferecz-Flatz, and Sleep #2 [+see also:
film review
interview: Radu Jude, Christian Ferenc…
film profile], a kind of remake of Andy Warhol’s Sleep, as described by the filmmaker himself. Also out of competition, veteran filmmaker Marco Tullio Giordana, who presents his film The Life Apart [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marco Tullio Giordana
film profile], adapted from the homonymous novel by Maria Pia Veladiano. Finally, as for European (co)productions, we also find Telepathic Letters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Edgar Pêra
film profile] by Portuguese director and filmmaker Edgar Pêra and Fréwaka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aislinn Clarke
film profile], a horror film by Belfast-based filmmaker Aislinn Clarke.

Finally, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The selected films:

International Competition

Moon [+see also:
film review
interview: Kurdwin Ayub
film profile] – Kurdwin Ayub (Austria)
Green Line [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Sylvie Ballyot (France/Lebanon/Qatar)
Drowing Dry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurynas Bareiša
film profile] – Laurynas Bareisa (Lithuania/Latvia)
Toxic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Saulė Bliuvaitė
film profile] – Saulé Bliuvaité (Lithuania)
Salve Maria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mar Coll
film profile] – Mar Coll (Spain)
Weightless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sara Fgaier
film profile] – Sara Fgaier (Italy)
Death Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christoph Hochhäusler
film profile] – Christoph Hochhäusler (Germany/Luxembourg/Belgium)
New Dawn Fades [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gürcan Keltek
film profile] – Gürcan Keltek (Turkey/Italy/Germany/Norway/Netherlands)
Luce [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino
film profile] – Silvia Luzi, Luca Bellino (Italy)
Transamazonia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pia Marais
film profile] – Pia Marais (France/Germany/Switzerland/Taiwan/Brazil)
Fire of Wind [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Marta Mateus (Portugal/Switzerland/France)
Bogancloch [+see also:
film review
interview: Ben Rivers
film profile] – Ben Rivers (UK/Germany/Iceland)
By the Stream – Hong Sangsoo (South Korea)
Agora [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ala Eddine Slim
film profile] – Ala Eddine Slim (Tunisia/France/Saudi Arabia)
100,000,000,000,000 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Virgil Vernier
film profile] – Virgil Vernier (France)
The Sparrow in the Chimney [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ramon and Silvan Zürcher
film profile] – Roman Zürcher (Switzerland)
Youth (Hard Times) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Wang Bing (France/Luxembourg/Netherlands)

Out of Competition

Fréwaka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aislinn Clarke
film profile] – Aislinn Clarke (Ireland)
Endangered Species [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Bruno Deville
series profile] – Bruno Deville (Switzerland)
The Passion According to Béatrice [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Fabrice Du Welz (France/Belgium)
Bang Bang – Vincent Grashaw (USA)
Sleep #2 [+see also:
film review
interview: Radu Jude, Christian Ferenc…
film profile] – Radu Jude (Romania)
Eight Postcards from Utopia [+see also:
film review
interview: Radu Jude, Christian Ferenc…
film profile] – Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz (Romania)
My Darling Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Isild Le Besco (France)
Dragon Dilatation [+see also:
film review
interview: Bertrand Mandico
film profile] – Bertrand Mandico (France)
Telepathic Letters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Edgar Pêra
film profile] – Edgar Pêra (Portugal)
The Miraculous Transformation of the Working Class Into Foreigners [+see also:
trailer
interview: Samir
film profile] – Samir (Switzerland/Italy)
The Life Apart [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marco Tullio Giordana
film profile] – Marco Tullio Giordana (Italy)