16/08/2005

Succeeding the Italian cinema critic Irene Bignardi as artistic director of the Locarno International Film Festival , as well as assistant Teresa Cavina, Swiss Frédéric Maire, also a film critic, was installed unanimously. The announcement was made by Marco Solari, president of the festival, on the 14th of August, ending the suspense which had lasted ‘till the close of 58th edition.

44 years old, French-speaking with an Italian mother tongue, the new director has more than one string to his bow. Beginning in the cinema in his youth by making short and medium length films – while still studying political science and humanities – he arrived at Locarno at the age of 17 to sit on the Jury for Youth, for which he then became secretary. The festival’s publication Pardo News took him on, then he worked on the catalogue from 1992 ; From 1993, Frédéric Maire, essentially dedicated himself to The Magic Lantern, a very successful film club, designed to engender in children a taste for cinema, which he co-founded and co-directed. Installed in 68 locations in Switzerland (225,000 spectators in 2004!), and also in France, in Italy, in Germany, in Spain and in Rumania, The Magic Lantern employs more than 20 staff, has a network of 600 collaborators and a budget of almost a million euros. Between 2000 and 2004, he was also a member of the commission of experts and Fondation Montecinemaverita de Lugano, which supported many films from the East and the South winning awards at the big festivals.

Nominated for at least three years as artistic director at Locarno, Frédéric Maire has work on his plate, but it’s worth betting that this multi-talented film-lover, blessed with an innate sense of diplomacy, will give it a new dynamism. As he said at the press conference, the over-abundant and jumbled programme has diluted the indentity of the festival. While new Swiss films are rare on the Piazza Grande - to the great displeasure of the Swiss public and distributors – the sections have multiplied and the Human Rights award begun by Irene Bignardi is particularly contested.

Since its rise to ‘A’ festival, the position of Locarno, somewhere between Cannes and Venice, is not particularly comfortable. The most prestigious films are seduced by these two rivals, but the film-club reputation of Locarno, installed notably by David Streiff and Marco Müller, adding a bit of magic to a Piazza Grande which can welcome 8000 spectators in the open-air, is a trump card that Frédéric Maire will probably use to his benefit. For now, the new director is moving cautiously forward: "In the first instance premier, it’s important to begin a constructive dialogue with people directly involved with programming such as Tiziana Finzi (Filmmakers of the Present, Video Competition), Chicca Bergonzi (Future Leopards), Nadia Dresti (Industry Office), and also with the direction committee and the adminastrative committee, in order to define the priorites of the festival for the years to come. Locarno is first and foremost an international festival, but it is also a Swiss event. It should be a shop-window of Switerland for the world, and also vice-versa: that is fundemental for me." Frédéric Maire, who starts offically on the 1st of October, will reveal the new tone of Locarno in August 2006, with the 59th festival.

(Translated from French)