The Locarno Film Festival has today unveiled the programme of its 77th edition (7-17 August) (see the news), which also includes its always eagerly awaited parallel sections. According to artistic director Giona A Nazzaro, the programme seeks “unrepeatable” moments of pleasure “shared in front of the largest screen in the world (that of the Piazza Grande), moments of encounter for a community that comes together in front of a film as in front of a bonfire”, and an even stronger need to reunite and share in a historical moment such as the one we are living through.

The impressive Piazza Grande will welcome 15 films this year, six of which will be world premieres and include the restorations of Une femme est une femme by Jean-Luc Godard, The Fall by Tarsem Singh in a version re-edited by the director himself, and The Piano by Jane Campion. Amongst these gems, almost all of them – 14 out of 15 – are European productions and co-productions. These include: the Belgian-French production Mexico 86 by Guatemalan director César Díaz (Caméra d’Or in Cannes for Our Mothers), a thriller starring Bérénice Bejo at once intimate and tense, inspired by his own life; Le déluge, a historical drama by Italian director Gianluca Jodice (news), which will be the festival's opening film; the Spanish film Rita, the directing debut of actress Paz Vega which follows the daily life of a girl and a boy in 1980s Seville; the British film Timestalker by Alice Lowe, following its SXSW premiere; Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham, and The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof, after their respective premieres in Berlin and Cannes. Swiss co-productions are also numerous and include the new feature by Zurich filmmaker Simon Jaquemet titled Electric Child, in which the director places hyper technologies in dialogue with human fragility, the latest and moving animated film by Claude Barras Savages, and the comedy Dog on Trial by Laetitia Dosch, both presented in Cannes, the coming-of-age film Reinas by Swiss-Peruvian filmmaker Klaudia Reynicke, presented at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Switzerland-United States co-production Sew Torn by young director Freddy Macdonald. A Flower of Mine, the first film by Italian writer Paolo Cognetti (The Eight Mountains), will be screened in a special pre-opening event.

The Cineasti del presente competition, dedicated to first and second films by young filmmakers and defined as “a radical, uncompromising and adventurous space” in which artists play with formal codes and cinematic genres, includes 15 films (all world premieres) this year, amongst which many European productions and co-productions (as many as 12 out of 15). These include Fario by French director Lucie Prost, a story at once real and hallucinatory of a young engineer confronted with the death of his farmer father and the sale of a place dear to his childhood; Lesson Learned by Hungarian filmmaker who grew up in the United States Bálint Szimler which talks about the school world from the points of view of a teacher and a student; Foul Evil Deeds by British director Richard Hunter, a story dominated by decidedly evil characters, and the co-productions Crickets, It’s Your Turn by Kazakh director Olga Korotko in which a seemingly banal evening between friends turns into an obscure game of cat and mouse, Skill Issue by German director Willy Hans which presents the dilemmas of adolescence between cravings to belong to the group and thirst for freedom, Hanami by Swiss-Portuguese filmmaker Denise Fernandes, a story between dream and reality taking place on a volcanic island inhabited by young Nia and her family, Holy Electricity by Georgian director Tato Kotetishvili, a dark comedy about the power and the drifts of religion and the dangers of human credulity, When the Phone Rang by Serbian filmmaker Iva Radivojevič which investigates the deep essence of memories, Listen to the Voices by French filmmaker from French Guinea Maxime Jean-Baptiste in which a rebellious boy finds himself confronted with the pain of a family struggling to rebuild itself, Red Path by French-Tunisian director Lotfi Achour, a film inspired by real events that talks with courage about the wounded and traumatized psyche of a child faced with the unspeakable, Collective Monologue by Argentinian-British filmmaker Jessica Sarah Rinland, a film that transcends the imaginary confines between man and animal, and REAL by Italian director Adele Tulli which explores the transformation of human experience in the digital era through the daily life of a series of characters grappling with a hyper-connected world.

Finally, the Pardi di Domani sections and the Semaine de la Critique have also presented its selected films.

The selected films:

Piazza Grande

A Flower of Mine - Paolo Cognetti (Italy) (pre-opening film)
Le déluge - Gianluca Jodice (Italy/France) (opening film)
Shambhala - Min Bahadur Bham (Nepal/France/Norway/Turkey/Hong Kong/Taiwan/USA/Qatar)
Sauvages - Claude Barras (Switzerland/France/Belgium)
The Piano - Jane Campion (Australia/New Zealand/France) (1993)
Mexico 86 - César Díaz (Belgium/France/Mexique)
Le procès du chien - Laetitia Dosch (Switzerland/France)
Gaucho Gaucho - Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw (USA/Argentina)
Une femme est une femme - Jean-Luc Godard (France/Italy) (1961)
Electric Child - Simon Jaquemet (Switzerland/Germany/Netherlands/Philippines)
Timestalker - Alice Lowe (UK)
Sew Torn - Freddy Macdonald (USA/Switzerland)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig - Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran/Germany/France)
Reinas - Klaudia Reynicke (Switzerland/Peru/Spain)
The Fall (Restored Cut) - Tarsem Singh (South Africa/India/UK)
Rita - Paz Vega (Spain)

Cineasti del presente

Red Path - Lotfi Achour (Tunisia/France/Belgium/Poland)
Joqtau - Aruan Anartay (Kazakhstan)
Hanami - Denise Fernandes (Switzerland/Portugal/Cape Verde)
Skill Issue - Willy Hans (Germany/Switzerland)
Foul Evil Deeds - Richard Hunter (UK)
Listen to the Voices - Maxime Jean-Baptiste (Belgium/France/Guinea)
Crickets, It’s Your Turn  - Olga Korotko (France/Kazakhstan)
Holy Electricity - Tato Kotetishvili (Georgia/Netherlands)
Olivia & las nubes - Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat (Dominican Republic)
Fario  - Lucie Prost (France)
When the Phone Rang - Iva Radivojevič (Serbia/USA)
Collective Monologue - Jessica Sarah Rinland (Argentina/UK)
Invention - Courtney Stephens (USA)
Lesson Learned - Bálint Szimler (Hungary)
REAL - Adele Tulli (Italy/France)

Pardi di Domani - International Short Film Competition

400 Cassettes - Thelyia Petraki (Greece/Germany)
B(l)ind The Sacrifice - Nakhane (South Africa)
On the Impossibility of an Homage (Despre Imposibilitatea Unui Omagiu) - Xandra Popescu (Romania/Germany)
Dull Spots of Greenish Colours - Sasha Svirsky (Germany)
Freak - Claire Barnett (USA)
Gender Reveal - Mo Matton (Canada)
Hymn Of The Plague (Gimn Chume) - Ataka51 (Germany/Russia)
Icebergs - Carlos Pereira (Germany)
On Weary Wings Go by (Linnud Läinud) - Anu-Laura Tuttelberg (Estonia/Lithuania)
Ludwig (Power Inferno) - Anton Bialas (France)
Mother Is a Natural Sinner - Boris Hadžija, Hoda Taheri (Germany/Iran)
Punter - Jason Adam Maselle (South Africa/USA)
Que te vaya bonito, rico - Joel Alfonso Vargas (UK/USA)
Razeh–del - Maryam Tafakory (Iran/UK/Italy)
Soleil gris - Camille Monnier (France/Belgium)
The Cavalry - Alina Orlov (Canada/USA/Israel)
The Form - Melika Pazouki (Iran)
The Nature of Dogs - Pom Bunsermvicha (Thailand/USA/Singapore/Hong Kong)
Washhh - Mickey Lai (Malaysia/Ireland)
What Mary Didn’t Know - Konstantina Kotzamani (France/Greece/Sweden)

Pardi di Domani - National Short Film Competition

Better Not Kill The Groove - Jonathan Leggett (Switzerland)
Looking She Said I Forget - Naomi Pacifique (Switzerland/Netherlands)
Lux Carne - Gabriel Grosclaude (Switzerland)
Maman Danse - Mégane Brügger (Switzerland)
Métropole - Theo Kunz (Switzerland)
Progress Mining - Gabriel Böhmer (UK/Switzerland)
Revier - Felix Scherrer (Switzerland)
Sans voix - Samuel Patthey (Switzerland)
Sky Rogers: Manager de Stars - Ciel Sourdeau (Switzerland)
Tinderboys - Sarah Bucher, Carlos Tapia (Switzerland)

Pardi di Domani - Corti D’autore Short Film Competition

1 Hijo & 1 Padre - Andrés Ramírez Pulido (France/Colombia)
Like What Would Sorrow Look (Chou He Zhuang) - Hao Zhou (China)
The Masked Monster (Gwe–In Esi Jeongche) - Syeyoung Park (South Korea)
Jours avant la mort de Nicky - Denis Côté (Canada)
La fille qui explose - Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel (France)
Les Bouches - Valentin Merz (Switzerland/Mexico)
My Life Is Wind (A Letter) - Anahita Ghazvinizadeh (USA/Sweden)
Practice, Practice, Practice - Kevin Jerome Everson (USA)
Revolving Rounds - Johann Lurf, Christina Jauernik (Austria)
Upshot - Maha Haj (Palestine/Italy/France)

Semaine de la Critique

A Sisters’ Tale - Leila Amini (Switzerland/France/Iran)
Dear Beautiful Beloved - Juri Rechinsky (Austria)
Familiar Places - Mala Reinhardt (Germany)
Formas de atravesar un territorio - Gabriela Domínguez Ruvalcaba (Mexico)
His Parents - Katharina Köster, Katrin Nemec (Germany)
The Deposition - Claudia Marschal (France)
We, the Inheritors - Simon Baumann (Switzerland)