Locarno annonce sa sélection compétition

par Giorgia Del Don

10/07/2024 - 16 des 17 films en lice pour le Léopard d'or sont des (co)productions européennes par des talents confirmés comme Wang Bing et Ben Rivers et émergents comme les frères Zürcher et Virgil Vernier

Locarno annonce sa sélection compétition

Cent-mille milliards de Virgil Vernier

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Virgil Vernier
fiche film], the third feature by Virgil Vernier, already selected in Locarno in 2018 in the Cineasti del presente section with Sophia Antipolis [+lire aussi :
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interview : Virgil Vernier
fiche film]; Youth (Hard Times) [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, winner of the Golden Leopard in 2017 with Mrs. Fang [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the second volume in his documentary series that began with Youth (Spring) [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], presented in competition last year in Cannes; Transamazonia [+lire aussi :
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interview : Pia Marais
fiche film] by South African director Pia Marais (Tiger Award at the 2007 IFFR for The Unpolished [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]) which plunges us in the heart of the Amazonian forest where ancestral beliefs, religious fervour and economic interests coexist; the intriguing Agora [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ala Eddine Slim
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ramon et Silvan Zürcher
fiche film], an intriguing and conflictual story of two sisters, from the great Zürcher brothers (Ramon directs while Silvain produces), whose The Girl and the Spider [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ramon Zürcher et Silvan Zü…
fiche film] won the Best Directing award at the 2021 Berlinale in the Encounters section; and the co-production Fire of Wind [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the debut feature by Portuguese director and artist Marta Mateus. Italy and Lithuania are also present, thanks to three and two films respectively: Luce [+lire aussi :
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interview : Silvia Luzi et Luca Bellino
fiche film] by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino, already known as an artistic duo; Weightless [+lire aussi :
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interview : Sara Fgaier
fiche film], the debut feature by Sara Fgaier, the story of an ethno-musicology professor grappling with terrible amnesia, and the co-production New Dawn Fades [+lire aussi :
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interview : Gürcan Keltek
fiche film], the second feature by Turkish filmmaker Gürcan Keltek, which plays with the limits of human perception; and Toxic [+lire aussi :
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interview : Directors Talks @ European…
interview : Saulė Bliuvaitė
fiche film], Saulè Bliuvaitè’s debut feature, and Drowning Dry [+lire aussi :
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interview : Laurynas Bareiša
fiche film], the second feature by Laurynas Bareisa (after Pilgrims [+lire aussi :
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interview : Laurynas Bareisa
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ben Rivers
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kurdwin Ayub
fiche film]) with Moon [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kurdwin Ayub
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Christoph Hochhäusler
fiche film], awarded in competition at last year’s Berlinale, Death Will Come [+lire aussi :
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interview : Christoph Hochhäusler
fiche film], which pays homage to the French police film genre (the so-called “polar”); and the Catalan filmmaker Mar Coll with Salve Maria [+lire aussi :
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interview : Mar Coll
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Bertrand Mandico
fiche film] by the always intriguing Bertrand Mandico, My Darling Family [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by actress and screenwriter Isild Le Besco which stars, amongst others, Jeanne Balibar, Elodie Bouchez and herself, and The Passion According to Béatrice [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Samir
fiche film] and Belgian-Swiss filmmaker Bruno Deville with his mountain series Endangered Species [+lire aussi :
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interview : Bruno Deville
fiche série]. There are also two Romanian films out of competition, both signed Radu Jude: Eight Postcards from Utopia [+lire aussi :
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interview : Radu Jude et Christian Fer…
fiche film], a documentary assembled exclusively from ads from post-socialist Romania co-directed with Christian Ferecz-Flatz, and Sleep #2 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Radu Jude et Christian Fer…
fiche film], 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 [+lire aussi :
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interview : Marco Tullio Giordana
fiche film], adapted from the homonymous novel by Maria Pia Veladiano. Finally, as for European (co)productions, we also find Telepathic Letters [+lire aussi :
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interview : Edgar Pêra
fiche film] by Portuguese director and filmmaker Edgar Pêra and Fréwaka [+lire aussi :
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interview : Aislinn Clarke
fiche film], a horror film by Belfast-based filmmaker Aislinn Clarke.