Today saw Giona A Nazzaro, artist director of the Locarno Film Festival, unveil the line-up for the 78th edition of the event (running from 6-16 August - read news), including the movies gracing the festival’s ever-interesting parallel sections.

The Filmmakers of the Present competition, dedicated to first and second works by young directors, described as a space “pervaded by genuine curiosity for the many possibilities offered by film” in which the presented films “plough the furrow for the future”, includes 15 feature films this year (all in world premieres), of which many are European productions and co-productions (an impressive 14 out of 15). These include Affection Affection [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], the second feature film shot by Swiss director Alexia Walther and French filmmaker Maxime Matray, their new film after Blonde Animals [+lire aussi :
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interview : Maxime Matray et Alexia Wa…
fiche film] (selected in Venice’s International Critics’ Week); A Balcony in Limoges [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by French director Jérôme Reybaud, which follows a woman who’s decided to live on the fringes of society; the documentary Hair, Paper, Water… [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] co-directed by Belgium’s Nicolas Graux and Vietnam’s Minh Quý Trương (his latest work after Viet and Nam [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], screened in last year’s Un Certain Regard section in Cannes) and looking into Vietnam’s French postcolonial legacy; Balearic [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ion de Sosa
fiche film] by Spain’s Ion de Sosa (selected for the Berlinale Forum via Androids Dream [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]), which is a surreal comedy about a group of teens monitored by three Dobermanns who keep them confined to a swimming pool in the villa which they’ve snuck into; and Don’t Let the Sun [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jacqueline Zünd
fiche film] by Switzerland’s Jacqueline Zünd (Where We Belong [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], selected for Berlin’s Generation line-up), which is a sci-fi film revolving around ecology in a world on the verge of exploding. There’s also Sweetheart [+lire aussi :
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interview : Margherita Spampinato
fiche film] by Italy’s Margherita Spampinato, an intimate and poetic film charting the adventures of a child who’s spending the summer at his grandma’s house in Sicily; Don’t Let Me Die [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Romania’s Andrei Epure, a charming yet destabilising film blending comedy, realism and genre film to explore the absurdities of a society plagued by apathy; queer comedy Fantasy [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kukla
fiche film] by Slovenia’s Kukla, which explores the difficulties involved in being oneself in a society suffocated by Catholicism; Becoming [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by the Kazakh director based in London Zhannat Alshanova, which is a coming of age film following a young swimming fanatic who’ll do anything to achieve her goals; The Plant From the Canaries [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by the Chinese director based in Berlin Ruan Lan-Xi, an intense film which tackles the topic of the South Korean diaspora in Berlin; Blue Heron [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Canada’s Sophy Romvari, which examines, through the eyes of the youngest son, the internal dynamics of a family who have decided to move to Vancouver Island; Olivia [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Argentina’s Sofía Petersen, described by Giona A. Nazzaro as “the most powerful and most formal film in the line-up”; Hijo Mayor [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Argentina’s Cecilia Kang, which is part documentary, part fiction and which focuses on the Korean diaspora in Latin America; and The Fin [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by South Korea’s Park Syeyoung, which is a sci-fi film about identity and the relationship between the two Koreas. Eric K Boulianne’s Canadian film Folichonneries rounds off the selection.

As for the incredible Piazza Grande (boasting one of the biggest screens in the world), this section will be welcoming 14 films this year, including 4 world premieres. No less than 11 of these 14 movies are European productions and co-productions. On the production side we find the festival’s opening film, In the Land of Arto [+lire aussi :
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interview : Tamara Stepanyan
fiche film], by Armenia’s Tamara Stepanyan, painting a poignant portrait of a woman forced to face up to the ghosts of the past; The Birthday Party [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Spain’s Miguel Ángel Jiménez, based on Panos Karnezis’ novel of the same name, starring actors along the lines of Willem Dafoe and Emma Suárez, and depicting a family which had fallen apart and the reconciliatory power of art; and (the first two episodes of) the series The Deal [+lire aussi :
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fiche série] by Switzerland’s Jean-Stéphane Bron, which charts the process which led to the signing of the agreement on Iran’s nuclear power. Co-productions, meanwhile, include the action thriller The Dead of Winter [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Northern Ireland’s Brian Kirk; the touching and courageous work Irkalla - Gilgamesh’s Dream [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] by Iraqi-Dutch director Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji, and the closing film, Kiss of the Spider Woman, by US director Bill Condon, which is a musical adaptation of the musical of the same name, which is itself based on Manuel Puig’s novel El beso de la mujer araña. Films hailing from the most recent Cannes Film Festival include It Was Just an Accident [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jafar Panahi
fiche film] by Jafar Panahi, which won the Palme d’Or; Sentimental Value [+lire aussi :
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interview : Joachim Trier
fiche film] by Joachim Trier, awarded the Grand Prize; The Little Sister [+lire aussi :
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interview : Hafsia Herzi
fiche film] by Hafsia Herzi, which won its protagonist Best Actress, and Heads or Tails? [+lire aussi :
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interview : Alessio Rigo de Righi et M…
fiche film] by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, which was selected in the Un Certain Regard section. Last but not least, Stanley Kubrick’s now legendary movie, The Shining, and its notoriously terrifying scenes, are set to leave the Piazza audience’s nerves in shreds.

Lastly, the titles selected for the Semaine de la Critique have also been announced.

The selected films:

Filmmakers of the Present

Becoming [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Zhannat Alshanova (France/Kazakhstan/Netherlands/Lithuania/Sweden)
Folichonneries  - Eric K Boulianne (Canada)
Balearic [+lire aussi :
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interview : Ion de Sosa
fiche film]  - Ion de Sosa (France/Spain)
Don’t Let Me Die [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Andrei Epure (Romania/Bulgaria/France)
Hair, Paper, Water… [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]  - Nicolas Graux, Minh Quý Trương (Belgium/France/Vietnam)
Hijo Mayor [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]  - Cecilia Kang (Argentina/France)
Fantasy [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kukla
fiche film]  - Kukla (Slovenia/North Macedonia)
The Plant from the Canaries [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]  - Ruan Lan-Xi (Germany)
Olivia [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]  - Sofía Peterson (Argentina/UK/Spain)
A Balcony in Limoges [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]  - Jérôme Reybaud (France)
Blue Heron [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Sophy Romvari (Canada/Hungary)
Sweetheart [+lire aussi :
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interview : Margherita Spampinato
fiche film] – Margherita Spampinato (Italy)
The Fin [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]  - Park Syeyoung (South Korea/Germany/Qatar)
Affection Affection [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Alexia Walther, Maxime Matray (France)
Don’t Let the Sun [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jacqueline Zünd
fiche film]  - Jacqueline Zünd (Switzerland/Italy)

Piazza Grande

In the Land of Arto [+lire aussi :
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interview : Tamara Stepanyan
fiche film] – Tamara Stepanyan (France/Armenia) (opening film)
The Deal [+lire aussi :
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fiche série] – Jean-Stéphane Bron (Switzerland/France/Luxembourg/Belgium) (series)
Police Story – Jackie Chan (Hong Kong) (1985)
The Little Sister [+lire aussi :
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interview : Hafsia Herzi
fiche film] – Hafsia Herzi (France/Germany)
Irkalla - Gilgamesh’s Dream [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji (Iraq/United Arab Emirates/Qatar/France/UK/Saudi Arabia)
The Birthday Party [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Miguel Ángel Jiménez (Greece/Spain/Netherlands/UK)
The Dead of Winter [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Brian Kirk (USA/Germany)
The Shining – Stanley Kubrick (UK/USA) (1980)
Rosemead – Eric Lin (USA)
It Was Just an Accident [+lire aussi :
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interview : Jafar Panahi
fiche film] – Jafar Panahi (Iran/France/Luxembourg)
Heads or Tails? [+lire aussi :
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interview : Alessio Rigo de Righi et M…
fiche film] – Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis (Italy/USA)
Together – Michael Shanks (Australia/USA)
Sentimental Value [+lire aussi :
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interview : Joachim Trier
fiche film] – Joachim Trier (Norway/France/Denmark/Germany/Sweden)
Kiss of the Spider Woman – Bill Condon (USA/Uruguay) (closing film)

Semaine de la Critique

In the Penal Colony [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia, Alberto Diana (Italy)
Green Light [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Pavel Cuzuioc (Austria/Romania)
Celtic Utopia [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] - Dennis Harvey, Lars Lovén (Sweden/Ireland)
The Cowboy - André Hörmann (Germany/USA)
Silent Legacy - Jenni Kivistö, Jussi Rastas (Finland/France/Burkina Faso)
She - Parsifal Reparato (Italy/France)
Flying Scents - of Plants and People - Antshi von Moos (Switzerland)