The Locarno Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, short, avant-garde, and retrospective programs. The Piazza Grande section is held in an open-air venue that seats 8,000 spectators.[1][2][3]
The top prize of the festival is the Golden Leopard, awarded to the best film in the International Competition. Other awards include the Leopard of Honour for career achievement, and the Prix du Public, the public choice award.
The Locarno Film Festival was established by the tourist office Pro Locarno and several professionals from the movie industry. As stated by cinema historians, it emerged as a ‘grassroots celebration’ and mostly oriented on attracting tourists to Locarno, offering various entertainment events such as fashion shows and excursions. The inaugural evening took place on 23 August 1946, at the Grand Hotel of Locarno with the screening of the movie O sole mio by Giacomo Gentilomo. The first edition was organized in less than three months with a line-up of fifteen movies, mainly American and Italian, among which was Rome, Open City directed by Roberto Rossellini, And Then There Were None directed by René Clair (1945), Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder (1944) and The Song of Bernadette by Henry King (1943). Until the mid-1950s, LFF was allowed to screen only the movies that were commercially distributed in Switzerland. The authorities considered LLF to be a private event and did not support it financially, which is why the festival experienced constant difficulties. The 1951 edition was cancelled due to a lack of fundings. In 1953, LFF was downgraded to the D rank in FIAPF classification. In response to such a loss of prestige, in 1954 the government acknowledged LFF as an event of national significance which allowed the festival to send invitations to film-producing countries via diplomatic channels and thus Swiss distributors could finally import movies out of their annual quota specifically for the festival.[4][2]
Under Vinicio Beretta, LFF opened up to national cinematographies, especially those of Eastern Europe. Since 1953, every year the festival has screened features from Eastern Germany, the USSR, etc. Managed mostly by the Pro Locarno tourists office, it strived to offer the visitors an extraordinary entertainment and stood out as an international meeting point in a neutral country. The critics, however, accused the event of communist propaganda, as the anthem of socialist countries was played before the screenings of their films and the flag was raised during the ceremony. Still, the accusations made the Swiss intelligence services closely monitor the festival, while the officials insisted on lesser selection of features from the Eastern bloc.[4]
In 1956, a commercial dispute between Swiss distributors and foreign producers amidst heavy political tension in connection to the repression of the 1956 Budapest insurrection led to cancellation of the 1956 LFF edition. This caused the Swiss authorities to ask the FIAPF to cease attacks on LFF. In 1959, the festival accessed the A-rank. It shifted to July, to higher tourist season, and introduced retrospectives in collaboration with the Cinemathèque suisse.[4]
Under Vinicio Beretta, LFF director since 1960, the festival finally procured state financial support. By then, the festival had gained a unique reputation as an alternative “to traditional commercial distribution” as it pioneered Italian Neo-Realism, Latin American and Asian Cinema, and especially Polish, Czech, and Hungarian New Waves. Another major scandal occurred when the jury of the 1960 edition awarded the highest prize to the Soviet movie Foma Gordeyev. Political tensions and accusations forced Beretta to accept the creation of a “national” selection commission, offered by the authorities.[4]
The festival's most successful era was under Moritz de Hadeln, who succeeded in internationalizing and stabilizing the LFF during the 1970s.[4]
In 2018, the festival welcomed Lili Hinstin as its new Artistic Director. Succeeding Carlo Chatrian, she became the second-only female director in the history of LFF (the first was Irene Bignardi). Hinstin actively promoted gender equality and shifted the balance so that more than 40% of features in the 2019 edition line-up were by female filmmakers. She also hired a younger programming team, launched innovative initiatives such as “Locarno 2020 – For The Future of Films”. However, under her lead Locarno’s industry side suffered to a displease of the event's management which eventually caused Hinstin's resignation.[5]
2020 was marked with a major change in top positions: after Hinstin's resignation, sales exec Valentina Merli and Industry Days chief Nadia Dresti both stepped down.[5][6]
Editions
2020 and further
The 73rd edition, scheduled from 5 to 15 August 2020, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was cancelled for the first time since World War II; in its place, the special edition called "Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films" was held. The festival had asked high-profile directors including Lucrecia Martel and Lav Diaz to select films from the festival's 74-year history for a retrospective that was screened online and in physical locations.[7][8]
The 76th Locarno Film Festival took place from 2 to 12 August 2023. For this year edition, the acting categories (Best Actor/Best Actress) became gender-neutral after the creation of the Best Performance category.[11]
The 77th Locarno Film Festival took place from 7 to 17 August 2024.[12]This year, the festival announced the launch of a new award in collaboration with social media site Letterboxd.[13]
Concorso internazionale (international competition) – Awards
Pardo d'oro (Golden Leopard). Grand Prize of the festival, awarded by the city and region of Locarno, for the best film in the concorso internazionale (international competition).
Special Jury Prize. Prize, awarded by cities of Ascona and Losone, for the second best film in the concorso internazionale (international competition).
Leopard for Best Direction. Prize, awarded by the city and region of Locarno, for the best directed film in the concorso internazionale (international competition).
Leopard for Best Performance. (since 2023) Prize, awarded for two best performances in the concorso internazionale (international competition).
Swatch First Feature Awards. Prize awarded by a jury of international critics to the first works presented in the sections concorso internazionale, concorso Cineasti del presente, Fuori concorso, Moving ahead (ex Signs of Life) and Piazza Grande.
Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Filmmakers of the Present) – Awards
Pardo d'oro Cineasti del presente (Golden Leopard - Filmmakers of the Present). Prize awarded to the best film of this competition, which is dedicated to first or second features.
Ciné+ Special Jury Prize – Cineasti del presente. The French television channel Ciné+ Club offers the broadcast rights to the winning film and guarantees the broadcast on their channel.
Pardo per il miglior regista emergente (Leopard for Best New Director): Prize for the best new director.
Pardo per la migliore opera prima (Leopard for the Best First Feature). Prize which has been awarded from 2006 to 2009 to the best first work screened in the competition concorso internazionale or concorso Cineasti del presente.
Pardi di domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) – Awards
Pardino d'oro for the Best International Short Film – SRG SSR Prize. Prize awarded to the best short film in the international short film competition Pardi di domani.
Pardino d'oro for the Best Swiss Short Film – Swiss Life Prize. Prize awarded to the best short film in the national short film competition Pardi di domani.
Pardino d'argento SSR SRG for the international competition. Prize awarded to a film in the international competition Pardi di domani.
Pardino d'argento Swiss Life for the national competition. Prize awarded to a film in the national competition Pardi di domani.
Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards – Pianifica Prize. The prize, which is offered by the studio Pianifica, goes to a short film made by a European director, presented in one of the two competitions. The award includes an automatic nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards.
Prize for Best Swiss Newcomer. The prize provides equipment offered by Cinegrell, Visuals SA, Freestudios SA, Taurus Studio e Avant-première SA/Film Demnächst AG.
Premio Medien Patent Verwaltung AG. The winning film will be subtitled in three central European languages. This subtitling can be inserted on film, video or DVD format.
Green Pardo WWF In collaboration with WWF, the Green Pardo WWF is the prize that aims to find the film which best reflects the environmental theme in any of the Festival's competition sections. The award constitutes a Green statue and SFr20,000 to the director.
Direction and management
Artistic Directors:
1946–1958: Riccardo Bolla
1960–1965: Vinicio Beretta
1966: Sandro Bianconi
1967–1970: Sandro Bianconi, Freddy Buache
1971: Commission of direction, composed of seven members from Ticino
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The Golden Leopard is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to be entered in the competitive selection. The winning films are chosen by a jury. The award went under many names until it was named the Golden Leopard in 1968. The festival was not held in 1951 and the prize was not awarded in 1956 and 1982. As of 2024 René Clair is the only director to have won the award twice, winning in the first two years of the festival.
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