The big anniversary is still one edition away but the excitement is already palpable, as is the sense of cinematic history. A little bit of it is made every year at Locarno Film Festival. From 5 to 15 August the 79th edition of the film festival summer’s uncontested highlight opens its doors to film enthusiasts, filmmakers and film journalists, and the curtain to an exciting array of works from famed auteurs, rising talents and newcomers. Between Cannes’ elitist glitz and Venice’s cinematic conservatism, Locarno is still a centre of innovation and independence, without dress codes, badge hierarchies and all-access for wealthy donors.
As the future of film festivals is overshadowed by streaming and Zoom substitutes for human engagement, Locarno embraces adventurous filmmaking and challenges conventions not only on screen, but within a festival scene stifled by hierarchies, hypocrisy and commercial calculations. Artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro brings 233 films from 69 countries and territories to the picturesque town at the Lago Maggiore, among them 103 world premieres. Of the 17 films competing for the Golden Leopard in the Concorso Internazionale, all apart from one international premiere are world premieres. Some of the most anticipated are Giovanni Tortorici’s coming-of-age drama Ketticè, with Monica Bellucci and Luca Guadagnino producing.
Hong Sang-soo returns with Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, another episodic everyday observation built around his consistent collaborator Kim Min-hee. Nobody’s Violence takes an unsentimental look at illness and death, to both of which director Denis Côté came painfully close. Basil Da Cunha paints one more vivid portrait of Lisbon’s marginalised communities in O Jacaré. And Florin Șerban’s haunting You Don’t Belong Here reimagines Russia’s right-wing StopXam movement in his native Romania, while Meritxell Colell Aparicio‘s Far from the Trees weaves a sound map of the Peruvian Andes. Mingling first-time features with auteur works is part of Locarno’s tradition as a space for creative discoveries.
Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz presides over the Concorso Internazionale jury, supported by Italian producer Marco Alessi, French actress Lolita Chammah, Chilean actress and director Paulina García, and Olivier Père, who has a close relation to the festival as its former artistic director. Special guests include horror make-up legend Rick Baker, who will receive the Vision Award for his – in every sense – fantastic work, Isabella Rossellini, presented with the Excellence Award, and Darren Aronofsky, recognised with the Pardo d’Onore. Their presence as well as that of star guests James Gray and Isabelle Huppert underlines the pull of a programme valuing competence over celebrity status.
And of course the thrall of watching a film from the Piazza Grande section which once again turns the town’s main square into a huge open-air theatre. It’s for high-profile premieres but every film feels spectacular under the open summer night sky. Overarching themes emerging already from this year’s programme are forced migration and displacement, shifting and eroding memory, as well as the rise and grim consequences of authoritarian regimes and their ideologies. Maybe it is this focus on quality and political issues that has spared Locarno so far from the influencer invasion superseding actual film journalism, simultaneously eroded from within by AI slop and ChatGPT.
At a time when both film festivals and film journalism are under increasing pressure from digital obliteration, Locarno is as much a showcase for engaging, politically astute filmmaking as for everything that makes film festivals a unique experience that can never be digitally reproduced or replaced.
