Locarno Film Festival: Championing new talent
Is Locarno Film Festival prestigious?
The Locarno Film Festival has long been renowned for discovering emerging talent. While Michelangelo Antonioni, Stanley Kubrick, Tarantino, Jarmusch, Adrien Brody and Meg Ryan have all been celebrated by the festival, its organisers believe it’s important to offer the public a fine balance between hopeful debuts and films by established filmmakers.
"The festival is more intimate and accessible than many others,” as Julia Kim, an international producer, who attended the festival for the first time, tells me.
She adds that Locarno gives young filmmakers the opportunity to interact with well-known directors.
"Finding new names," she adds, "is a task the festival's selectors are up to. And they do it well.”
Experimental art-cinema films
The festival also supports experimental work by established filmmakers.
Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov’s new film "Fairy Tale", was one of the most anticipated in this year's Main Competition. His first feature film, "The Lonely Voice of Man", based on the work of Andrei Platonov, won the Bronze Leopard at the 40th Locarno International Film Festival thirty years ago.
When asked what his impression of the festival is, he responds: "I can only talk about Sokurov's film. It's beautiful.”
A vibrant atmosphere
Piazza Grande remains the heart of the festival. Guests gather here well before the evening screening, which starts after sunset at 9.30pm.
As I walk along the cobbled pavement, rows of spectator seats are being erected all around me by energetic and enthusiastic volunteers. Behind the façades of the Swiss houses that surround the square you can see mighty, serene mountains. It’s a charming setting.
Must-See Movies at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival
The Locarno Festival opened this year with a high-profile premiere starring Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock: the action-comedy Faster Than a Bullet, which tells the story of five assassins who suddenly find themselves together on a high-speed train.
This year the spotlight was also on Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman, who presented Paradise Highway by Anna Gutto, a Norwegian director living and working between Oslo and Los Angeles.
Locarno Residency, a workshop programme for aspiring filmmakers, holds multiple events throughout the year in which emerging directors meet, work together on their projects and have the opportunity to present the result to next year's festival producers.
Photo Credits: Arina Chapaeva, © Art de Vivre