Locarno Film Festival
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]
Location
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.
Editions[edit]
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.[4][5]
The 74th Locarno Film Festival took place from 4 to 14 August 2021. Over 75,000 people attended.[6]
The 75th Locarno Film Festival took place from 3 to 13 August 2022. It opened with Brad Pitt's film Bullet Train.[7]
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.
The 77th Locarno Film Festival will take place from 7 to 17 August 2024. This year, the festival announced the launch of a new award in collaboration with social media site Letterboxd.[8]
Artistic Directors:
Presidents:
Chief Operating Officers:
Piazza Grande screening venue
The screen in the Piazza Grande
Night life during the Festival, Locarno City Garden.
