1 Via Franchino Rusca 1, ch–6600 Locarno t +41 91 756 21 21 [email protected] www.locarnofestival.ch July 1 2021 PRESS KIT #Locarno74 This press kit is also available on the Locarno Film Festival website and contains all the information updated by the end of June. The complete and constantly updated information will be available on the Festival website, while the program with days and times of the screenings and activities will be available on the Festival website, official app, and its official channels from mid-July. The official Cat- alogue will be available by the end of July. Trailers, Excerpts and Photos* Press materials such as photographs, stills, excerpts, and trailers of the films selected for the 74th edition of the Locarno Film Festival are available at the following link. In general, photos, stills, excerpts, and trailers are freely available to journalists for editorial purpos- es. The commercial use of photographic and video material (for advertising and other commercial use) by third parties is strictly prohibited. All images are legally protected. Any use that is unlawful or that harms the image of the Locarno Film Festival is strictly prohibited. The publication is authorized only with the indication of the source when present (©). More information about the use of photographs and the Festival brand is available at locarnofestival.ch/brandmanual. If in doubt, contact [email protected] * Excerpts from some films in the official selection are available in broadcast quality and web quality. It is possible that we may not have received all materials in time. @LocarnoFilmFestival @FilmsFestLocarno @filmsfestlocarno LocarnoFilmFestival Road to Locarno74 #Locarno74 #Locarno74 #Locarno74 #Locarno74 FAQs 2 3 Contents Introduction by Marco Solari, President Introduction by Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director Introduction by Raphaël Brunschwig, Chief Operating Officer Official Juries The 2021 selection Road to Locarno74 Piazza Grande Concorso internazionale Concorso Cineasti del presente Pardi di domani Fuori concorso Histoire(s) du cinéma Retrospettiva Open Doors Screenings Locarno Kids: Screenings Swiss cinema in Locarno First Features Locarno Pro Open Doors Locarno Kids la Mobiliare Locarno Young (Locarno Academy, BaseCamp, Youth Advisory Board) Locarno Talks la Mobiliare Rotonda by la Mobiliare Facts&Figures Locarno74 Sustainability Report Attachments 4 Back in Piazza Grande, together On the evening of 17 August 2019, we wrapped Now, on the eve of its 74th edition, the Festival up an edition that was undeniably both an arti- is set to bring back the living passion for cinema stic and an organizational success. No one could to Locarno. It will do so with a fresh start, helmed possibly have imagined the painful decisions that by new Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro. In his awaited us in 2020. Last summer the Piazza Gran- debut year this expert and passionate cinephile de was a sorry sight, with no chairs, no people, no is bound to win over audiences in Locarno and thrilling atmosphere in the evening between film- across the world, thanks to the curatorial choi- makers and personalities on stage and the audien- ces made with his selection committees. A fresh ce – hanging on every word, critical but always start, for Nazzaro and for the Festival itself, which ready to applaud. Despite the disastrous impact is also built on the organizational skills of Chief of the global pandemic, however, we never gave Operating Officer Raphaël Brunschwig and on up. Our committed staff were able to mount an the expertise, notably in digital innovation, of impressive hybrid edition in 2020, online and in Deputy COO Simona Gamba. But it must be said theaters in Locarno. In so doing the Festival not that Locarno74 took shape thanks to the entire only managed to be there for its loyal public, but Festival staff: working through an incredibly dif- even extended its community worldwide. ficult period they gave everything humanly possi- ble – and sometimes even a little more than that! The intervening two years have seemed like a li- We look to the future with confidence. My vision, fetime. But now, from 4 to 14 August, in the Piaz- our vision is a Festival that, starting with the ele- za Grande, in its theaters, and thanks to a digital ven days in August, is present for its community and online presence that has been further stren- throughout the year. Under the guidance of the gthened and enhanced, the Locarno Film Festival COO, a highly qualified working group is develo- can once again celebrate its own freedom, the ping the strategy we will submit to the Board. keystone of its 75 years of history, and that of its audience. Real, physical freedom. For every sin- On behalf of the Board of Directors I wish to con- gle one of us, and for the Festival. The Locarno vey to the Festival’s management and to the enti- Film Festival is not just an offering of high-qua- re Festival staff my sincere gratitude, and to the lity movie surprises, it’s also the iconic location Festival public the hope that they will enjoy ele- conceived in a moment of genius by architect Li- ven days of true cinephile passion. In Locarno, in vio Vacchini in 1971: a cinema beneath the stars, the Piazza Grande, together. seating thousands, in the very heart of the city. A simple idea, but a great one: the idea of a com- munity that gathers for a film, for the cinema, for culture. Since that day exactly fifty years ago – or perhaps we should go back further still, to 23 Au- Marco Solari, gust 1946, the night of its first historic screening President Locarno Film Festival in the grounds of the Grand Hotel – the Locarno Film Festival has been a free place to empower art and thought. A place capable of hosting, and generating, “other” visions, one which has never taken the lazy route to a facile, immediate kind of impact, and which has instead always put free expression at its core, celebrating the dignity of men and women and rejecting falsehood, abuse of power, fake news and illiberal ideas. All language versions of the text, including French and German, are available here. ©Locarno Film Festival | Ti-Press 7 Finding our (cinema) communities again The film industry has faced epoch-defining chan- netlike but highly fragmented. No period before ges over the past eighteen months. Everything has our own has experienced such vast and far-rea- changed. Starting with our notion of ourselves as ching distribution of cinema, yet neither has any a society that lives through epoch-making chan- period witnessed the dominance of the industry ges merely as reflections of transformations that in such forms so acutely threatened. As a result, happen to “others”. Our relationship with images we find ourselves facing – to take the argument has accelerated even more quickly towards for- to extremes – the possibility that the cinema itself ms of atomized, individualistic consumption. The might disappear, at the very peak of its existen- exceptionalism of the cinema, its event status, ce as form, network, memory, archive and lingua has been dramatically diminished by the impos- franca of our shared imagination. Against that, sibility of going out at all, let alone crowding in the Locarno Film Festival remains determined to front of a screen. As a result, cinema’s right – even restore dignity and visibility to the cinema com- its very ability – to go on existing has seemed at munity and its countless stories. Our hope is that stake. And yet the cinema, like all truly necessary the films we have picked will offer the curious, human activities, not only did not bend, but has enthusiastic, open-minded and the casual viewer stood firm against the shock of the ever more ra- some clues to a world (of images, cinema, film in- pid changes in consumption patterns within the dustry) still finding its feet and equipping itself to industry brought on by the pandemic. As we pre- face the next century in its history. One thing we pared for the 74th Locarno Film Festival, we were have no doubt about whatsoever is that the names soon able to clear up one popular misconception: picked out for this 74th Locarno Film Festival will that there wouldn’t be enough titles available to be talked about again, for years to come. They are mount a strong, motivated, generous, and com- names that will soon be part of our community. petitive edition. On the contrary, rarely have we Enjoy cinema, enjoy the films, and Viva Locarno! been so sorry about the many titles we were obli- ged to put aside. Cinema – faced with a tragedy of historic dimensions – not only took up the chal- lenge but has successfully turned it into the tale of how we – all of us together – have overcome it. Giona A. Nazzaro Artistic Director Locarno Film Festival While selecting the films you will discover from 4 to 14 August, our efforts were focused on broa- dening the horizon of the possible. Avoiding the temptation to follow the beaten paths, keeping our eyes open for films from hemispheres, lati- tudes and economies at opposite poles, tracking developments in young cinema and – above all – rethinking our relationship with the audience in Locarno and the audiences beyond the borders of our city and region. To be a Festival that opens itself up, inclusive and sustainable, that can ad- dress the complex problems generated by the historic moment we are going through, without lapsing into narcissistic elitism. Cinema today – more than ever – has expanded its reach via stra- tegies and modalities of consumption that are All language versions of the text, including French and German, are available here.