Locarno Film Festival 2023 Is Ready For The Launch

There's less than month left to the 76th Locarno Film Festival, which will take place from the 2nd to 12th of August, and the full program is finally revealed. This edition of the Festival is set to be as bold and vibrant as ever, with a program that will see cinema engaged in conversation with both its history and its future, and with other forms of art and communication.

The official selection for the Concorso internazionale will comprise 17 titles, all world premieres, which will compete for the main prize - the Pardo d'oro.

“From Quentin Dupieux and his edgy surrealism to Lav Diaz. From the sarcastic humor of Radu Jude to the night poetry of Sylvain Georges. From the mad inventions of Rainer Sarnet to the abstract psychedelia of Eduardo Williams. From the bittersweet comedy of Bob Byington to the Italian revelation of Simone Bozzelli. From the debut of Leonor Teles to the dreams of Ena Sendijarević. From the ominous and dark Tehran of Ali Ahmadzadeh to the tourist resorts of Sofia Exarchou. Not to forget Dani Rosenberg's praise of desertion and Annarita Zambrano's extravagant anarchy. And again, the voices of brand-new women such as Laura Ferrés and the Ukrainian Maryna Vroda, who has finally made it to feature film. Switzerland is represented by Basil Da Cunha, one of the most original voices, protagonist of the renewal of Swiss cinema. The world in all its expressions and manifestations is present in the Locarno selection. And therefore, cinema and all its possibilities. All still to be discovered,” this is how Giona A. Nazzaro, the Artistic Director of the Festival, describes the selected program.

But for the public and the guests of Locarno the main attraction during the Festival days centres around the Piazza Grande with its extraordinary open-air theater that accommodates a nightly audience of up to 8,000 people. This year the program of the Piazza Grande will include 17 films, 9 of which are world premieres.

“Great popular cinema and more, will take center stage in the Piazza Grande. Between rediscoveries of classic cinema, such as Daniel Schmid's La Paloma (1974) restored and brought back to life, Federico Fellini's La città delle donne (1980) and an abstract and metaphysical thriller like Falling Stars by Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki already destined to be a cult film, the Piazza will welcome Sandra Hüller (Anatomie d'une chute), Ken Loach (The Old Oak), Deva Cassel and Yile Vianello (La bella estate), Edoardo Leo (Non sono quello che sono -The Tragedy of Othello di W. Shakespeare), Frederic Mermoud (La voie royale), the cult movie Theater Camp from Sundance and finally Cate Blanchett as executive producer of Noora Niasari's film Shayda starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi,” Giona A. Nazzaro advertises the screenings in a nutshell.

In addition to those two sections of the festival, the official selection also features Concorso Cineasti del presente, dedicated to discovering the cinema of tomorrow, Pardi di domani, dedicated to short films by emerging Swiss and international directors, as well as many events off competition.

Source: press release. 05.07.2023