Locarno Film Festival goes 60

This year the Locarno International Film Festival will celebrate 60 years of existence.
Yet it remains young at heart: no less than twenty first films will be unveiled. It remains curious: no less than thirty countries are represented in the official selection.
And it remains courageous: the programme for this edition is distinguished by its diversity, its contrasts, the way it pushes the envelope, and its surprises. All of which confirms that Locarno is the Festival for discovery par excellence.
After significantly reducing the number of films shown last year, this year we wanted to streamline the programming, clarify the sections, simplify and facilitate navigation of the Festival. Thus under 80 feature films will be screened in the principal official sections (1).
New films are screened in five different sections: Piazza Grande, International Competition, Filmmakers of the Present Competition, Ici & Ailleurs and the Leopards of Tomorrow – which this year inaugurates an international competition.
In addition to these sections there is our co-production lab and its public dimension, Open Doors, the experimental line of programming Play Forward, the retrospective Retour à Locarno (Back in Locarno), and a tribute to the outstanding women of Italian cinema, Signore e Signore. And of course the parallel sections, the Critics’ Week and Appellations Suisse.
In order to facilitate both the public and professionals’ discovery of what has already been seen by the Festival (the artistic directorate in its entirety, the correspondents, the curators), I would like to sketch out some of the directions that emerged as the programming was coming together. Across all the sections, there are a large number of films (over twenty) made by women, and films that deal, more or less directly, with the female condition – in particular the formidable documentary from Italian-Swiss director Alina Marazzi, Vogliamo anche le rose, that charts, with humour and compassion the situation of women in Italy from the 1960s to date.
The audience will also see many films that are testaments, sometimes consciously political, always respectful, to the contemporary human drama. Whether one likes it or not, the subjects of war, modern slavery, poverty, misery, violence, loneliness are keenly felt throughout today’s cinema and today’s society.
That said, seriousness does not preclude perspective or humour. Several comedies, (including musicals) and film parodies are on offer, as if the seventh art also needed, sometimes, to make fun of itself.
Geographically, the 2007 edition is marked by a return in force of English-language (mainly American) and Asian (particularly Chinese) cinema. These two continents demonstrate an incredible dynamism, whether in terms of major productions (the Japanese manga Vexille that opens the Piazza, Bourne Ultimatum, Hairspray) or more independent cinema. Asia provides our Leopard of Honour recipient this year, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, and two films on the Piazza Grande, as well as several films across all the sections, (from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines). The United States fields an incredible range of independent films, from the New York ripetizione titolo principale (intestazione) thriller Joshua to the political documentary Chicago 10 via radical works such as Loren Cass and Phantom Love.
Latin America once again demonstrates its dynamism, and that of Argentina in
particular. Francophone Canada makes a significant return with three feature films.
Finally, last but not least, Europe, which seems to have enlarged beyond its usual borders. If France (with 9 films), Italy (8 films) and Switzerland (4 films) are more than well represented, it is also worth noting the strength of the participation by Spain and Romania (each with two films in competition), likewise that of Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Great Britain, Portugal.
Finally I presume to hope that this 60th edition of the Locarno Festival is the occasion for a great celebration of cinema, due to the diversity of the films on offer, the numerous major filmmakers back in Locarno for the retrospective, the rejuvenation of our Leopard logo, the opening of new festive and nocturnal spaces, and wonderful evenings on the Piazza.
Frédéric Maire, Artistic Director (1) These figures include only the feature films selected for the Piazza Grande, International Competition, Filmmakers of the Present Competition, and Ici & Ailleurs sections.