Open Doors and attractive prizes for India at Locarno Olivier Père, the French film critic who is a member of IFFI jury, is also the Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival. In his second capacity, he brings welcome news to Indian film buffs and budding scriptwriters. Locarno co-production lab ‘Open Doors’ will focus on India in the 64th edition of the festival, to be held during August 3-13, 2011. The Open Doors segment is supported by the Swiss foreign ministry�...

For its next edition, the Locarno Festival’s co-production lab Open Doors will focus on India. The announcement was made on November 24 by Festival’s Artistic Director Olivier Père, and Nadia Dresti, Head of Locarno’s Industry Office, during the 41st edition of the International Film Festival of India in Goa. "Everybody knows that India outpaces the world in film production, releasing around 1,300 films every year.But these figures can be misleading. The strength of commerci...

Locarno in Rome – September 1/6September 1-6: the Italian capital will host “I Grandi Festival – Locarno a Roma” (The Big Festivals – Locarno in Rome). Roman audiences will have the opportunity to see a range of films from the most recent edition of the Locarno event. In addition, this year, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this initiative, a retrospective program will present ten Italian films that have marked the history of the Locarno Festival. Full program information will be...

2010 Success for the first edition of Industry DaysAugust 9th was the final day of the highly successful and well-attended first edition of the Festival del film Locarno’s Industry Days.900 "industry" accredited delegates attended the three days of screenings and meetings reserved for film professionals, of whom 242 were buyers from countries all over the world. First time participants included the American sales companies IFC and Visit Films, as well as Mongrel Media (Canada), 6 Sales (Spain...

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  The Chinese film WINTER VACATION (Han Jia) has won the top prize, the Pardo d’oro/Golden Leopard for its director Li Hongqi at the Locarno Film Festival, which ended its 63rd edition on August 15. The award includes a 90,000 CHF cash prize. The film also won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize, shared with fellow Chinese production KAMARAY by Xu Xin, which received a special mention.   WINTER’S VACATION centers on four idle, aimless adolescents who gather...

Concorso internazionale (International Competition) The Jury The official jury of the 63rd Festival del film Locarno: President: Eric Khoo, Filmmaker (Singapore) Golshifteh Farahani, Actress (Iran) Melvil Poupaud, Actor (France) Lionel Baier, Filmmaker (Switzerland) Joshua Safdie, Filmmaker (USA) Awarded the following prizes: Pardo d'oro (Golden Leopard) Grand Prize of the Festival, the City and Region of Locarno (90.000 chf to be shared equall...

  Moving into its final 5 days, the Locarno Film Festival, set in the beautiful mountain city in southern Switzerland, has announced its first set of awards for its 65th edition. The awards for the 2010 Open Doors Factory, the Festival’s co-production lab that is organised with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), were announced on Tuesday, August 10. The 2010 session was devoted to cinema from...

Moving into its final 5 days, the Locarno Film Festival, set in the beautiful mountain city in southern Switzerland, has announced its first set of awards for its 65th edition. The awards for the 2010 Open Doors Factory, the Festival’s co-production lab that is organised with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), were announced on Tuesday, August 10. The 2010 session was devoted to cinema from Ce...

DEEP IN THE WOODS (Benoit Jacquot, France) While most of Europe is on vacation and the film business is enjoying a brief pause in its frenetic pace, the action is strong and the movies are fierce at the Locarno Film Festival, the esteemed film event taking place this week in the beautiiful mountain city in southern Switzerland. The Festival, celebrating its 63rd year as one of the world's oldest and most respected, is the first for newly installed Artistic Director Olivier P...

The Premio Raimondo Rezzonico that distinguishes an independent producer will be awarded to Menahem Golan, Israeli filmmaker, producer, and co-founder, with his cousin Yoram Globus, of the Cannon company. During the 80s he produced a multitude of B-movies and action films, but also major contemporary auteurs, from John Cassavetes to Robert Altman and Jean-Luc Godard.Wishing to highlight a key figure in film, and to salute their courage, their ability to take a risk and support auteurs, with this...

  The Festival del film Locarno will confer the Excellence Award Möet & Chandon to the French actress Chiara Mastroianni. The presentation ceremony will be on Friday 6 August in the Piazza Grande, the following day the public will have an opportunity to attend a discussion with the actress. Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser (Making Plans for Lena), by Christophe Honoré Chiara Mastroianni was born in Paris in 1972 to actors Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni. In 1994, ...

On Saturday 7 August, Locarno's Piazza Grande will stage the European premiere of Cyrus by Jay and Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair, Baghead). This comedy about love and family set in contemporary Los Angeles stars John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei and Catherine Keener, and is produced by Michael Costigan and executive produced by Tony and Ridley Scott. The Piazza Grande screening will be attended by John C. Reilly and the filmmakers. The 63rd Locarno Festival will also pay ...

For the occasion the Festival will screen one of the director’s masterpieces, Platform (2000), as well as his latest documentary film, I Wish I Knew (2010), shown in the section “Un certain regard” at the Cannes Festival this year. In addition, a masterclass with JIA Zhang-ke, open to all, will be held on Friday, August 6 at the Forum.A leading figure in the “sixth generation” of Chinese filmmakers, JIA Zhang-ke was born in 1970 in Fenyang and later graduated from the Beijing Film Acad...

The jury for the Concorso internazionale (International Competition) for the 63rd edition of the Locarno Film Festival is now finalised. The line-up for the juries judging the Concorso Cineasti del presente (Filmmakers of the Present) and the Pardi di domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) is now almost complete. The jury for the Concorso internazionale (International Competition) has five members, and its president will be Singaporean filmmaker, Eric Khoo (Be with me, 2005; My Magic, 2008). He will be ...

At the 63rd edition of the Locarno International Film Festival, a Swisscom Leopard of Honour will be awarded to the Swiss director Alain Tanner, who will hold a public Masterclass. © Antonio Masolotti Born in 1929 in Geneva, Alain Tanner made his first cinema feature film in 1969: Charles, Dead or Alive immediately picked up the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival. Two years later, The Salamander (1971) racked up 200,000 ticket sales in Paris. Alain Tanner thus established himself...

In an interview new artistic director Olivier Père outlines his vision of the Festival and ambitions for the future at Locarno. 1. How do you imagine "your" Locarno Festival? Locarno has a clear identity and a great tradition, since the early days it's been committed to discovering and revealing new filmmakers and new territories. That's an approach I've always been very keen on, too, and I intend to stick with it. Locarno is a major festival that gives a useful o...

Following Greater China in 2009, the Locarno International Film Festival’s co-production lab Open Doors 2010 will focus on countries in central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kirghizistan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan and Turkmenistan.Organised with support from the Swiss Foreign Ministry’s Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the aim of the Open Doors is to assist the directors and producers of the projects selected to find co-production partners, particularly in Europe, and to be able to make their...

The closing ceremony of the 62nd Locarno International Film Festival took place on Saturday, August 15th 2009 at the Piazza Grande.The announcement of the Official Awards 2008 was followed by the world première screening of CHINGISIYN HOYOR ZAGAL (THE TWO HORSES OF GENGHIS KHAN) by Byambasuren Davaa, and by a surprise-concert of Mongolia singer Urna Chahar.Golden Leopard SHE, A CHINESE by Xiaolu GUO, United Kingdom/Germany/FranceSpecial Jury Prize BUBEN.BARABAN by Alexei Mizgirev, Russia Best ...

The awards for the 2009 Open Doors Factory, the Locarno Film Festival’s co-production lab that is organised with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), were announced on Wednesday August 12. The Winners of the Open Doors Award 2009. From left: YANG Jin, YANG Qing, Isabelle Glachant, WANG Xiaoshuai The 2009 session was devoted to cinema from Greater China. 12 projects, selected out of 114 applications from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, participated in the 4...