Artistic Director's statement

The Festival del film Locarno once again makes its presence felt as the essential rendez-vous for auteurs, observers and key players in world cinema. The Festival, faithful to its origins and resolutely looking forward, continues its adventurous course, always attentive to change in film and the emergence of new talent. It continues to strive to limit the number of films selected, in order to guarantee maximum visibility for those selected while offering a range of appealing and tempting views of world cinema, film production in all its forms, and landmarks in film history.

Those expected to attend this 64th edition include Claudia Cardinale, Harrison Ford, Lesile Caron, Ingrid Caven, Kabir Bedi, Guy Bedos, Abel Ferrara, Mike Medavoy, Bruno Ganz, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Olivia Wilde, Claude Goretta, Hitoshi Matsumoto, Kati Outinen, Nicolas Winding Refn, Daniel Craig, Pierre Richard, Maribel Verdú, Anri Sala and Daniel Brühl.

This year the Piazza Grande will host a rich, topical and eclectic programme, with world, international and European premières, and also major titles as Swiss sneak previews. The Concorso internazionale presents 20 features, of which 14 are world premières, bringing together several major names in contemporary cinema and young talented auteurs from all over the world. The Concorso Cineasti del presente, with 14 first or second films, pays particular attention to the most original and gifted filmmakers on the international indie cinema scene and to countries that are emerging on the world cinema map.

This year the Festival’s major retrospective - organised in collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse - is dedicated to Vincente Minnelli, master of the Hollywood musical and melodrama, all of whose films will be screened in the best available 35mm prints. The screenings will be accompanied by introductions from critics and filmmakers and a round table discussion.

Around this event, summer blockbusters, auteur films and popular cinema from all over the world as well as numerous famous performers on the Piazza Grande who will come to light up the Festival del film Locarno’s evenings, devoted to entertainment, mainstream cinema, emotion, passion and reflection.

Olivier Père, Artistic Director