The 11 days of the Festival this year brought packed cinemas, extraordinary moments, and unforgettable encounters to the city of Locarno once again, capped off by the triumph of the Lithuanian drama Akiplėša (Toxic), winner of the Festival’s Pardo d’Oro of the Concorso Internazionale.
Photo: © Locarno Film Festival / Ti-Press
With a rich and varied program of films, the official selection of Locarno77 served as a robust defense of all possible kinds of cinema, spanning popular to arthouse, experimental to classically crafted, auteur-driven to collective. It was an edition that combined success at the Locarno box office – featuring many sold out screenings and long winding lines of ticketholders in the streets – with the thoughtful curation of sidebar programs that have come to define the Festival.
The prize list of the 77th Locarno Film Festival crowned Akiplėša (Toxic) by Saulė Bliuvaitė, an incisive portrayal of teenage girls and the crushing expectations imposed upon them. Also, in the Concorso Internazionale, Kurdwin Ayub’s Mond won the Special Jury Prize, while the Pardo for Best Direction went to Laurynas Bareiša for Seses (Drowning Dry). The two Best Performance Awards were given respectively to Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela, and Paulius Markevičius for Seses (Drowning Dry) and to Kim Minhee, star of Hong Sangsoo’s SUYOOCHEON (BY THE STREAM). The Pardo d’Oro in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente was instead awarded to Tato Kotetishvili’s HOLY ELECTRICITY.
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival: “A truly unique edition that marked once more what makes Locarno such a cherished festival both with audiences worldwide and within the film industry. Creativity and hope for a better tomorrow were the elements that ran through all the sections. Cinema is a driving force and Locarno is a flagship for it. We are truly proud of this edition and grateful for the tremendous team effort behind its success. The victory of newcomer Saulė Bliuvaitė, whose Akiplėša won the Pardo d’Oro and the Swatch First Feature Award, confirms the Locarno Film Festival's ability to identify the most innovative talents in the business. And it is also proof, along with the Special Jury Prize to Kurdwin Ayub’s Mond, the MUBI Award – Debut Feature to Sylvie Ballyot's Green Line, or even the Best Emerging Director Award in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente to Denise Fernandes from Ticino (Hanami), of the great attention our juries have paid to the most daring female auteurs. Locarno77 has affirmed even more strongly the centrality of women's voices in contemporary cinema.”
The Festival in 2024
Piazza Grande was once again the beating heart of the Locarno Film Festival, offering a slate of popular but challenging works to the Locarno audience, who gathered in their thousands each night to discover what the Festival had to offer. At the same time, a remarkable slate of major stars and figures from the world of film graced the same stage to accept Locarno’s honorary awards. Among them were Shah Rukh Khan, the Indian superstar who brought admirers from all continents to the Festival, legendary and multi-Academy Award winning filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Jane Campion, Swiss animator Claude Barras, icon of auteur cinema Irène Jacob, visionary independent producer Stacey Sher, celebrated Star Wars and Indiana Jones sound designer Ben Burtt, and esteemed French actors Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet, stars of the opening night film Le Déluge by Gianluca Jodice.
With 225 films in the program and more than 300 screenings, theaters throughout Locarno were packed with spectators. Together, the Concorso Internazionale, Concorso Cineasti del Presente, Fuori Concorso, and Pardi di Domani hinted at the dynamism and formal breadth of Swiss and international cinema, putting varied films into dialogue with each other in a complex and stimulating program of films. In parallel, the Locarno77 Retrospective “The Lady with the Torch – The Centenary of Columbia Pictures” and the section Histoire(s) du Cinéma put the contemporary program in the context of the history of cinema.
The Palmarès
The full prize list is available as a PDF file here.
Pictures of prize winners are available here
Concorso Internazionale
Pardo d’Oro – Grand Prize of the Festival and City of Locarno
AKIPLĖŠA (TOXIC) by Saulė Bliuvaitė, Lithuania
Special Jury Prize – Cities of Ascona and Losone
MOND by Kurdwin Ayub, Austria
Pardo for Best Direction – City and Region of Locarno
to Laurynas Bareiša for SESES (DROWNING DRY), Lithuania/Latvia
Pardo for Best Performance
to Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela, Paulius Markevičius for SESES (DROWNING DRY) by Laurynas Bareiša, Lithuania/Latvia
Pardo for Best Performance
to Kim Minhee for SUYOOCHEON (BY THE STREAM) by Hong Sangsoo, South Korea
Special Mentions
QING CHUN (KU) (YOUTH (HARD TIMES)) by WANG Bing, France/Luxembourg/Netherlands
SALVE MARIA by Mar Coll, Spain
Concorso Cineasti del Presente
Pardo d’Oro – Concorso Cineasti del Presente
HOLY ELECTRICITY by Tato Kotetishvili, Georgia/Netherlands
Best Emerging Director Award – City and Region of Locarno
to Denise Fernandes for HANAMI, Switzerland/Portugal/Cape Verde
Special Jury Prize CINÉ+
KOUTÉ VWA (LISTEN TO THE VOICES) by Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Belgium/France/French Guiana
Pardo for Best Performance
to Callie Hernandez for INVENTION by Courtney Stephens, USA
Pardo for Best Performance
to Anna Mészöly for FEKETE PONT (LESSON LEARNED) by Bálint Szimler, Hungary
Special Mentions
FEKETE PONT (LESSON LEARNED) by Bálint Szimler, Hungary
KADA JE ZAZVONIO TELEFON (WHEN THE PHONE RANG) by Iva Radivojević, Serbia/USA
Pardi di Domani
Concorso Corti d’Autore
Pardino d’Oro Swiss Life for the Best Auteur Short Film
UPSHOT by Maha Haj, Palestine/Italy/France
Special Mention
GWE-IN ESI JEONGCHE (THE MASKED MONSTER) by Syeyoung Park, South Korea
Locarno Film Festival Short Film Candidate – European Film Awards
LA FILLE QUI EXPLOSE by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel, France
Concorso Internazionale
Pardino d’Oro SRG SSR for the Best International Short Film
WASHHH by Mickey Lai, Malaysia/Ireland
Pardino d’Argento SRG SSR for the International Competition
GIMN CHUME (HYMN OF THE PLAGUE) by Ataka51, Germany/Russia
Pardi di Domani Best Direction Award – BONALUMI Engineering
QUE TE VAYA BONITO, RICO by Joel Alfonso Vargas, United Kingdom/USA
Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award
THE FORM by Melika Pazouki, Iran
Special Mention
FREAK by Claire Barnett, USA
Concorso Nazionale
Pardino d’Oro Swiss Life for the Best Swiss Short Film
SANS VOIX by Samuel Patthey, Switzerland
Pardino d’Argento Swiss Life for the National Competition
BETTER NOT KILL THE GROOVE by Jonathan Leggett, Switzerland
Best Swiss Newcomer Award
to Gabriel Grosclaude for LUX CARNE, Switzerland
Special Mention
PROGRESS MINING by Gabriel Böhmer, United Kingdom/Switzerland
First Feature
Swatch First Feature Award
AKIPLĖŠA (TOXIC) by Saulė Bliuvaitė, Lithuania
MUBI Award – Debut Feature
GREEN LINE by Sylvie Ballyot, France/Lebanon/Qatar
Special Mentions
HANAMI by Denise Fernandes, Switzerland/Portugal/Cape Verde
KOUTÉ VWA (LISTEN TO THE VOICES) by Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Belgium/France/French Guiana
Pardo Verde
Supported by the Ente Regionale per lo Sviluppo del Locarnese e Vallemaggia
Pardo Verde
AGORA by Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia/France/Saudi Arabia/Qatar
Special Mentions
DER FLECK by Willy Hans, Germany/Switzerland
REVOLVING ROUNDS by Johann Lurf and Christina Jauernik, Austria
The closing night in Piazza Grande, on Saturday August 17, will be rounded off with the ceremonies for the Prix du Public UBS and the Letterboxd Piazza Grande Award, plus the screening of the closing title Le Procès du chien by Laetitia Dosch.
The 78th Locarno Film Festival will take place from 6 to 16 August 2025.
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