The Locarno International Film Festival unveiled the full program for 2023 on Wednesday, with dozens of world premieres set to screen in the 76th edition of the Swiss festival.
Locarno’s main Piazza Grande section will include several of this season’s festival favorites, among them Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall from French director Justine Triet starring Sandra Hüller; Ken Loach’s latest (and possibly last) feature, The Old Oak; Noora Niasari’s Sundance audience award winner Shayda, featuring Holy Spider star Zar Amir Ebrahimi; and Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s comedy Theater Camp, which won a special jury prize at Sundance. Other highlights include U.S. horror feature Falling Stars by directors Richard Karpala and Gabriel Bienczycki; Dammi from 71′ and White Boy Rick-helmer Yann Demange; and Magnetic Continent, the new nature documentary from March of the Penguins‘ filmmaker Luc Jacquet about the continent of Antarctica.
In its Concorso internazionale section of films from emerging cinema nations, Lorcarno’s 2023 line-up will include sardonic Romanian drama Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World from Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn), the comedy Yannik from French avant-gardist Quentin Dupieux (Réalité, Smoking Causes Coughing), and Essential Truths of the Lake, the latest slice of edgy surrealism from Filipino art house star Lav Diaz (The Woman Who Left, Season of the Devil).
Eight of the 15 films in Locarno’s Concorso Cineasti del presente sidebar, highlighting first and second features, are from female directors. Among them is the erotic comedy On the Go from Spanish directors María Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro, Eléonore Saintagnan’s philosophical French drama Camping du Lac and Family Portrait from American filmmaker Lucy Kerr.
Oscar-nominated British actor Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), will be honored this year with Locarno’s Excellence Award Davide Campari. Ahmed will receive the lifetime achievement honor on the festival’s opening night, August 2. The festival will also screen Bassam Tariq’s 2020 feature Mogul Mowgli, in which Ahmed stars and co-produces.
Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro called the star of The Road to Guantanamo, Four Lions and Rouge One: A Star Wars Story “a brilliant and versatile talent in cinema today. Chameleon-like, he can move from blockbuster to auteur movies, equally at ease on stage or TV, rapping with a mic or intervening as executive producer… he is the embodiment of a kind of cinema that is becoming better, more receptive, finally able to listen to new voices. Riz Ahmed is the face of a future finally becoming possible.”
The 2023 Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 2 to 12. The festival’s main feature competition lineup is below:
Piazza Grande Program
Anatomy of a Fall, director: Justine Triet
Magnetic Continent, director: Luc Jacquet
Guardians of the Formula, director: Dragan Bjelogrlić
Dammi, director: Yann Mounir Demange
Falling Stars, directors: Richard Karpala, Gabriel Bienczycki
The Falling Star, directors: Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel
La Bella Estate, director: Laura Luchetti
City of Women (1980), director: Federico Fellini
La Paloma (1974) director: Daniel Schmid
La Voie Royale, director: Frédéric Mermoud
Smugglers, director: RYOO Seung-wan
The Tragedy of Othello by W. Shakespeare, director: Edoardo Leo
Première Affaire, director: Victoria Musiedlak
Shayda, director: Noora Niasari
The Old Oak, director: Ken Loach
Theater Camp, directors: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
Concorso Internazionale Program
Animal, director: Sofia Exarchou
Home, director: Leonor Teles
El Auge del Humano 3, director: Eduardo Williams
Essential Truths of the Lake, director: Lav Diaz
The Permanent Picture, director: Laura Ferrés
Lousy Carter, director: Bob Byington
Manga D’Terra, director: Basil Da Cunha
Critical Zone, director: Ali Ahmadzadeh
The Invisible Fight, director: Rainer Sarnet
Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World, director: Radu Jude
Nuit Obscure – Au Revoir Ici, N’importe Où, director: Sylvain George
Patagonia, director: Simone Bozzelli
Rossosperanza, director: Annarita Zambrano
Stepne, director: Maryna Vroda
Sweet Dreams, director: Ena Sendijarević
The Vanishing Soldier, director: Dani Rosenberg
Yannick, director: Quentin Dupieux
Concorso Cineasti Del Presente Program
Camping du Lac, director: Eléonore Saintagnan
Ein Schöner Ort, director: Katharina Huber
Excursion, director: Una Gunjak
Family Portrait, director: Lucy Kerr
Dreaming & Dying, director: Nelson Yeo
La Morsure, director: Romain de Saint-Blanquat
Negu Hurbilak, director: Colectivo Negu
On the Go, directors: María Gisèle Royo, Julia de Castro
Rapture, director: Dominic Sangma
Rivière, director: Hugues Hariche
Todos los Incendios, director: Mauricio Calderón Rico
Touched, director: Claudia Rorarius
Und dass man ohne Täuschung zu leben vermag, director: Katharina Lüdin
Whispers of Fire & Water, director: Lubdhak Chatterjee
West Border, director: Yan Luo
