The need for a step forward in quality
The continued success and even the very existence of a world class event, in a territory like Italian-speaking Switzerland, cannot be taken for granted. That was the premise when President Marco Solari and the Board of Governors asked the Locarno Film Festival’s Chief Operating Officer and his team for a thorough review of all the various organizational factors at play in tackling the current situation.
Locarno 2020, the Festival goes on
In a year when the global pandemic has swept away so many of the occasions for socializing that were formerly part of our daily routine, the Festival has done its utmost to remain present.
A response made possible by the solid support of our partners
The Locarno Film Festival is in a position to reassert its values thanks to the trust placed in us by our institutional and private sector partners, who stood by us during months in which gloom and uncertainty clouded the horizon. Their exemplary solidarity not only allowed the Festival to react positively to the crisis, but also gave us the momentum to conceive a project of great symbolic significance, capable of securing and energizing the resources available in our region, but also of maintaining and improving our connections with the rest of the world.
A launching pad for the Festival of the future
The project for this special edition Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films is not intended to be merely a stopgap pending resumption of normal service. On the contrary, the intention is that it be a launching pad for Festivals to come, laying the foundations for all the indispensable innovations required by a contemporary event determined to maintain its strong global resonance.
Continuity in synergy
In line with this thinking, all the efforts of the entire Festival team during the months of lockdown have been guided by a series of objectives. First and foremost, to ensure the economic survival and continuity of the event. Secondly, to expand and strengthen all the synergies with the international, Swiss and local actors who make the Festival possible, so as to prevent erosion of its cultural value.
Turning the crisis into an opportunity
Last but not least, a crucial objective: to attempt to turn the crisis into an opportunity for growth, accelerating the ongoing changes in the Festival. In particular the transformation of its digital practices and structures, by optimizing communication processes and developing new platforms. Locarno 2020 is the first step in a long-term strategy that envisions a hybrid Festival, extended over time and beyond its traditional geographical confines.
11 days in Locarno, 365 worldwide
In this vision, the eleven-day physical Festival will continue to be the core of a platform capable of producing and distributing content all year round, an event that — while preserving the identity built up over more than seventy years of history — will also be able to expand its sphere of engagement, securing greater involvement on the part of its existing communities as well as reaching out to new ones.
