The auteur moviemaking scene would be significantly poorer without those key personalities who make it possible for the most daring directors to fully realize their creative vision. One of those crucial artistic facilitators is without a doubt Marianne Slot, whose career has intersected memorably with that of Lars von Trier (their collaborations date back to 1995), as well as close ties to a few of Latin America’s well-known names, including Lucrecia Martel (La mujer sin cabeza [The Headless Woman], 2008) and Lisandro Alonso (Liverpool, 2008, and Eureka, 2023, selected for Cannes Première 2023). Always careful to safeguard the artistic integrity of any project she is involved in, Slot has adapted fluidly and skillfully to working with established directors, such as Naomi Kawase (Vision, 2018) and Sergei Loznitsa (Krotkaya [A Gentle Creature], 2017), and was able to take risks by investing in projects such as theater director Emma Dante’s first film, Via Castellana Bandiera (A Street in Palermo, 2013), or Marian Crişan’s debut, Morgen (2010), which appeared in competition at the Locarno Film Festival.
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival: “Marianne Slot’s approach to film production has left a deep and lasting mark on contemporary cinema, rewriting the rules of the game for collaboration and ideation between filmmakers and producers, with her enduring preference for the singularity of the gaze and tireless defense of creative freedom. At a time when cinema risks flatlining into an endless repetition of existing models, Marianne Slot leads by example, demonstrating the beauty of both freedom and risk.”
The tribute program
Marianne Slot will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award in Piazza Grande on the evening of Saturday 5 August. The tribute will include a screening of one of the stand-out titles from her career to date:
Kona fer í stríð (Woman at War), by Benedikt Erlingsson – Iceland/France/Ukraine – 2018.
The Festival audience and guests will also have an opportunity to attend a panel discussion with the producer on Sunday 6 August, to be held at the Forum @Spazio Cinema.
Raimondo Rezzonico Award for Best Producer, offered by the municipal council of Minusio, was created in 2002 in memory of the man who was President of the Festival from 1981 to 1999.
Marianne Slot – Bio
Born in Denmark, Marianne Slot is a French film producer specializing in international auteur features. In 1993 she set up the Paris-based production company SLOT MACHINE. Since 1995 with the film Breaking the Waves, she has been Lars Von Trier's French producer. Over the years she has produced many international film directors, including Lucrecia Martel, Bent Hamer, Małgorzata Szumowska, Paz Encina, Lisandro Alonso, Emma Dante, Marian Crişan, Juliette Garcia, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Sergei Loznitsa, Naomi Kawase and Benedikt Erlingsson. From 1997 to 2017 she was the Scandinavian delegate for the San Sebastián Film Festival. Between 2013 and 2015 she served as President of “Aide aux Cinémas du Monde”, an initiative of the French Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) and the Institut français. As a member of Le Collectif 50/50, Marianne Slot has expressed a feminist commitment and in 2018 she was among the 82 industry women who walked up the red carpet in Cannes as a protest against sexism in the film industry. In May 2015, Marianne Slot received the French honorary title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture Fleur Pellerin at a ceremony in Cannes. From 1999 to 2018 she was a member of the board of the House of Denmark in Paris.
The 76th Locarno Film Festival will take place from 2 to 12 August 2023.
