The bond between Locarno and stars is unbreakable and twofold: the stars above our heads, during the eleven nights in Piazza Grande, and those before our eyes, on the red carpet. This will also be the case at Locarno74, when the city becomes once again the world capital ofinternational cinema.
This edition will kick off with one of the brightest stars of the Noughties, who has shone on catwalks, magazine covers, the stage and arthouse film sets. The night of August 4 will reconnect Piazza Grande and its audience via the Excellence Award Davide Campari to Laetitia Casta. The French actress will be only the first of many women playing a key role at Locarno74. There’s Gale Anne Hurd, who will receive the Premio Raimondo Rezzonico and share her experiences as a major Hollywood producer, with the addition of what will certainly be a memorable Piazza screening of The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984). There’s Eliza Hittman, who won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2020 and will serve as the president of the jury handing out the Pardo d’oro. Alongside, in between Concorso internazionale screenings, we will find a great name of Italian cinema like Isabella Ferrari and the magnificent Portuguese actress Leonor Silveira, a regular collaborator of Manoel de Oliveira, who directed her in 18 films. The jury of Cineasti del presente will be 100% female, with Agathe Bonitzer, Mattie Do and Vanja Kaludjercic, as will a large percentage of the Pardi di domani and First Feature juries, with Adina Pintilie, Marie-Pierre Macia, Karina Ressler and Katharina Wyss. At their side, completing the juries, are Philippe Lacôte, Kevin Jerome Everson, Kamal Aljafari and Amjad Abu Alala.
Then there’s the other awards. While we wait for the official prizes to be given out on August 14, there are others that honor facets of film history: the Vision Award Ticinomoda to Phil Tippett, a visual effects craftsman who worked on Star Wars and Jurassic Park; the Pardo alla carriera to Dante Spinotti, an Italian master of cinematography who will come to Locarno with two of his collaborations with Michael Mann (Heat, 1995 and The Insider, 1999); and the Pardo d’onore Manor to John Landis, the director of The Blues Brothers (1980), who will delight the Piazza Grande audience with National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978).
And that’s not all: we already know some of the other Locarno74 guests who will take part in Locarno Talks la Mobiliare, enabling the audience to meet people like Kim Gordon. And there’s more to come in the next few weeks, be it a Leopard Club Award honoree or a Kids Award la Mobiliare yet to be announced…
