Press Releases  ·  18 | 03 | 2019

Locarno Academy 2019 open for applications

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For the tenth time, the Locarno Film Festival is ready to welcome and train the filmmakers of the future. The Festival once again widens its focus on the cinema of the future and the next generation of young professionals working in film, inviting applications for the Locarno Academy. The Locarno Film Festival’s training program dedicated to young directors, industry professionals, and film critics, from both Switzerland and abroad, is once again under way.

Throughout the 11 days of the Festival, Locarno hosts a selected group of emerging talents and young professionals. Last year’s program welcomed 40 promising participants aged 23 to 36, from 37 countries on five continents.

The raft of training initiatives organized and supported by the Locarno Academy includes: Filmmakers, for young cineastes, Critics, for would-be writers on film, and Industry, covering film professions of the Industry. Three facets of a unique experience which offers a selection of young directors, critics and industry professionals a chance to meet and learn from the industry attendees who flock to Locarno every year, turning the town into a hub of global cinema. The young participants in the Locarno Academy are given a full immersion in the Festival atmosphere and the complex world of movies. The application process for the Filmmakers Academy, Critics Academy, and Industry Academy begins today and remains open until 3 May.

In its first decade, the Locarno Academy has established itself as a proactive, hands-on environment for nurturing knowledge and skills. With this year’s 72nd edition of the Festival, the Academy is set to further enhance Locarno’s role as a place for meetings, exchanges, and ideas on cinema, offering a training bouquet with workshops, master classes and a range of other initiatives.

Filmmakers Academy (7–17 August 2019): the Filmmakers Academy welcomes fifteen young directors from all over the world. The chance to meet in person with professionals of international standing creates an opportunity for participants to expand their network of contacts and deepen their knowledge of the many sides to being a filmmaker, in the innovative auteur spirit that the Locarno Film Festival has always embodied. Every year the Locarno Filmmakers Academy consolidates its mission as a platform for dialogue and exchange, bringing leading players in world cinema together with the most promising contemporary filmmaking talents. Recent editions of the Locarno Academy have featured training programs with an impressive line-up of guest directors, including Sean Baker, Jia Zhangke, Olivier Assayas, Catherine Breillat, Todd Haynes, Miguel Gomes, Agnès Varda, Wang Bing, Bruno Dumont, and many others. The young cineastes selected for the Locarno Filmmakers Academy will be joined by six talents from the prestigious Residence program of the Cannes Festival Cinéfondation. Participating directors will also get a chance to show their short films to the Festival audience during the Academy Screenings.

Project manager: Stefano Knuchel
To learn more and apply online visit the following link

Critics Academy (7–17 August 2019): the Critics Academy is set up to work with ten young film critics. The selected participants (4 from Switzerland and 6 worldwide) will be tasked with providing media coverage of the Locarno Festival, reviewing films in the program, interviewing guests and producing articles on ancillary events or in-depth features on the sidebars. Their reviews and articles will appear during the event in the Locarno Daily, the official magazine of the Locarno Film Festival, and also in IndieWire, Film Comment, MUBI, Variety, Filmbulletin, Filmexplorer, Swissinfo, and other titles. The Swiss participants will work under editorial guidance from the Swiss Association of Film Journalists (ASGC) and the  Centre for Publishing in the Arts of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). The Locarno Critics Academy is supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC).

Project manager: Christopher Small
To learn more and apply online visit the following link

Industry Academy (7–13 August 2019): held as part of the Locarno Pro initiative, the Industry Academy is designed for young Swiss and international professionals working in the fields of international sales, marketing, theatrical and digital distribution and programming for film festivals, clubs, and libraries. The selected participants will follow a specially tailored program spanning five days of master classes, meetings with accomplished international professionals and group sessions, dovetailing into a single pathway of hands-on, all-round experience of the film industry. Sharing and comparing practices with international players and young professionals of their own age group across every sector of film marketing and distribution, the Academy participants will address the challenges of today’s industry from multiple angles, discussing innovative approaches and at the same time broadening their European and worldwide network of contacts.    
Launched in 2014, the Industry Academy has expanded significantly on the international scene, setting up workshops in collaboration with major festivals and institutions in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America.
The Locarno Industry Academy receives support from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC) in the ambit of its MEDIA compensation measures, with the invaluable cooperation of three pan-European organizations, Europa Cinemas, Europa International and Europa Distribution.

Project manager: Marion Klotz
To learn more and apply online visit the following link

The Locarno Academy is supported by Swatch, Else v. Sick Stiftung, Beisheim Stiftung and Volkart Stiftung.

The official working languages are English and Italian. The names of the participants selected will be announced on 3 July.

Two further training initiatives run alongside the Locarno Academy in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival: the Documentary Summer School and Cinema e Gioventù. More information on these two programs can be found respectively on the website of the University of Italian Switzerland (USI) and on the website of Castellinaria, the Bellinzona International Young Film Festival.

The Locarno Academy will take place from 7 to 17 August 2019 as part of the 72nd Locarno Film Festival.

 

www.locarnofestival.ch

 

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