Locarno Pro’s digitally based service aims at extending the outreach and distribution of heritage films through video on demand, extending the range of titles offered by such services.
Heritage Online offers film professionals a year-round database where streamers and other buyers are able to watch available titles from all over the world in a dedicated Online Screening Room, consult their detailed technical information including availability of films in the various territories, and get in touch directly with their rights holders.
Thanks to Heritage Online, rights holders such as international sales agents, film libraries, archives, institutes, and restorers’ associations among others are able to share their catalogues with potential clients, such as VOD broadcasters from all over the world, ranging from generalist to niche offerings, from established names to emerging start-ups.
Heritage Monday
For the first time, Locarno Pro offered, in the framework of Heritage Online, a full day dedicated to Heritage Film industry, on Monday 7th of August, 2023. Panel discussions on the state of the heritage film distribution, case studies and presentations of brand-new restored films, as well as industry screenings of classics were the core of this day.
Download here the full program of Heritage Monday.
Heritage Restoration Contest
Heritage Online Restoration Contest is a yearly open call for applications for international classic and library films in need of complete or partial restoration. The Restoration Contest, launched for the first time in February 2023, was open to feature films from all over the world that premiered in 2009 or before. This contest is possible thanks to a collaboration with Cinegrell, the winning film of the Heritage Online contest will then be the recipient of a complete, world-class restoration service. Call for application for 2023 is closed.
The winner
Mulher de verdade (1954) by Brazilian director Alberto Cavalcanti won the first ever Heritage Online Restoration Contest of the Locarno Film Festival. The film will enter a restoration process which will start right after the 76th Locarno Film Festival wraps and will end in the first semester of 2024. The restored film will then premiere at the next edition of the Festival in the Histoire(s) du cinéma: Heritage Online section.
Following an open call which lead to close to 30 submissions from 15 different countries, a jury composed of international film industry experts Paula Astorga (Locarno Open Doors Producers’ Lab Head of Studies), Frédéric Maire (Director at Cinémathèque Suisse), and K.J. Relth-Miller (Interim Director, Film Programs at Academy Museum) emphasized the relevance of the director in the LatAm and global cinematic heritage: “With this award we want to underline Alberto Cavalcanti’s importance and creative vision that shaped Brazilian filmmaking, leaving a lasting impact on the country’s cinematic heritage. We hope that the film will be rediscovered and widely diffused after Locarno77.”
