Four months have passed since the end of the Festival. In the meantime, the world has changed, with the reappearance of the kind of tragedies that we never imagined we would again witness. What is the use of a film festival if not to preserve an area of independence and democracy, open for all to express themselves without fear of the violence that dominates our era? Now more then ever, cinema should be exactly that place of creation and freedom, where we can imagine alternative ways of living together. We know that you won’t change the world through cinema. But with it, we can create the desire for a more welcoming, inclusive, generous society.
The Locarno Film Festival continues to be a permanent laboratory, committed to imagining the images of our collective future. It is a hotbed of ideas looked at by a large part of the film industry with great interest.
From this point of view, our 76th edition has surpassed even the outstanding results of the previous edition.
This year seven Locarno films were among the finalists of the European Film Awards; four of which are directed by women (therefore 57% of the total).
The selection of short films, programmed by General Delegate Eddie Bertozzi together with the team, saw four shorts among the finalists:
As for the Academy Awards nominations, they include the films of Radu Jude, Ena Sendijarević, Una Gunjak, Jurai Lerotić and Shayda by Noora Niasari, our closing film.
The huge number of festivals that have subsequently invited and now continue to invite the films selected by the Locarno Film Festival shows that our work is considered a true seal of quality.
It is precisely through this work that, film after film, project after project, we want to map out a Festival that poses questions for the world, helping to lay the foundations for imagining a new one.
Happy New Year!
Giona A. Nazzaro
Artistic Director