Content language:
©Locarno Film Festival/Ti-Press
The Locarno Film Festival’s spring annual General Assembly confirmed its finances for 2024 and projected budget for 2025, which were both ratified through a vote of the members. Raphaël Brunschwig, CEO, presented an overview of the 2024 financial year, showing that the institution has remained financially resilient even in the face of considerable global challenges.
The last edition of the Festival, which saw a further 3.5% growth in audience numbers compared to 2023, was able to count on an increase in funding from private partners, a 20% increase in the sale of daily passes - a result aided by targeted promotion in the rest of Switzerland - and a 15% increase in accreditation purchases, confirming how important what happens in Locarno is for the Swiss and international film industry. The 2025 budget forecasts revenues of CHF 17.1 million and shows, as of end of 2024, a deficit of CHF 93,300, against a current reserve of CHF 691,000. This is a clear improvement compared to the deficit of 485,000 recorded at the end of 2023.
Maja Hoffmann, President of the Locarno Film Festival:
“The efforts of all Board Members and teams over the past year have enabled us to implement changes and achieve our goals, ensuring a stronger, more robust financial future for the Festival. These crucial steps strengthen the Festival's position, optimize our organization and improve our ability to focus more on our main priorities of supporting the work of filmmakers and the film and cinema ecosystems.”
“Last year,” Brunschwig emphasizes, “marked an important step forward in the process of reorganizing and consolidating the Festival's organization and finances. Thanks to more efficient financial and operational management, but also to a cultural program that has been rewarded by a constantly growing audience and the internal strength reinforced by a new management structure, we have been able to capitalize on the changes initiated in this new course, obtaining results that have exceeded our expectations. The robustness of our relationships with our partners, together with the prospects for improvement in terms of partnerships and operational management, make us confident about the future.”
Additionally, the Board of Directors confirmed that Giona A. Nazzaro, its Artistic Director since 2021, will lead its artistic programming through to Locarno80.
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director: “I would like to thank President Maja Hoffmann and the entire Board of Directors of the Locarno Film Festival for the trust and esteem placed in me and in the team that I have the privilege of leading. To pursue together the work of these first five years, in a moment full of unheard-of transformations in the audiovisual sector and film industry - at a complex historical moment - is an exciting challenge that will inspire us confidently towards our 80th anniversary.”
The 2024 Annual Report, detailing all initiatives and activities related to the Locarno Film Festival and its 77th edition, was also presented during the Assembly.
The 78th Locarno Film Festival will take place from 6 to 16 August 2025.