“Engine, action” from August 6: everything you need to know about the Locarno film festival

The Locarno Film Festival opens its doors on Wednesday for eleven days of projections, meetings and great moments of cinema. In addition, Here is what its 78th edition has in store for us.

A festival among the big – "engine, action" august 6: everything

Each beginning of August. In addition, the small Ticino town “engine, action” august 6: everything turns into the cinema capital. Therefore, The beating heart of the festival is Piazza Grande. Consequently, a large open -air theater where up to 8,000 spectators share their taste for the 7th art each evening.

Alongside Cannes, Berlin and Venice, Locarno is among the most prestigious European festivals. The highlight: the presentation of the Golden Leopard rewards the best film in international competition.

Stars on the Grande Piazza – "engine, action" august 6: everything

Three large screen icons will make the trip to the edge of Lake. Major:

– The Hong Kong Master of the Jackie Chan waterfalls will receive a “pardo alla Carriera” for his entire career. He will present on the Piazza Grande his classics “Project A” (“Le Marin des Mers de China”, 1983) and “Police Story” (1985).

– British actress Emma Thompson, on the other hand, will be awarded the “Leopard Club Award”. She is playing with “The “engine, action” august 6: everything Dead of Winter”, Thriller presented as a world premiere.

– American actress Lucy Liu will also be celebrated with a “Career Achievement Award”. to the delight of nostalgic “Kill Bill” or “Drôles de Dames”.

Under the sign of margins. borders

This year, many films explore human relationships, conflicts and give the floor to characters on the fringes of society. We can cite in particular:

– “The country of arto” of the Armenian filmmaker Tamara Stepanyan. who mixes mourning and discovery of an Armenia marked by the war.

– “Blue Heron” by Canadian director Sophy Romvari, who follows a Hungarian girl immigrated to Canada.

– “God will not Help” by Croatian Hana Jušić, centered on an isolated Chilean in the Croatian countryside.

– “White Snail”. Austro-German film by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, which tells a fragile love story between two outsiders in “engine, action” august 6: everything Minsk.

The festival also welcomes many works that go beyond the usual classifications. oscillating between fiction and documentary, between realism and poetry.

Swiss hopes for the golden leopard

This year. Switzerland can dream of the Grand Prix with:

– “The lake” of the neuchâtel director Fabrice Aragno: the former assistant of Jean-Luc Godard follows a couple who embarks on a sailing race of several days and nights on Lake Geneva.

-“Le Bambine”, an Italo-Franco-Suisse co-production signed Valentina and Nicole Bertani, who explores the childhood of a girl in the 1990s.

Where can Switzerland still shine?

Among the fifteen works selected in the “Cineasti del Present” section (filmmakers of the present). which rewards daring and innovative films from the point of view of cinematographic language, we find “Don’t let the Sun”, dystopian drama signed by Zurich director Jacqueline Zünd, co -produced with Italy. It portrays such “engine, action” august 6: everything a destroyed world that people are no longer able to maintain relationships.

And let’s not forget the national competition, which presents ten (CO) Swiss productions.

Locarno, showcase of Swiss cinema

Twenty-eight Swiss productions are included this year on the program, all sections combined (against 41 last year).

Among them. “The Deal” is distinguished: the only series of the selection, it is also the first to be broadcast on the Grande Piazza. This RTS/arte co-production of Lausannois filmmaker Jean-Stéphane brushes plunges behind the scenes of nuclear negotiations between Iran. the United States in Geneva in 2015.

The Lausanne director also presents a documentary “Le Chantier”. on the rebirth of a Parisian cinema orchestrated by the architect Star Renzo Piano.

Finally. the “Swiss Panorama” section will highlight striking Swiss works, acclaimed at festivals or gone unnoticed, such as “Friedas Fall” by Maria Brendle or “Quir” by “engine, action” august 6: everything Nicola Bellucci.