The 79thedition of the Locarno Film Festival is coming up fast, and organizers have now unveiled the full lineup of this year’s juries that decide the winners of the Pardo d’Oro, or Golden Leopard,and theSwiss festival’sotherawards.
Presiding over the jury of the international competition, the Concorso Internazionale, will be Belgian filmmakerFabrice Du Welz (Adoration,The Passion According to Béatrice. He is joined by Italian producerMarco Alessi, founder of Rome-based Dugong Films and one of the producers of Bertrand Mandico’sRoma Elastica, which is part of this year’sout-of-competition lineup, French actressLolita Chammah (Copacabana,Barrage), the daughter ofIsabelle Huppert, Chilean actressPaulina García (Gloria) andOlivier Père, the former artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival and now executive director of ARTE France Cinéma and head of its cinema unit since 2012.
The films in the ConcorsoCineastidelPresente, or Filmmakers of the Present, program dedicated to emerging directors, will be judged byTunisianactress, director, producer and directorof theGabès Cinéma Fen festivalAfef Ben Mahmoud, Czech producer and directorRadovanSíbrt, responsible for shepherdingsuch international productions as the Oscar-winningMr. Nobody Against Putin andItalian filmmakerMargherita Spampinato (Sweetheart).
Meanwhile, the Pardi di Domanisection, focused on the filmmakers of the future, will be evaluated by a jury made up of Lebanese director,writerandactressMounia Akl (Costa Brava, Lebanon; House of Guinness),South African producerSteven Markovitz(Rafiki,Omen)andItaliandirectorAntonio Piazza (Sicilian Letters).
The First Feature jury, honoring the best debut in the festival’s lineupwith the Swatch First Feature Award, is comprised ofMatthieu Darras, director ofTatino, who has programmed for Cannes, Venice, San SebastiánandTorinoFilmLab;Sung Moon, the Jeonju International Film Festival programmer and formermemberof the Korean Film Council; and Swiss-Peruvian filmmakerKlaudia Reynicke (Queens).
The Pardo for Change honor “reflects Locarno’s commitment to cinema that engages with pressing environmental, ethical, social, and cultural questions of broad social relevance.”Its jury includesGianluca Grossi, a freelance war reporter, writer and theaterauthor;Somali-AustrianfilmmakerMo Harawe (The Village Nextto Paradise) andSeta Thakur, head of communications and social innovation at the Wyss Academy for Nature.
Said Giona A. Nazzaro, artisticdirector at Locarno: “Selectingthose whose eyes will be watchingthe filmsin the competitive sections is a taskthat always bringsoutdesires and emotions. The diversity of talent meets the diversity of perspectives.Ultimately, however, what matters most is a willingness to be surprised, to be amazed, and to embrace the unexpected.”
The 79th Locarno Film Festival will take place Aug. 5-15.