Locarno celebrates record engagement
Posted on Sep 25, 2024 by Samara Husbands
The 77th Locarno Film Festival awarded the Golden Leopard to Lithuanian drama Toxic, while celebrating increased engagement and over 150,000 attendees. Other winners included Reinas and Gaucho Gaucho
Locarno International Film Festival, held annually in Switzerland, celebrated its 77th outing in August, awarding its top prize – the Golden Leopard – to Lithuanian drama Toxic. The organisers heralded the beginning of a new era for the festival, celebrating increased engagement across the board and total audiences of more than 150,000.
As for professional attendees, accreditations saw an increase of 6.5% – totalling 4940, of whom 1884 were industry professionals and 793 were journalists, critics and photographers. Aside from Saulė Bliuvaitė’s Toxic, other accolades included the Prix du Public UBS, which went to Reinas by Klaudia Reynicke, and the Letterboxd Piazza Grande award to Gaucho Gaucho by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw.
Giona A Nazzaro, artistic director, described this year’s event as: “A unique edition that marked once more what makes Locarno such a cherished festival both with audiences worldwide and within the film industry. Creativity and hope for a better tomorrow were the elements that ran through all the sections. We are truly proud of this edition and grateful for the tremendous team effort behind its success.”
The 78th edition is 6-16 August 2025.
This feature was first published in the October 2024 issue of Definition.
