Locarno Film Festival

Film Festival on the Piazza Grande is featured on the Swiss twenty-franc banknote since 2017. The Locarno Film Festival was established by the tourist office Pro Locarno and several professionals from the movie industry. As stated by cinema historians, it emerged as a 'grassroots celebration' and mostly oriented on attracting tourists to Locarno, offering various entertainment events such as fashion shows and excursions. The inaugural evening took place on 23 August 1946, at the Grand Hotel of Locarno with the screening of the movie O sole mio directed by Giacomo Gentilomo. The first edition was organized in less than three months with a line-up of fifteen movies, mainly American and Italian, among which was Rome, Open City directed by Roberto Rossellini, And Then There Were None directed by René Clair (1945), Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder (1944) and The Song of Bernadette by Henry King (1943). Until the mid-1950s, LFF was allowed to screen only the movies that were commercially distributed in Switzerland. The authorities considered LLF to be a private event and did not support it financially, which is why the festival experienced constant difficulties. The 1951 edition was cancelled due to a lack of funding. In 1953, LFF was downgraded to the D rank in FIAPF classification. In response to such a loss of prestige, in 1954 the government acknowledged LFF as an event of national significance which allowed the festival to send invitations to film-producing countries via diplomatic channels and thus Swiss distributors could finally import movies out of their annual quota specifically for the festival. Later, the Locarno Film Festival presented features and short films by many international directors such as Claude Chabrol, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Verhoeven, Miloš Forman, Marco Bellocchio, Glauber Rocha, Raúl Ruiz, Alain Tanner, Mike Leigh, Béla Tarr, Chen Kaige, Edward Yang, Alexandr Sokurov, Atom Egoyan, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, Gregg Araki, Christoph Schaub, Catherine Breillat, Abbas Kiarostami, Gus Van Sant, Pedro Costa, Fatih Akin, Claire Denis and Kim Ki-Duk. In 2018, the festival welcomed Lili Hinstin as its new Artistic Director. Succeeding Carlo Chatrian, she became the second-only female director in the history of LFF (the first was Irene Bignardi). Hinstin actively promoted gender equality and shifted the balance so that more than 40% of features in the 2019 edition line-up were by female filmmakers. She also hired a younger programming team, launched innovative initiatives such as “Locarno 2020 – For The Future of Films”. However, under her lead Locarno’s industry side suffered, more so than its artistic side, which may have played a role in Hinstin's resignation. 2020 was marked with a major change in top positions: after Hinstin's resignation, sales exec Valentina Merli and Industry Days chief Nadia Dresti both stepped down.{{cite web In 2023, at the 76th Locarno Film Festival, the acting categories (Best Actor/Best Actress) became gender-neutral after the creation of the Best Performance Award, given to two or more actors with no gender restriction.{{cite web ==Official awards and sections==

Audience awards • Prix du public, presented in partnership with UBS, Piazza Grande section films compete by audience vote. Main Competition • Golden Leopard (since 1946), the festival's main prize; • Special Jury Prize (since 1949); • Leopard for Best Direction (since 1946); • Leopard for Best Performance (since 2023); Former awards include • Leopard for Best Actress • Leopard for Best Actor First Feature Competition • First Feature Award, awarded by a jury of international critics to the first feature film presented in any festival's sections. Filmmakers of the Present • Golden Leopard - Filmmakers of the Present, prize awarded to the best film of the section, which is dedicated to first or second features. • Ciné+ Special Jury Prize, French television channel Ciné+ Club offers the broadcast rights to the winning film. • Leopard for Best New Director Leopards of Tomorrow • '''Pardino d'oro for the Best International Short Film''', awarded to the best short film in the international short film competition; • '''Pardino d'oro for the Best Swiss Short Film''', awarded to the best short film in the national short film competition; • '''Pardino d'argento for the international competition''', awarded to the second best film in the international competition; • '''Pardino d'argento Swiss Life for the national competition''', awarded to the second best film in the national competition; • Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards, awarded an automatic nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards; • Prize for Best Swiss Newcomer; • 'Premio Medien Patent Verwaltung AG.''''' Pardo Verde Competition • Green Pardo WWF In collaboration with WWF, the Green Pardo WWF is the prize that aims to find the film which best reflects the environmental theme in any of the Festival's competition sections. The award constitutes a Green statue and to the director. Independent sections There are also two sections for independent films: • Critics' Week (Semaine de la Critique), at which selected international films are screened; • Swiss Panorama (Panorama Suisse), in which "Swiss films that have enjoyed success at festivals, found an audience in cinemas, or are currently released in the country" are screened ==Direction and management==

Artistic directors • 1946–1958: Riccardo Bolla • 1960–1965: Vinicio Beretta • 1966: Sandro Bianconi • 1967–1970: Sandro Bianconi, Freddy Buache • 1971: Commission of direction, composed of seven members from Ticino • 1972–1977: Moritz de Hadeln • 1978–1981: Jean-Pierre Brossard • 1982–1991: David Streiff • 1992–2000: Marco Müller • 2000–2005: Irene Bignardi • 2005–2009: Frédéric Maire • 2010–2012: Olivier Père • 2012–2018: Carlo Chatrian • 2018–2020: Lili Hinstin • 2020: Nadia Dresti (interim) • 2021– present: Giona A. Nazzaro Presidents • 1946–1955: Camillo Beretta • 1957–1962: Enrico Franzioni • 1963–1968: Fernando Gaja • 1970–1980: Luciano Giudici • 1981–1999: Raimondo Rezzonico • 2000–2023: Marco Solari • 2023– present: Maja Hoffmann Chief operating officers • 2006–2013: Marco Cacciamognaga • 2013–2017: Mario Timbal • 2017– present: Raphaël Brunschwig (Managing Director since 2022) ==Gallery==

File:Piazza Grande Locarno.jpg|Piazza Grande screening venue File:Festival internazionale del film di Locarno.JPG|The screen in the Piazza Grande File:Public at screening during the 78th Locarno Film Festival 2.jpg|Public at screening 2025 File:Locarno Piazza Grande 2025-08-16.jpg|Piazza Grande award ceremony File:Festival-del-film-locarno-03.jpg|Night life during the Festival, Locarno City Garden. File:Wegweiser in Locarno 2025-08-15.jpg|Street sign for festival venues File:Bar Terraza during the 78th Locarno Film Festival, 2025.jpg|Bar Terraza near Piazza Grande, 2025 File:Locarno Fevi Eingang 2025-08-12.jpg|Entrance to "Fevi" File:Spazio Cinema in Locarno 2025-08-12.jpg|Open air café and interview tent "Spazio" File:Round table - Filmfestivals ohne Filmkritik? at 78th Locarno Film Festival.jpg|Public talk with filmmakers in "Spazio", 2025 File:Rotonda by la Mobiliare 2025-08-14.jpg|Entrance tunnel to Rotonda File:Rotonda by la Mobiliare in Locarno 2024-08-10.jpg|Open air food truck area in Rotonda ==See also==