Locarno 2025 film festival: Overview | Festivals and awards

We are in August, so the leopard is ready to roar again. During its 78th year, the Locarno Film Festival, located in Switzerland by Lake Pleasure Maggiore, returns with a slate as hot as the Swiss summer sun. It will be my second year of assistance at the festival, which quickly turned at the top of my list of favorite film destinations after last year presented Radu Jude and Hong Sang-Soo films, and a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures. He also presented me with a picturesque city, including the many cobbled streets of the river and the lumbard -style -style buildings converge on the large piazza, an outdoor square which welcomes projections of 8000 places.

Indeed, there is nothing better than tripping in a film late at night, in the moist and hot air and to see the light of a screen larger than most buildings lighting the sky.

This year, several titles and celebrations have already drawn my attention. Here are some goodies that Locarno 2025 has to offer.

A tribute to Lucy Liu

Liu spent most of three decades to sculpt a place in Hollywood as a larger than life hero. She first succeeded “Ally McBeal”, where she obtained Emmy and Sag nominations playing the Ferocious Ling Woo lawyer, before embarking on films like “Kill Bill”, “Charlie’s Angels” and “Kung Fu Panda”. Now, with “Rosemead”, an intimate drama that sees Liu play an immigrant widow, Liu approaches more calm roles. Not only will Erin Lin’s film have its International Première at Locarno, but Liu will also receive the Achievement Prize for the Festival. It is a recognition that, given the illustrious Liu career, feels late.

Big expectations: post-war cinema British 1945-1960

Last year, the Retrosettiva section of Locarno paid tribute to Columbia Pictures. This year is British post-war cinema. Organized by the filmmaker and critic Ehsan Khoshbakht, the celebration will highlight 40 major classics and the little -known rarities of the most imperative stars and directors of the time. Some of my personal favorites who will be projected include “Peeping Tom” by Michael Powell, “Night and the City” by Jules Dassin and “The Passionate Friends” by David Lean. Some of the rarities that I look forward to are “The Shop at Sly Corner” by George King, “The Stranger Left No Card” by Wendy Toye, “The Three Weird Sisters” by Daniel Brit, and much more. This program is so deep, it will be difficult to withdraw to see new films.

International competition

The main competition of the festival, which will grant the Golden Leopard to the superior film, is overflowing with some intriguing works. On the one hand, there is Dracula’s film of Romanian Author Radu Jude. Conversely, the Japanese master Naomi Kawase is back with “the illusion of Yakushima”. This is his first film since the melancholy drama “True Mothers”, and he features Vicky Krieps.

Sho Miyake, who, I personally believe, is among the best underwater directors in Japan, also “two seasons, two foreigners”, with Shim Eun-Kyung. In addition, Abdellatif Kechiche, the filmmaker behind “Blue is the warmest color”, will arrive in Locarno with the third episode of his Mektoub, My Love Series, “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due”.

With these films and more, he already promises to be a deep competition.

Keep an eye open

From top to bottom, there are a few other remarkable mentions. The first feature film by Canadian director Sophy Romvari, “Blue Heron”, will be presented to his world premiere in Locarno before going to the Toronto International Film Festival. Given that many of his short films were presented on Criterion Channel, one wonders if his story of a deeply personal age could be the escape of the festival.

The former collaborator of David Lynch Dunham – who was editor -in -chief of “Blue Velvet” and “Wild at Heart” – also has a new film produced by Lynch himself: “Legend of the Happy World”. Featuring Thomas Haden Church and Colm Meaney, this offbeat Western could have enough power and passion to reach Locarno, back in America.

Finally, I have to shout “Megalopolis” by Francis Ford Coppola. Yes, it’s an “old” title. Hence the reason why he plays in the history of cinema as part of a tribute to the costume designer winning a Oscars Milena Canonero (“The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Barry Lyndon”), which receives the festival’s vision prize. I just wanted to talk about it because Coppola was recently transported to Rome hospital for cardiac procedure. Although the author behind “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather” quickly announced that he was going to, if you walk in the Palacinema on August 10, try to sneak in a self -produced wild swing watch as it was supposed to be seen, on a large screen surrounded by mainly Italian patterns.