The Festival del film Locarno’s 66th edition opens on Wednesday
The 66th Festival del film Locarno, Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian's first edition, is officially inaugurated by President Marco Solari on Wednesday 7 August with a rich program.
The world premiere of Andrea Segre's Indebito, a musical journey into the crisis in Greece, will take place at 15:45, followed by a concert given by Vinicio Capossela, accompanied by five Greek musicians. The Festival audience will also have the opportunity to attend a conversation with the director and the Italian singer-songwriter at 14:00 at the Magnolia (Spazio RSI).
The Festival's traditional opening reception will follow, attended by Federal Councilor Alain Berset, the Mayor of Locarno and Vice-President of the Festival Carla Speziali, with guests including figures from the international film scene as well as Swiss and Ticino politicians and institutional representatives.
The Piazza Grande Opening Ceremony will start at 21:30. The evening will begin with the presentation of the official juries and preview extracts from films which take part in the Concorso internazionale, and will continue with the presentation of the Excellence Award Moët & Chandon to Sir Christopher Lee. The evening will conclude with the international premiere of American action-comedy 2 Guns, introduced by its director Baltasar Kormákur.
Among the guests attending the 66th edition: actors Christopher Lee, Faye Dunaway, Anna Karina, Sergio Castellitto, Victoria Abril, Jacqueline Bisset, Brie Larson, Virginie Ledoyen, Jasmine Trinca, Isabel Ruth, Nicole Garcia, Reda Kateb, Valérie Donzelli, Moritz Bleibtreu, Danny Pudi, Silvio Orlando, Giuseppe Battiston, Carla Juri, Viv Albertine, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, filmmakers Werner Herzog, Otar Iosseliani, Lav Diaz, Yorgos Lanthimos, Hartmut Bitomsky, Sam Garbarski, Sebastián Lelio, Sandra Nettelbeck, Hong Sangsoo, Corneliu Porumboiu, Albert Serra, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Emmanuel Mouret, Pedro Costa, producers Margaret Ménégoz and Juan de Dios Larraín, special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull, writer Charlotte Roche and musician Peaches.
The 66th edition will take place 7-17 August, with 250 films – features, shorts and medium-length – from over forty different countries showing across ten venues. The three official competition sections offer viewers an opportunity to take the pulse of contemporary world cinema while other sections are dedicated to the history of cinema and those who have left their stamp on it: tributes to major figures that enable the audience to get to know the artists and discover their work, thanks to the screenings and conversations open to all.
The 66th edition of the Festival del film Locarno will conclude on the Piazza Grande with the closing awards ceremony, on Saturday 17 August at 21:00.
The complete program is available on the official Pardo Live site www.pardolive.ch, where in addition to constantly updated news, trailers and various exclusives one can also see, streamed live, all the Piazza Grande presentations and conversations with the guests of honor.
Pre-Festival
After the success of the first Pre-Festival evening, which attracted 4'500 people to the Piazza Grande for the screening of Vittorio De Sica's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis with producer Arthur Cohn and one of its stars Lino Capolicchio in attendance, the second free screening, of Roman Polanski's Chinatown will take place on the Piazza Grande on Tuesday 6 August at 21:30. Designed to give a foretaste of the Festival and offer both local residents and tourists an opportunity to enjoy the Piazza Grande experience for free, this year the Pre-Festival is supported by the Leopard Club with Top Events of Switzerland and UBS.