La Beauté de l`âne / The Beauty of the Donkey, Director Dea Gjinovci
For almost eight decades, we’ve supported emerging talents and great auteurs alike, celebrating the art of cinema in all its forms.
Locarno Film Festival was born in the aftermath of the Second World War. It offered a stage for revival, freedom of art and expression for talents from all over the world eager to tell stories in new, different ways. Since its inception, Locarno has been home to the most daring, avant-garde, irreverent and innovative forms of films – screened in their uncut, uncensored versions.
Why do we do this? And why does it matter?
Cinema is complete art capable of influencing a life, shifting a way of thinking. It hits you with intense emotions and truth. It brings to life human complexity, extraordinary or devastating stories, testimonies from another continent that reshape our participation in the world.
PIAZZA GRANDE
Piazza Grande is what Locarno is all about. Thousands of seats. One of the largest screens in the world. Pristine projection. Booming sound. All of it outdoors, under the stars. Throughout the Festival, awards are given to special guests onstage at Piazza Grande: some of the most prominent directors, stars, producers, or technical wizards from the world of cinema take a bow before the audience. Then there’s the programme itself, which consists of some of the year’s most anticipated movies, coming to Locarno mostly in their world or international premieres. These are films everybody can enjoy, cinephiles, genre fans and the general audience alike. But it doesn’t stop there. On certain nights a second screening takes place just before midnight, giving space to either the films of the honorees, masterpieces from out of the past, or the true genre-bending oddities.
Ich ist ein Anderer / I Is Another, Director Felix Randau
Les Yeux Verts / The Green Eyes, Directors Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh
Down the Arm of God, Director Peter Brunner
CONCORSO INTERNAZIONALE
Consisting of world or international premieres, the Concorso Internazionale assembles major films from all over the globe to compete for the Pardo d’Oro. Showcasing both classical form and experimentation in works over 60 minutes in length, the Concorso Internazionale is a forum for contemporary cinema at its highest level, a competition that stakes out new territories for the art of film. This is the beating heart of the Festival’s programme, the space where authoritative cinematic voices are collected and placed into the history and tradition of the Locarno Film Festival.
A Margem do Rio / The Riverbank, Directors Matheus Farias, Enock Carvalho
Brave New Love, Director Maria Bäck
D’ici là, Director Sarah Leonor
CONCORSO CINEASTI DEL PRESENTE
Emerging talents have a chance to make a mark, mix things up, find a voice. The Concorso Cineasti del Presente, the space for filmmakers of the present, existing beyond all distinctions of form and genre, is dedicated to the cinema of tomorrow. Radical, uncompromising, adventurous, shot through with genuine curiosity about all the possibilities of cinema. Collectively, the films in Concorso Cineasti del Presente, showing in international or world premieres, chart a course for the future.
Todos mis viajes son viajes de regreso / In All My Journeys I Am Returning, Director Manuel Ponce de León
PARDI DI DOMANI
A territory for expressive experimentation and innovative forms of poetry, the Pardi di Domani section showcases short and medium length films as world or international premieres, mapping out the possible pathways the cinema of the future might take. The section consists of three competitions: Concorso Internazionale, with works by emerging filmmakers from all over the world; Concorso Nazionale, for Swiss productions; and Concorso Corti d’Autore, with short works by established filmmakers.
As a Cure, Director Dorothea Sing Zhang
Maids of Petroleum, Director Hans Baumann
The Architect Who Built His Own Collapse, Director Chun-Tien Chen
The First Flower, Director Astrit Ismaili
LOCARNO KIDS SCREENINGS
Cinema made for young audiences, open to all. Locarno Kids presents world, international and national premieres. Stories that speak to new generations and that every spectator can make their own. The big screen, the darkness of the auditorium, the magic of a story emerging from a single beam of light. This year, Locarno Kids becomes a competitive section: the films in competition vie for the Locarno Kids Award la Mobiliare, a prize awarded by a jury of young people. Workshops and encounters curated by the Festival in collaboration with our educational partners accompany the screenings, to go deeper into the films.
The section is made possible thanks to our Main Partner la Mobiliare and our sponsors.
Los nuevos / The Newcomers, Director Rodrigo Plá
FUORI CONCORSO
Fuori Concorso is the blackboard upon which the languages of cinema are etched and revised, a non-competitive section of the Festival programme that doubles as a laboratory for the mixing of all conceivable genres and varied forms of storytelling. Here the pleasure of artistic freedom and the glory of impossible juxtapositions reign supreme. Fuori Concorso is a free zone where the titans of cinema can roam without restrictions or limitations.
Ah que le bonheur est proche ! / Happiness Is So Close, Director François-Christophe Marzal
Atcha Atcha, Director Mamadou Dia
BAKMA, Director Abdelhamid Bouchnak
RETROSPETTIVA
As the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union swelled into a defining feature of world politics, right-wing voices in the American political system alleged communist infiltration of Hollywood. In response, the industry enforced a blacklist that upended careers, forced artists to adopt pseudonyms, stifled free expression, and exiled creators overseas. Guilt by association tore families apart and films with left-wing ideas – real or imagined – were suppressed.
Red & Black: Hollywood Left and the Blacklist will re-examine this repressive yet defiantly creative era, which mirrors the political attacks on free speech and artistic freedom seen again today. The programme will highlight key films by directors, writers, and stars as diverse as John Garfield, Joseph Losey, Dalton Trumbo, Dorothy Parker, Richard Wright, and Charles Chaplin, and trace the Red Scare’s origins and aftermath across the United States, in Europe, and beyond.
Spanning fiction, documentaries, newsreels, and shorts from the U.S., Britain, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, and Argentina, Red & Black will bring together digital restorations and archival prints for a unique examination of the films of the period and will be accompanied, as in previous years, by a comprehensive book published by Les Éditions de l’Œil. For the first time, a podcast, written by Khoshbakht, will detail some of the history and context of the blacklist era.
Force of Evil, Director Abraham Polonsky
HISTOIRE(S) DU CINÉMA
Cinema history is a horizon without limits, a map without borders. The work of keeping it alive is never over. Histoire(s) du Cinéma, the Festival sidebar dedicated to film history, is a tribute to this work: new restorations, films about films, documentary essays, audiovisual remixes. Histoire(s) du Cinéma, in paying homage to these films, artists, technicians, and directors and by spotlighting their craft, makes the past present and the future past.
Mother!, Director Darren Aronofsky
The (Many) Cinematic Worlds of Isabella Rossellini: Green Porno: Fly, Snail, Worm, Anchovy, Shrimp, Squid / Isabella Rossellini
OPEN DOORS
For more than two decades, the Locarno Film Festival has collaborated with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on the section Open Doors, whose mission is to support filmmakers from under-represented regions around the world, and from countries in which cinema as a form of expression is at risk. From 2025 until 2028, Open Doors will focus on 42 countries of the African continent while, throughout the year and during the Festival, will carry out professional promotion and training programmes in their industries. Concomitantly, the non-competitive section Open Doors Screenings offers audiences in Locarno a selection of films that are representative of the focus regions. Five directors showing their films in Locarno will also be invited to take part to the Open Doors Directors programme.
Crocodile, Directors The Critics, Pietra Brettkelly
Submergido, Director Ariel Añez
SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE
The Semaine de la Critique is an independent section, created in 1990 by the Swiss Association of Film Journalists in partnership with the Locarno Film Festival. Every year, the Semaine de la Critique showcases seven documentary features, all world or international premieres. The section promotes these innovative films whose themes and styles diverge from conventional trends. These are auteur films that strive to explore different realities, as well as push the boundaries of their audiovisual representation. They are bold, sometimes rough-edged works, always seeking to spark debate on our world and how it is perceived.
Petrolheads, Director Emil Langballe
A teraz wiosna / Blossoming, Director Kamila Serwicka
PANORAMA SUISSE
Panorama Suisse showcases Swiss films that have enjoyed success at festivals, found an audience in cinemas, or are currently released in the country. Film lovers from all over the world can thus find a taste of contemporary Swiss cinema at the Locarno Film Festival, through a hand-picked section of significant titles. A committee of representatives of the Solothurn Film Festival, the Swiss Film Academy, and SWISS FILMS decides on the selection.
À bras-le-corps / Silent Rebellion, Director Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
I Love You, I Leave You, Director Moris Freiburghaus
Every year since 1946, we present international independent films carefully selected to inspire you, to surprise you, to make you question assumptions, to open your mind, to push you. By showing films at the cutting edge, we nurture bold talents as well as creativity; we share authentic, powerful stories; we enable films to get made and careers to be launched. We write important chapters in film history and we shape the future of cinema.
What makes Locarno different from other film festivals?
When the Locarno Film Festival was launched, we chose to emphasize accessibility to all, to focus on quality, integrity, independence, and to champion films that enrich culture, art, and society. By standing our ground ever since, we have earned the attention and respect of both the international film community and the industry. Our film selections are guarantees of excellence.
There is no hierarchy, instead talents, industry professionals, film students, local personalities, staff, and the audience are invited to mingle, and share in a collective experience. Our red carpet is barrier-free, there are no VIP-only zones; open access to all. You see the films you want to see, you meet people, you discover.
79 Locarno Film Festival
August 5–15, 2026 / Locarno Film Festival
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