Festival del film Locarno
15.08.2010 Olivier Père’s first edition concluded
The 63rd edition of the Festival del film Locarno, the first under the French new Artistic Director Olivier Père, concluded on Saturday August 14. Rain meant that the closing ceremony had to be transferred indoor to the Auditorium Fevi, rather than its traditional home on the Piazza Grande.
The Pardo d’oro 2010 (Golden Leopard) went to the Chinese film Han Jia (Winter Vacation) by LI Hongqi – whose project participated in the Festival’s Open Doors coproduction lab last year. World rights for the film have been bought during the Festival by French distributor Capricci Films.
The total number of spectators for the 63rd Festival is of 148,436 (compared to 157,057 in 2009). This decrease was naturally mainly caused by the Piazza Grande results (52,300 spectators, compared to 58,100 in 2009), which were affected by four nights of rain or cold weather. Nevertheless, those numbers will be object of a detailed analysis by the Festival’s Directorship. The Festival registered an excellent attendance in the theatres, with stable results despite the substantial reduction in the number of films (280 in this year’s programme compared to 397 in 2009) and one less screen (Cinema Otello). And the Festival once again drew a large number of film professionals this year, a total of 3852 delegates, of whom 900 were « industry » accredited and 875 journalists from all over the world.
In terms of programming, the 63rd edition was marked by youth: from the filmmakers, actors, and members of the various juries to the directors and protagonists of the films in the official selection, which featured no less than 22 first films and premières, and by strongly affecting evenings on the Piazza Grande with such honoured guests as filmmakers JIA Zhang-ke and Alain Tanner (both recipients of the Pardo d’onore Swisscom 2010), filmmaker Francesco Rosi (Career Pardo), producer Menahem Golan (the Raimondo Rezzonico Prize for Best Independent Producer) and actors Chiara Mastroianni (Excellence Award Moët & Chandon) and John C.Reilly. Other notable hits were seen in the crowds flocking to the retrospective of that master of comedy Ernst Lubitsch, and sell-outs for short films in the 20th anniversary of the «Pardi di domani» section. The 2010 edition also had a big success with its new initiatives, such as the Industry Days – three days of screenings and meetings for professionals – and the Locarno Summer Academy – a new training programme for students and young film professionals.
Photos and videos from the 63rd Festival are all viewable here.
The 64th edition of the Festival del film Locarno will take place August 3 – 13, 2011.
