The Locarno Film Festival has announced the full line-up and juries for its 75th edition, which is due to unfold August 3-13.
The festival will get a starry kick-off on August 3 with the international festival premiere of David Leitch’s action-comedy Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt alongside an ensemble cast featuring Joey King, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Sandra Bullock
The film will be given a gala screening in the festival’s trademark 8,000-seat, open-air Piazza Grande arena.
Other titles due to get a splash on the Piazza Grande include Laurie Anderson’s Home Of The Brave, U.K. director Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe and German director Kilian Riedhof’s French-language drama You Will Not Have My Hate, based on the memoir of a man on how he and his son coped following the death of his wife in the 2015 Bataclan terror attack.
The Piazza Grande will also host a number of tribute ceremonies with recipients this year spanning actor Matt Dillon, producer Jason Blum, and directors Laurie Anderson and Kelly Reichhardt.
Contenders in the 17-title international competition include French filmmaker Patricia Mazuy’s bowling alley-set thriller Bowling Saturn. Italian director Alessandro Comodin’s hybrid documentary-comedy-drama The Adventures Of Gigi The Law and gritty Malaysian drama Stone Turtle by Ming Jin Woo.
The jury for the section comprises Swiss producer Michel Merkt, Italian director Samani, US producer William Horberg, U.K. filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond and French director Alain Guiraudie.
Swiss producer Annick Mahnert, Israeli producer and international film consultant Katriel Schory and Indian director Gitanjali Rao make up the jury for the Filmmakers of the Present, showcasing the work of upcoming talents from around the world (see full selection below).
The festival will screen 226 feature-length and short films, hailing from 113 countries and drawn from 4,245 submissions.
“The selection of films that we have put together, after watching and appraising over 3,000 titles (of every length and format), is intended to be the mark of a time and of a cinema in motion,” said artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.
“A historic time that is moving in multiple directions simultaneously, and a cinema that is probing the issues facing the world, and how to live in it responsibly, sustainably.”
Line-ups for the main feature selections
Piazza Grande
Everything About Martin Suter. Everything But The Truth (Swiss, Ger)
Dir. André Schäfer
Angry Annie (Fr)
Dir. Blandine Lenoir
Bullet Train (US)
Dir. David Leitch
The Sleeping Car Murder (Fr, 1965)
Dir. Costa Gavras
Delta (It)
Dir. Michele Vannucci
Home Of The Brave (U.S.)
Dir. Laurie Anderson
Imitation Of Life (US, 1958)
Dir. Douglas Sirk
Last Dance (Switz, Bel)
Dir. Delphine Lehericey
Medusa Deluxe (U.K.)
Dir. Thomas Hardiman
My Neighbour Adolf (Isr, Pol, Col)
Dir. Leon Prudovsky
Paradise Highway (U.S., Ger, Switz)
Dir. Anna Gutto
Semret (Switz)
Dir. Caterina Mona
Piano Piano (It)
Dir. Nicola Prosatore
Painted Rainbow ((India)
Dir. Gitanjali Rao
You Will Not Have My Hate (Ger, Fr, Bel)
Dir. Kilian Riedhof
Where The Crawdads Sing (U.S.)
Dir. Olivia Newman
International Competition
Declaration (India)
Dir. Mahesh Narayan
Sermon To The Fish (Azer, Mex, Switz, U.K.)
Dir. Hilal Baydarov
Bowling Saturn (Fr, Bel)
Dir. Patricia Mazuy
De Noche Los Gatos Son Pardos (Switz)
Dir. Valentin Merz
The Adventures Of Gigi The Law (It, Fr, Bel)
Dir. Alessandro Comodin
Tales Of The Purple Horse (Leb, Iraq, Fr)
Dir. Abbas Fahdel
Human Flowers Of Flesh (Ger, Fr)
Dir. Helena Wittman
Il Pataffio (It, Bel)
Dir. Francesco Lagi
Matter Out Of Place (Aus)
Dir. Nikolaus Geyrhalter
Tommy Guns (Port, Fr, Angola)
Dir. Carlos Conceição
Piaffe (Ger)
Dir. Ann Oren
Rue 34 (Br, Fr)
Dir. Julia Murat
Fairytale (Bel, Rus)
Dir. Alexsandr Sokurov
Stella In Love (Fr)
Dir. Sylvie Verheyde
Stone Turtle (Malay)
Dir. Ming Jin Woo
Filmmakers of the Present (Cineasti del presente)
Arnold Is A Model Student (Thai, Sing, Fr, Neth, Phil)
Dir. Sorayos Prapapan
Astrakan (Fr)
Dir. David Depesseville
Before I Change My Mind (Can)
Dir. Trevor Anderson
Sister, What Grows Where Land Is Sick (Nor)
Dir. Franciska Eliassen
It Is Night In America (It, Fr, Br)
Dir. Ana Vaz
Fragments From Heaven (Mor, Fr)
Dir. Adnane Baraka
Love Dog (Pol, Mex, U.S.)
Dir. Bianca Lucas
Matadero (Arg, Sp, Fr)
Dir. Santiago Fillol
Our Lady Of The Chinese Shop (Angola)
Dir. Ery Claver
Petites (Fr)
Dir. Julie Lerat-Gersant
Petrol (Australia)
Dir. Alena Lodkina
Safe Place (Croatia)
Dir. Juraj Lerotic
Night Siren (Slo, Czech Rep)
Dir. Tereza Nvotova
How Is Katia? (Ukr)
Dir. Christina Tynkevych
