Locarno Film Festival

[caption id="attachment_22902" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Olivier Assayas, Yousry Nasrallah and Sabine Azéma[/caption] Olivier Assayas, Yousry Nasrallah and Sabine Azéma will be the jury presidents at the 70th Locarno Festival. The President of the International Competition jury will be French film critic, screenwriter and director Olivier Assayas, who already made his mark at the Festival in 2014 with the acclaimed Sils Maria, starring Juliette Binoche. Being one of the most highly regarded contemporary filmmakers, Assayas has made several full-length features, ranging across a variety of subjects, places and genres. As an auteur for whom formal research is tied to narrative requirements, Assayas has proved adept at always bringing out the talent of his cast. These performances have included remarkable female roles played by actresses such as Emmanuelle Béart, Maggie Cheung, Virginie Ledoyen, Connie Nielsen and Kristen Stewart. The Filmmakers of the Present jury will be presided over by a familiar face for the Festival public, Yousry Nasrallah. An assistant to Youssef Chahine, Nasrallah made his debut in 1988 with Vols d’été. He has presented several of his films at Locarno, including the touching documentary A propos des garcons, des filles et du voile (1995) and Brooks, Meadows and Lovely Faces, an entry in last year’s International Competition. Nasrallah makes films for a cinema of popular kind, highly charged with sensuality and strongly political. The President of the Pardi di domani Competition jury will be the immensely popular French film actress Sabine Azéma. Twice a winner of a César award for best actress, Azéma became something of a personal muse for director Alain Resnais, with whom she made her debut in 1983. Her performances have always been at the forefront of cinema based on research and discovery, highlighting an ideal sensibility for meeting with and responding to the work of the filmmakers of tomorrow. The 70th Locarno Festival will be held from August 2 to 12, 2017.

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French filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub will receive the Pardo d’onore Manor award at the 70th Locarno Festival on Friday, August 11.  The 70th Locarno Festival will be held from August 2 to 12, 2017. Born in France in 1933 and now resident in Switzerland after living in Germany and Italy, Jean-Marie Straub has been (re)writing cinema – in three of Switzerland’s four national languages – throughout a career that stretches back over sixty years. Much of this lifetime in film was spent with his partner in art and life, Danièle Huillet (1936 – 2006). Having learned his trade as an assistant on set to Jean Renoir and Robert Bresson, Straub joined Huillet in plowing a distinct furrow across the field of 20th century cinema, centered on the real, together with the expressive tools to show and convey it: radical, rigorous filmmaking, in which the superfluous gives way to the essential. Often featuring a non-professional cast, the ideal palette for a direct rapport with words, the work of Straub and Huillet is anti-spectacular and profoundly political, but never slips into propaganda. Following a 1963 debut with the antimilitarist short Machorka-Muff, Straub and Huillet’s first full-length film, Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (1967), clearly set a course for their future output, in which film would be, literally, the seventh art. Often “at the service” of literature, theater, music and painting, their films are powerful re-elaborations of landmark figures such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Kafka, Mallarmé, Pavese, Brecht, Engels, Cézanne, D. W. Griffith and many others, all firmly bound by a strict ethic of the gaze. In 1970 their film Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer, ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour marked a definitive peak of alienation in the acting in their filmmaking, with even fiction requiring and achieving maximum adherence to the real, rejecting interpretation and with it any possible equivocation. Straub has always had close ties with Locarno, entrusting many of his premieres to the Festival audience. The many important titles presented here over his long career include his full-length debut, Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach, featured in the main program in 1968, Antigone, shown in Piazza Grande in 1992, and Kommunisten screened Fuori Concorso in 2014. Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director of the Locarno Festival: “It is a special honor to be able to recognize the personality and achievement of Jean-Marie Straub during the 70th Festival. Not just because of the close ties between Straub and Huillet and the Locarno Festival, but above all because their films hold a unique and special place in the history of modern film and are still an undeniable influence on various directors. ‘Rigorous’ is a term that has often been used to describe their practice; watching their films again one also feels how much freedom pulses through every frame – something that is absolutely necessary to ‘digital’ filmmaking. The films of Straub and Huillet have so much to say to us: perhaps that’s why the recent retrospectives dedicated to their work, in 2016 at MoMA in New York, the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, were so well received. I am especially proud that Jean-Marie Straub should be in attendance at Locarno, and I am quite sure that our audience will give him the reception that great directors of his caliber deserve.” Recipients of the Pardo d’onore award at past Festivals include Samuel Fuller, Jean-Luc Godard, Ken Loach, Sydney Pollack, William Friedkin, Jia Zhangke, Alain Tanner, Werner Herzog, Agnès Varda, Michael Cimino, Marco Bellocchio and, in 2016, Alejandro Jodorowsky. From this year the Pardo d’onore is supported by Manor. Image: Jean-Marie Straub (Printemps 2010). © Diane Arques via olivierpere

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Swiss producer Michel Merkt will receive the 2017 The Best Independent Producer Award “Raimondo Rezzonico” at the Locarno Film Festival. Proof of Michel Merkt’s instincts was offered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, which screened no less than 8 feature films in which he was involved, including: Elle by Paul Verhoeven, twofold César winner in 2017 for Best Film and for Isabelle Huppert as Best Female Lead, as well as an Academy Awards 2017 nomination for Best Actress; the Franco-Swiss cartoon Ma vie de Courgette by Claude Barras from Sion (Canton Valais), co-produced with Pauline Gygax’s and Max Karli’s production company Rita, another recent Oscar nominee and winner of a César for Best Animated Film; and Juste la fin du monde, directed by Xavier Dolan, winner of the Jury Grand Prix and Ecumenical Jury Prize at Cannes 2016, with an impressive line-up of stars such as Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and Léa Seydoux. He also collaborated with director Walter Hill, to produce The Assignment, starring Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez. The 70th Locarno Festival will be held from August 2 to 12, 2017.

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[caption id="attachment_22356" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Nastassja Kinski[/caption] Nastassja Kinski will be guest of honor at the 70th Locarno Film Festival. She will be presenting Cat People, Paul Schrader’s remake of the horror classic by French director Jacques Tourneur, dedicatee of this year’s Retrospective at Locarno. From the outset of her career, Nastassja Kinski has appeared in films that have become part of cinema history. She was a muse for directors such as Wim Wenders, in Falsche Bewegung (1975) and Paris, Texas (1982), or for Roman Polanski in Tess (1979), and played opposite great actors like Marcello Mastroianni, Gérard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel, Robert Mitchum and Al Pacino. In Paul Schrader’s take on Cat People (1982), adapted from the 1942 masterpiece by Jacques Tourneur, Kinski’s remarkable performance captures the ambiguous, mutant nature of the character originally played by Simone Simon. The venue for the Locarno Retrospective on French iconic filmmaker Jacques Tourneur (1904 – 1977) will be the city’s historic Rex theater, now fully refurbished and ready to re-open for the 70th Festival under its new name, GranRex. The 70th Locarno Festival will be held from August 2nd to 12th, 2017.

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2 GUNS directed by Baltasar Kormákur and starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg

The Locarno Film Festival unveiled the official jury and film lineup for 2013 including a competition lineup up of 20 films, 18 of which are world premieres. The festival will open on August 7 with the action film 2 GUNS directed by Baltasar Kormákur and starring Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.

The Jury of the Concorso internazionale
President: Lav Diaz, Director (Philippines)
Matthias Brunner, Cinema Expert (Switzerland)
Juan de Dios Larraín, Producer (Chile)
Valérie Donzelli, Director, Actress (France)
Yorgos Lanthimos, Director, Producer (Greece)

The Jury of the Concorso Cineasti del presente
President: Hartmut Bitomsky, Director, Producer (Germany)
Tine Fischer, Festival Director (Denmark)
Daniele Gaglianone, Director (Italy)
Peaches, Musician, Director (Canada)
Nicolás Pereda, Director (Mexico)

The Jury of the Pardi di domani
President: Adriano Aprà, Director, Film Critic (Italy)
Marta Andreu, Producer (Spain)
Emir Baigazin, Director (Kazakhstan)
Grégoire Colin, Actor, Director (France)
Basil Da Cunha, Director (Switzerland)

The Jury of the Opera prima – Best First Feature
Luciano Barisone, Film Critic, Festival Director (Italy/Switzerland)
Scott Foundas, Film Critic (United States)
Shelly Kraicer, Film Critic (Canada)

I film delle giurie presents films featuring or made by members of the official juries,
Lav Diaz
NORTE, HANGGANAN NG KASAYSAYAN (Norte, the End of History) – Philippines – 2013

Juan de Dios Larraín
GLORIA by Sebastián Lelio – Chile – 2012 (Piazza Grande)

Valérie Donzelli
QUE D’AMOUR – France – 2013 (Fuori concorso)

Yorgos Lanthimos
ALPIS – Greece – 2011

Hartmut Bitomsky
B-52 – Germany/United States/Switzerland – 2001

Daniele Gaglianone
L’ORECCHIO FERITO DEL PICCOLO COMANDANTE – Italy – 1993
I NOSTRI ANNI (Our Years) – Italy – 2000

Peaches
PEACHES DOES HERSELF – Germany – 2012

Nicolás Pereda
PERPETUUM MOBILE – Mexico – 2009

Adriano Aprà
ROSSO CENERE (Red Ashes) by Adriano Aprà and Augusto Contento – France/Italy – 2013
(Histoire(s) du cinéma)

Marta Andreu
108 – CUCHILLO DE PALO by Renate Costa – Spain – 2010

Emir Baigazin
HARMONY LESSONS – Germany/France/Kazakhstan – 2013

Grégoire Colin
LA BAIE DU RENARD (Fox Bay) – France – 2009
LISIÈRES (On the Edge) – France – 2009

Basil da Cunha
ATÉ VER A LUZ – Switzerland – 2013

Piazza Grande
2 GUNS by Baltasar Kormákur – United States
VIJAY AND I by Sam Garbarski – Belgium/Luxembourg/Germany
LA VARIABILE UMANA by Bruno Oliviero – Italy
WRONG COPS by Quentin Dupieux – United States
WE’RE THE MILLERS by Rawson Marshall Thurber – United States
THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES by Mikkel Nørgaard – Denmark/Germany/Sweden
LES GRANDES ONDES (À L’OUEST) by Lionel Baier – Switzerland/France/Portugal
RICH AND FAMOUS by George Cukor – United States
GABRIELLE by Louise Archambault – Canada
L’EXPÉRIENCE BLOCHER by Jean-Stéphane Bron – Switzerland/France
GLORIA by Sebastián Lelio – Chile
MR. MORGAN’S LAST LOVE by Sandra Nettelbeck – Germany/Belgium
BLUE RUIN by Jeremy Saulnier – United States
ABOUT TIME by Richard Curtis – United Kingdom
FITZCARRALDO by Werner Herzog – Germany/Peru
SUR LE CHEMIN DE L’ÉCOLE by Pascal Plisson – France

Concorso internazionale
CÂND SE LASA SEARA PESTE BUCURESTI SAU METABOLISM by Corneliu Porumboiu – Romania
E AGORA? LEMBRA-ME by Joaquim Pinto – Portugal
EDUCAÇÃO SENTIMENTAL by Júlio Bressane – Brazil
EL MUDO by Daniel and Diego Vega – Peru/France/Mexico
EXHIBITION by Joanna Hogg – United Kingdom
FEUCHTGEBIETE by David Wnendt – Germany
GARE DU NORD by Claire Simon – France/Canada
HISTORIA DE LA MEVA MORT by Albert Serra – Spain/France
L’ÉTRANGE COULEUR DES LARMES DE TON CORPS
by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani – Belgium/France/Luxembourg
MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS by Thomas Imbach – Switzerland/France
PAYS BARBARE by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi – France
REAL by Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Japan
SANGUE by Pippo Delbono – Italy/Switzerland
SHORT TERM 12 by Destin Cretton – United States
SHU JIA ZUO YE by Tso chi Chang – Taiwan
TABLEAU NOIR by Yves Yersin – Switzerland
TOMOGUI by Shinji Aoyama – Japan
TONNERRE by Guillaume Brac – France
U RI SUNHI by Sangsoo Hong – South Korea
UNE AUTRE VIE by Emmanuel Mouret – France

Concorso Cineast
BUQLMUN by Elvin Adigozel and Ru Hasanov – Azerbaijan/France/Russia
COSTA DA MORTE by Lois Patiño– Spain
FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY by Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck –United States
L’HARMONIE by Blaise Harrison –France/Switzerland
LE SENS DE L’HUMOUR by Marilyne Canto –France
LOS INSÓLITOS PECES GATO by Claudia Sainte-Luce – Mexico
MANAKAMANA by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez –Nepal
MOUTON by Gilles Deroo and Marianne Pistone –France
ROXANNE by Valentin Hotea – Romania/Hungary
SAI NAM TID SHOER by Nontawat Numbenchapol –Thailand
THE DIRTIES by Matt Johnson –Canada/United States
THE SPECIAL NEED by Carlo Zoratti – Germany/Italy
THE STONE by Se-rae CHO –South Korea
THE UGLY ONE by Eric Baudelaire –France/Lebanon/Japan
THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS 團結一切事物by Alex Carver and Daniel Schmidt –United States
YUAN FANG by Zhengfan Yang – China

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