Locarno International Film Festival 2024 starts on August the 7th on the mountainside shores of Lake Maggiore in Switzerland’s Ticino canton. Here are some films to look out for:
PIAZZA GRANDE strand
La Deluge
The last days of Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV play out in the lavish costume drama from Gianluca Godice and starring Guillaume Canet and Melanie Laurent.
Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Directed by Orson Wells this cult classic is screening as part of this year’s Retrospective ‘Lady with a Torch – The Centenary of Columbia Pictures’. The film has been restored from a 4k scan of the original negative with a restored audio from the 35mm nitrate original soundtrack negative
Gaucho Gaucho (2024)
Dwek and Kershaw’s pristine black and white images are the stars of this fascinating sortie into the world of the Argentinian horseman, both male and female
Timestalker (2024)
The definition of madness: Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. English writer/director Alice Lowe’s entertaining imagination looks at one woman’s amorous experiences.
CINEASTI DEL PRESENTE strand
Foul Evil Deeds (2024)
Evil knows no bounds according to this horror feature from UK director Richard Hunter who dives into the minds of the bad and bizarre with his candid camera.
La Passion Selon Béatrice (2024)
Belgian maverick director Fabrice Du Welz returns this time in black white and casting Beatrice Dalle in a physiological thriller
FUORI CONCORSO strand
Romanian auteur Radu Jude wowed audiences with his proactive comp title Do Not Expect much From the End of the World that took the jury prize at last year’s Locarno. This time he has two films at this 77th edition – the enigmatically entitled Sleep #2 (that has no dialogue) and Eight Postcards from Utopia that captures his post-socialist homeland through the medium of advertising.
Raiz (2024)
Past and present collide in this enchanting award-winning drama from Franco Garcia Becerra that had already garnered prizes at Berlinale and Seattle this year, and follows an eight-year-old alpaca farmer Feliciano. He is ecstatic when Peru has the opportunity to qualify for the World Cup.
CRITICS WEEK strand
Beyond Guilt (2024)
The true crime genre is perhaps one of the most popular with the audience today. TV series, podcasts, and documentaries all over the world investigate murders, disappearances, and other crime events with an emotional emphasis on victims and perpetrators. In contrast Beyond Guilt looks at the “collateral” victims of a shocking serial murder case, documenting the daily life of the parents of Niels Högel, a German serial killer nurse convicted of killing about 90 patients.
LOCARNO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024