25/06/2020 - The festival has selected the 20 films (half of them international and the other half Swiss) which will take part in its new The Films After Tomorrow initiative

Forced, like most large-scale film events, to revise its format as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic which has paralysed the cultural world (alongside many others), the Locarno Film Festival is reinventing its 2020 edition and developing it around a new festival initiative, The Films After Tomorrow, aimed at supporting a series of projects which have found themselves blocked at source.

Conscious of the extreme delicacy of the present moment which has clipped the wings of many movies subsequently forced to halt filming, the Locarno Festival is using its 2020 edition to support twenty directors and to demonstrate what can physically be done in the face of the crisis. The four main prizes - two 2020 Pardi awards (worth 70,000 Swiss francs each) to be bestowed upon one international project and one of Swiss descent, the Campari Award (50,000 Swiss francs) and the Swatch Award (30,000 Swiss francs), both of which are geared towards international projects, not to mention the SRG SSR Award (100,000 Swiss francs), which will reward a Swiss project with a TV advertising campaign worth 100,000 Swiss francs - will be assigned on 15 August by two juries exclusively composed of directors (whose names will be officially unveiled in the coming weeks). The aim of these significant prizes is to help the selected films achieve completion and/or to allow outstanding production work to resume. The two official juries will be complemented by a youth jury, born out of a Cinema & Gioventù initiative, which is set to award various prizes: 5,000 Swiss francs for the Best International Project, 3,000 Swiss francs for the Best Swiss Project, and a further 3,000 Swiss francs for the Environment is Quality of Life award.

Hailing from 101 different countries, of the 545 projects which took part in the selection, only ten international works and ten Swiss offerings will participate in the new Locarno initiative. A mixture of directors well-accustomed to international festival circuits and fierce, newcomer talent will populate the rich and audacious final selection, all exhibiting the adventurous spirit that’s so precious to the Locarno Festival. There are no less than eight European productions and co-productions among the ten international films selected (half of which are the work of women directors): the two Locarno Festival regulars Lav Diaz, with When The Waves Are Gone [+see also:
film review
interview: Lav Diaz
film profile], and Wang Bing, with I Come From Ikotun; French director Axelle Ropert with Petite Solange [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Axelle Ropert
film profile]; Portugal’s Miguel Gomes with Savagery; De Humani Corporis Fabrica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Véréna Paravel, Lucien Cast…
film profile] by the directing duo Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor; Human Flowers of Flesh [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Helena Wittmann
film profile] by the young German filmmaker Helena Wittmann, and Eureka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lisandro Alonso
film profile] by Lisandro Alonso. Jostling alongside them are Chocobar by the explosive Lucrecia Martel and Nowhere Near by Miko Reverenza.

As for the ten Swiss projects in the line-up, there’s a significant number of first or second films by young directors on the agenda: there are newcomers Raphaël Dubach and Mateo Ybarra who’ll be presenting LUX [+see also:
film review
film profile], there’s Elie Grappe’s first film Olga [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elie Grappe
film profile], the work Zahorí [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marí Alessandrini
film profile] by the Argentine director trained at Geneva’s School of Art and Design Marí Alessandrini, and Andreas Fontana’s first feature film Azor. Offering up a second film, meanwhile, is Michael Koch, who already travelled to Locarno in 2016 with Marija [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Koch
film profile] - which scooped a Special Mention from the ecumenical jury, as well as the Youth Jury award – and who’ll be promoting his new project A Piece of Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Koch
film profile]. As for the final directors selected in the Swiss category, these are four filmmakers who are thoroughly familiar with the festival circuit: Pierre-François Sauter (who already featured in Locarno 2016’s Swiss Panorama section with Calabria [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) with Far West, Mohammed Soudani with L’Afrique des femmes, Anna Luif with Les histoires d’amour de Liv S. and French director Eric Baudelaire with A Flower in the Mouth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

The presentation of the twenty chosen projects - replete with synopses, images and video presentations of the works in progress delivered by the directors themselves - will be accessible to the public from 5 – 15 August on the festival website. During the same period, a number of the filmmakers selected for the event will hold masterclasses open to the general public, where they will discuss their work and the (uncertain) future of film today.

The selected projects are as follows:

International Projects

Chocobar – Lucrecia Martel (Argentina/USA/Netherlands)
Production: Rei Cine (Benjamin Domenech), Louverture Films, Lemming Film

Cidade; Campo [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Juliana Rojas (Brazil)
Production: Dezenove Som e Imagens (Sara Silveira)

De Humani Corporis Fabrica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Véréna Paravel, Lucien Cast…
film profile] – Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor (France/USA)
Production: Norte Productions (Valentina Novati), Sensory Ethnography Lab (Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor)

Eureka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lisandro Alonso
film profile] - Lisandro Alonso (France/Germany/Portugal/Mexico/Argentina)
Production: Luxbox (Fiorella Moretti, Hédi Zardi), Komplizen, Rosa Filmes, Mr. Woo, 4L

Human Flowers of Flesh [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Helena Wittmann
film profile] – Helena Wittmann (Germany/France)
Production: Fünferfilm (Frank Scheuffele, Karsten Krause, Julia Cöllen), Tita Productions (Christophe Bouffil)

I Come From Ikotun – Wang Bing (France/China)
Production: Idéale Audience (Hélène Le Coeur, Pierre-Olivier Bardet), WIL Productions (Lihong Kong)

When The Waves Are Gone [+see also:
film review
interview: Lav Diaz
film profile] – Lav Diaz (Philippines/France/Portugal/Denmark)
Production: Films Boutique (Jean-Christophe Simon, Gabor Greiner), Epicmedia Productions (Bianca Balbuena, Bradley Liew), Rosa Filmes (Joaquim Sapinho), Snowglobe Film (Eva Jakobsen, Katrin Pors, Mikkel Jersin)

Nowhere Near – Miko Revereza (Philippines/Mexico/USA)
Production: Los Otros (Shireen Seno), Cine Droga

Petite Solange [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Axelle Ropert
film profile] – Axelle Ropert (France)
Production: Aurora Films (Charlotte Vincent)

Savagery –  Miguel Gomes (Portugal/France/Brazil/China/Greece)
Production: O Som e a Fúria (Luís Urbano), Shellac Sud, RT Features, Rediance Films, Faliro House

Swiss Projects

Azor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andreas Fontana
film profile] – Andreas Fontana (Switzerland/Argentina/France)
Production: Alina Film (Eugenia Mumenthaler, David Epiney), RTS, Ruda cine, Local Films

A Piece of Sky [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Koch
film profile] – Michael Koch (Switzerland/Germany)
Production: hugofilm features (Christof Neracher), Pandora Film Produktion, SRF SRG SSR, ARTE

Far West – Pierre-François Sauter (Switzerland/Portugal/Italy)
Production: Le Laboratoire Central (Nadejda Magnenat), Terratreme (João Matos), Qoomoon (Luciano Barisone, Luca Scarabelli)

A Flower in the Mouth [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Eric Baudelaire (Switzerland/France)
Production: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (Giovanni Carmine), Poulet-Malassis Films (Eric Baudelaire)

L’Afrique des femmes – Mohammed Soudani (Switzerland/Ivory Coast)
Production: Amka Films Productions (Tiziana Soudani (1955-2020), Michela Pini, Amel Soudani), RSI SRG SSR, Nikady's Production (Djira Youssouf)

Les histoires d’amour de Liv S. – Anna Luif (Switzerland)
Production: Beauvoir Films (Aline Schmid)

LUX [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Raphaël Dubach, Mateo Ybarra (Switzerland)
Production: Jeunes Sauvages (Raphaël Dubach, Mateo Ybarra)

Olga [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elie Grappe
film profile] – Elie Grappe (Switzerland/France)
Production: Pointprod (Jean-Marc Fröhle), Cinéma Defacto (Tom Dercourt), RTS SRG SSR, Canal+

Unrest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cyril Schäublin
film profile] – Cyril Schäublin (Switzerland)
Production: Seeland Filmproduktion (Linda Vogel, Michela Pini)

Zahorí [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marí Alessandrini
film profile] – Marí Alessandrini (Switzerland/Argentina/Chile/France)
Production: Le Laboratoire Central (Nadejda Magnenat), El Calefón Cine (Juan Carlos Maristany), Cinestación (Dominga Sotomayor), Norte Productions (Valentina Novati)

(Translated from Italian)