Locarno Film Festival (August 6-16), Switzerland

Locarno Film Festival (August 6–16), Switzerland

Celebrating its 78th edition, the Locarno Film Festival returns to the lakeside city on Lake Maggiore from August 6 to 16, 2025. Founded in 1946, Locarno has earned a reputation as a leading showcase for auteur cinema and emerging talent across the global industry.

This year’s edition presents an ambitious program of 221 films, including 99 world premieres, spanning features, documentaries, shorts, experimental works, and curated retrospectives. Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh serves as president of the Main Competition (Concorso Internazionale) jury.

The festival opens in the iconic Piazza Grande with the world premiere of In the Land of Arto, a Franco-Armenian film by Tamara Stepanyan starring Camille Cottin and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and closes with Bill Condon’s adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Italian & Italy-Linked Titles Across the Program

International Competition

• Mosquitoes (Le Bambine) – debut feature by Italian sisters Valentina and Nicole Bertani (Italy/Switzerland/France) 
• Sorella di Clausura – Ivana Mladenović (Romania/Serbia/Italy/Spain) 

Cineasti del Presente

• Sweetheart (Gioia mia) – debut by Margherita Spampinato (Italy) 
• Don’t Let the Sun – Jacqueline Zünd (Switzerland/Italy) 

Pardi di Domani – Corti d’Autore

• Su cane est su miu (The Dog Is My Dog) – Salvatore Mereu (Italy) 

Piazza Grande

• Heads or Tails? (Testa o croce?) – Alessio Rigo de Righi & Matteo Zoppis (Italy/USA) 

Other Sections

• Il Vangelo di Giuda – Giulio Base (Italy) – Fuori concorso 
• Io non ti lascio solo – Fabrizio Cattani (Italy) – Locarno Kids 

Sections & Heritage
Locarno’s programming continues to highlight new perspectives, such as The Plant from the Canaries by Ruan Lan-Xi in Cineasti del Presente. The Histoire(s) du Cinéma section revisits postwar British cinema, while restored classics like Rossellini’s Anno uno feature in the heritage strand.

Honors
Among this year’s honorees are Alexander Payne (Leopard of Honour), Jackie Chan, Emma Thompson, and Lucy Liu, alongside other major awards recognizing excellence across all areas of filmmaking.

Visti the official website.