Locarno 2022

The pre-festival on Locarno’s Piazza Grande will open with the Annecy award-winning animation film INTERDIT AUX CHIENS ET AUX ITALIENS, coproduced by the Nadasdy Film studio in Geneva.

Delphine Lehericey’s poignant comedy LAST DANCE (Box Productions, Need Productions, RTS, RTBF, BeTv) will celebrate its world premiere on the Piazza on August 8. French actor François Berléand stars as an elderly widower who, true to a promise to his wife, joins an experimental dance ensemble. Other roles in the film feature Maria La Ribot, Kacey Mottet-Klein, Sabine Timoteo, Déborah Lukumuena and Anna Pieri Zuercher.

Caterina Mona’s feature-length directorial debut SEMRET (Cinédokké, Cineworx Filmproduktion Basel, RSI) will also celebrate its world premiere on the Piazza on August 10. The film tells the story of a single Eritrean mother who works in a Zurich hospital and does everything she can to give her daughter a better life in Switzerland.

André Schäfer’s documentary film ALLES ÜBER MARTIN SUTER. AUSSER DIE WAHRHEIT (Filmgerberei, Florianfilm, SRF, SRG SSR, ARTE) portraying the best-selling Swiss author will be screened as the festival’s closing film on the Piazza Grande on August 13.

One feature-film debut in the International Competition and one in Semaine de la critique

In the Concorso internazionale, director Valentin Merz presents his first feature-length film DE NOCHE LOS GATOS SON PARDOS (Andrea Film) – a colourful self-referential ode to cinema, free love and sexual diversity.

Both SEMRET and DE NOCHE… won awards in Locarno last year as part of the First Look - Work in Progress programme co-organised by SWISS FILMS. The two films are in the running for the First Feature Award this year.

Three Swiss productions will celebrate their world premieres with a screening in the Fuori concorso section: ERICA JONG – BREAKING THE WALL, the new documentary film by Kaspar Kasics; Lionel Baier’s Cannes film LA DÉRIVE DES CONTINENTS (AU SUD); and the documentary film NUIT OBSCURE - FEUILLETS SAUVAGES by Sylvain George, coproduced by Alina films.

The independent Semaine de la critique section presents the Swiss documentary film THE DNA OF DIGNITY by Jan Baumgartner. In his first feature-length film, the director accompanies forensic anthropologists who try to identify victims of the Balkan War of the 1990s.

Other film productions with Swiss participation screened in competition include SERMON TO THE FISH by Azerbaijani director Hilal Baydarov, in collaboration with Bord cadre films, and on the Piazza, PARADISE HIGHWAY by Anna Gutto, featuring Morgan Freeman and Juliette Binoche, coproduced by Praesens Film.

Pardi di domani and Panorama Suisse

Ten short films from Switzerland await discovery in the National Competition of Pardi di domani. Among them are FAIRPLAY by Zoel Aeschbacher, who won a Student Oscar with his last film BONOBO, as well as EURIDICE, EURIDICE, the new film by Lora Mure-Ravaud, who participated in the EFP Future Frames programme in Karlovy Vary in 2018, among others, with BLACKJACK.

This year’s Panorama Suisse, curated by the Solothurn Film Festival, the Swiss Film Academy and SWISS FILMS, will present five current documentaries, four feature films and, for the first time, a short film programme. The section pays tribute to international festival hits and domestic cinema successes of Swiss film productions from the past year. Among them – just to name a few – are the Oscar-nominated short film ALA KACHUU by Maria Brendle, the Cannes film OLGA by Elie Grappe, as well as Michael Steiner’s feature film cinema success UND MORGEN SEID IHR TOT and Tizian Büchi’s documentary film L'ÎLOT, which was honoured with an award at the Visions du Réel in Nyon.

Film classics in the retrospectives

Two Swiss classics digitally restored by Cinémathèque suisse can be rediscovered in the Histoire(s) du cinémasection: DIE LETZTEN HEIMPOSAMENTER by Yves Yersin and Eduard Winiger (1973); as well as THE WRITTEN FACE by Daniel Schmid (1995).

The Douglas Sirk Retrospective will feature MIRAGE DE LA VIE by Daniel Schmid (1983), as well as the Swiss coproductions ACCORD FINAL by I.R. Bay (1939) and the new documentary film DOUGLAS SIRK - HOPE AS IN DESPAIR by Roman Hüben, coproduced by Pic Film in Ticino.

The Locarno Kids Screenings will present the short animation film OMAR & PINCETTE by Julien Sulser (Louise Productions Lausanne, RTS) as well as the animation film YUKU ET LA FLEUR D’HIMALAYA (coproduction: Nadasdy Film) and the children’s classic LA FRECCIA AZZURRA (coproduction: Fama Film, 1996).

SWISS FILMS Previews and industry events

For the first time, the “SWISS FILMS Previews” will be held in partnership with Locarno Pro. Five current Swiss film projects will be pitched exclusively by directors and producers to an international industry audience.

An extensive selection of films from the Swiss film schools CISA, ECAL, HEAD, HSLU, USI and ZHdK will be showcased in the “Schools without Borders 2022” programme.

With their walk-in SKIES film installation, directors Rebekka Friedli, Nathalie Kamber (Production Kollektiv Beton) and Kevin Rodriguez (Distribution Planisphere) are taking part in the Locarno Basecamp, a platform for young creative talents.

SWISS FILMS in Locarno

On behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (SFOC), SWISS FILMS supports the international launch of Swiss film productions in the festival programme with communication and promotion activities and is present with an Info Point in the Palazzo Sopracenerina. On Friday, August 5, the SFOC will officially announce in Locarno which film from Switzerland will be in the running for the Oscars 2023.