UK star Riz Ahmed will be feted with a career achievement award at the upcoming 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, running August 2 and 12.
The Sound Of Metal actor will be presented with the Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening night ceremony on the festival’s landmark Piazza Grande open-air cinema.
The ceremony will premiere Yann Mounir Demange’s semi-autobiographical short film Dammi, in which Ahmed participated alongside Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba.
The tribute will also screen Bassam Tariq’s 2020 rapper drama Mughal Mowgli, which Ahmed starred in and also produced and co-wrote, as part of it program.
Locarno announced the tribute during its announcement on Wednesday of its full 2023 line-up.
French directorial duo Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel’s The Falling Star will open the festival as part of the Piazza Grande program, which also feature Justine Triet’s Cannes d’Or Winner Anatomy of a Fall, Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or contender The Old Oak and the world premiere of Luc Jacquet’s Antarctica Calling.
The festival’s main International Competition will showcase 15 films this year, 14 of them world premieres.
Golden Leopard contenders include French director Quentin Dupieux’s secretly-shot film Yannick, which will be released simultaneously in France; Filipino director Lav Diaz’s Essential Truths Of The Lake and Greek director Sofia Exarchou’s Animal, her second film after San Sebastian New Directors Award winner Park.
Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro said the competition offered a dialogue-provoking snap-shot of the world today.
“While recent events certainly do not leave much room for optimism, cinema helps us to imagine – literally “put into images” – a possibility of the world,” he said, in a written statement on the selection.
“For this reason, while being aware of the historical moment in which our work has plunged, we have searched and looked in many directions, trying to grasp the meaning of a present that, despite everything, offers itself rich and exciting. A moment that we have attempted to grasp and recount by dialoguing with the films we have selected.”
International Competition Titles
Animal
Dir. Sofia Exarchou
Greece/Austria/Romania/Cyprus/Bulgaria
World premiere
Baan (Home) (Portugal)
Dir. Leonor Teles
Portugal
World premiere, First Feature
El Auge Del Humano 3
Dir. Eduardo Williams
Argentina/Portugal/Netherlands/Taiwan/Brazil/Hong Kong/Sri Lanka/ Peru)
World premiere
Essential Truths Of The Lake
Dir. Lav Diaz
Philippines/France/Portugal/Singapore/Italy/Switzerland/United Kingdom
World premiere
La Image Permanent (The Permanent Picture)
Dir. Laura Ferrés
France/Spain
World premiere, First Feature
Lousy Carter
Dir. Bob Byington
US
World premiere
Manga d’Terra (Switzerland/Portugal)
Dir.Basil Da Cunha
Switzerland/Portugal
World premiere
Mantagheye Bohrani (Critical Zone)
DirAli Ahmadzadeh
Iran/Germany
World premiere
Nähtamatu Võitlus (The Invisible Fight)
Dir. Rainer Sarnet
Estonia/Latvia/Greece/Finland
World premiere
Nuit Obscure – Au Revoir Ici, N’Importe Où
Dir. Sylvain George
France/Switzerland
World premiere
Patagonia
Dir.Simone Bozzelli
Italy
World premiere, First Feature
Rossosperanza
Dir. Annarita Zambrano
Italy/France
World premiere
Stepne
Dir.Maryna Vroda
Ukraine/Germany/Poland/Slovakia
World premiere, First Feature
Sweet dreams
Dir. Ena Sendijarević
Netherlands/Sweden/Indonesia/Réunion – 2023
World premiere
The Vanishing Soldier
Dir.Dani Rosenberg
Israel
World premiere
Yannick
Dir. Quentin Dupieux
France
International premiere
