Five of the films are in competition and four will be shown in the 8 000 capacity Piazza Grande, one of the world’s largest open-air screens. Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner responsible for the MEDIA programme, will attend the festival this weekend. Highlights at this year’s festival will include appearances by Christopher Lee, Faye Dunaway, Anna Karina, Werner Herzog, Sergio Castellitto, Otar Iosseliani and Jacqueline Bisset, who will receive a lifetime achievement award.
Commissioner Vassiliou said that The MEDIA programme is once again in the spotlight at Locarno, which has always been a fantastic platform for European films. MEDIA stands for a strong European film industry and for cultural diversity. I am delighted that MEDIA will continue to support our most talented film-makers as part of the new Creative Europe programme from next year.
Some 150 000 cinema-goers fans are expected in Locarno over the course of the festival, as well as 3 000 professionals from the film world and nearly 1 000 journalists.
In addition to specific support for films at the festival (see list below), the MEDIA programme also provides funding for the festival’s ‘Industry Days’ (10-11 August) and ‘Step In’ initiative, which offer a networking platform for producers, agents and distributors specialising in independent and art-house films.
Locarno will also host the latest in a series of ‘PUENTES’ workshops, which bring together producers from Europe and Latin America with experts, potential financiers, sales agents and distributors from both continents.
The PUENTES scheme is supported by MEDIA Mundus, the international version of the MEDIA programme. Projects developed after previous PUENTES workshops at festivals include Gloria, the new Chilean-Spanish drama by Sebastian Lelio, which won the Silver Bear for Best Actress (Paulina García) at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
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