Heritage Online offers film professionals a year-round database where streamers and other buyers are able to watch available titles from all over the world in a dedicated Online Screening Room, consult their detailed technical information including availability of films in the various territories, and get in touch directly with their rights holders.
Thanks to Heritage Online, rights holders such as international sales agents, film libraries, archives, institutes, and restorers’ associations among others are able to share their catalogues with potential clients, such as VOD broadcasters from all over the world, ranging from generalist to niche offerings, from established names to emerging start-ups.
A jury of three international industry professionals evaluated the applications, submitted from all over the world. In 2024, the contest was won by the Italian film I cannibali (The Cannibals, 1969) by Liliana Cavani. The film will be restored by film lab Cinegrell and presented during Locarno78.
Thanks to a collaboration with Zurich and Berlin based film lab Cinegrell, the winning film will receive complete restoration, which will begin shortly after the Festival. The restored title will then premiere at the following Locarno Film Festival.
In 2023, the contest was won by the Brazilian film Muhler de Verdade by Alberto Cavalcanti (1954). The film has been presented on Friday, 9th August 2024 (Palacinema 2) at 6.30pm and introduced by Maria Dora Genis Mourão, Gabriela Queiroz, Marco Audrá and Nicole T. Allemann.
The next call of the Locarno Heritage Restoration Contest will open in March 2025.
Locarno Pro offers, in the framework of Heritage Online, a full day dedicated to Heritage Film industry, on Monday 12th of August, 2024. Panel discussions on the state of the heritage film distribution, case studies and presentations of brand-new restored films, as well as industry screenings of classics will be the core of this day.
Are you interested in taking part? For more information please contact: locarnopro@locarnofestival.ch
All Heritage Online subscriptions give 12 months of access to the database. The Heritage Online database is accessible at the following link: https://heritage.locarnofestival.ch/login
Rights holders can offer a selection from their catalogue on the platform alongside a file of their complete catalogue. Eligibility criteria for titles: feature length films of any genre that premiered no later than 2009. Each film added in the screening room will cost CHF 70.
Films featured in a past edition of the Locarno Film Festival can be featured in the Screening Room for free (contact us).
Heritage Online’s basic subscription is included in the Locarno Pro accreditation.
Join the one and only database for Worldwide Heritage Film distribution here: heritage.locarnofestival.ch
For more information, please contact the Heritage Online team: heritage@locarnofestival.ch.
Heritage Restoration Contest
Heritage Online Restoration Contest is a yearly open call for applications for international classic and library films in need of complete or partial restoration. The Restoration Contest, launched for the first time in February 2023, was open to feature films from all over the world that premiered in 2009 or before. This contest is possible thanks to a collaboration with Cinegrell, the winning film of the Heritage Online contest will then be the recipient of a complete, world-class restoration service. Call for application for 2023 is closed.
The winner
Mulher de verdade (1954) by Brazilian director Alberto Cavalcanti won the first ever Heritage Online Restoration Contest of the Locarno Film Festival. The film will enter a restoration process which will start right after the 76th Locarno Film Festival wraps and will end in the first semester of 2024. The restored film will then premiere at the next edition of the Festival in the Histoire(s) du cinéma: Heritage Online section.
Following an open call which lead to close to 30 submissions from 15 different countries, a jury composed of international film industry experts Paula Astorga (Locarno Open Doors Producers’ Lab Head of Studies), Frédéric Maire (Director at Cinémathèque Suisse), and K.J. Relth-Miller (Interim Director, Film Programs at Academy Museum) emphasized the relevance of the director in the LatAm and global cinematic heritage: “With this award we want to underline Alberto Cavalcanti’s importance and creative vision that shaped Brazilian filmmaking, leaving a lasting impact on the country’s cinematic heritage. We hope that the film will be rediscovered and widely diffused after Locarno77.”
