The Festival

Film Sections

With 11 sections, 3 competitions and 20 awards, quality and variety is key. We are a festival that explores cinema from every perspective, carefully selecting films that are designed to inspire you, surprise you, open your mind, and question your assumptions.

Film Sections

Piazza Grande

Piazza Grande is pure Locarno – 8,000 seats, one of the largest screens in the world, all of it outdoors, under the stars, featuring some of the year’s most anticipated movies. Throughout the Festival, awards are given to special guests onstage. On certain nights, a second screening takes place just before midnight, giving space to classic masterpieces or genre-bending oddities.

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Competitive Film Sections

Film Sections

Concorso Internazionale

Consisting of world or international premieres, the Concorso Internazionale assembles major films from all over the globe to compete for the Pardo d’Oro. Showcasing established auteurs and emerging talents, the Concorso Internazionale is a forum for the best of contemporary cinema.

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Film Sections

Concorso Cineasti del Presente

Concorso Cineasti del Presente is where directors' first or second feature films get a chance to make a mark, mix things up, find a voice. They are radical, uncompromising, adventurous, and shot through with genuine curiosity about all the possibilities of cinema.

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Film Sections

Pardi di Domani

A territory for expressive experimentation and innovative forms of poetry, the Pardi di Domani section showcases short and medium length films as world or international premieres, mapping out the possible pathways the cinema of the future might take.

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Retrospettiva 2024

Film Sections

The Lady with the Torch: The Centenary of Columbia Pictures

The sprawling Retrospective is a beloved event for cinephiles, scholars, professionals, and the general public. This year, the Festival will counter the received wisdom around the legendary studio Columbia Pictures during its heyday from the sound era to the late 1950s.

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More Sections

Film Sections

Piazza Grande – Prefestival

A taste of the screenings, of the atmospheres and the magic of the Locarno Film Festival. Every year the Prefestival anticipates the event with a selection of works which are able to captivate audiences of all ages.

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Film Sections

Fuori Concorso

Fuori Concorso is the non-competitive section of the Festival program that doubles as a laboratory for the mixing of all conceivable genres and varied forms of storytelling. The section is a free zone where the titans of cinema can roam without restrictions or limitations.

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Film Sections

Open Doors Screenings

From 2022 to 2024, Open Doors has focused on the 22 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. The non-competitive section Open Doors Screenings offers audiences in Locarno a selection of feature-length films and shorts that are representative of the region.

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Film Sections

Histoire(s) du Cinéma

Histoire(s) du Cinéma is a sidebar dedicated to film history. New restorations, films about films, documentary essays, audiovisual remixes – the section pays homage to legendary films, artists, technicians, and directors.

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Film Sections

Locarno Kids Screenings

A selection devoted to younger audiences, a journey of cinematic initiation through films intended for their age group: national and world premieres, but also awesome classics from the past, rediscoveries in the realm of animation and premieres of films made for the entire family.

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Film Sections

Special Event

At this year’s a Spring Academy, a workshop for young filmmakers, six emerging directors under the mentorship of Alice Diop teamed up with two actors and, over a ten-day period, shot a series of short films at Locarno’s Hotel Belvedere.

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Independent Sections

Film Sections

Semaine de la Critique

Every year, the Semaine de la Critique showcases seven documentary features, all world or international premieres. The section promotes these innovative films whose themes and styles diverge from conventional trends.

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Film Sections

Panorama Suisse

Panorama Suisse showcases Swiss films that have enjoyed success at festivals, found an audience in cinemas, or are currently released in the country. Film lovers from all over the world can thus get a taste of contemporary Swiss cinema.

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