Filmmakers Academy
The Locarno Filmmakers Academy, the ten-day intensive program for emerging filmmakers, was created to meet the needs of a generation of filmmakers who will face new challenges in terms of producing and distributing their work.
The Locarno Filmmakers Academy, the ten-day intensive program for emerging filmmakers, was created to meet the needs of a generation of filmmakers who will face new challenges in terms of producing and distributing their work.
Before applying, please read carefully the information given below, which will give you many useful pointers towards making a successful application.
A training program from the Locarno Film Festival dedicated to emerging young directors.
A unique opportunity to experience the Locarno Film Festival hands-on, with a chance to meet and get to know some of the great names who have made, and continue to make, cinema history. Guests in recent years have included directors of the caliber of Ken Loach, Agnès Varda, Werner Herzog, Gaspar Noé, Eliza Hittman, Pedro Costa, Chantal Akerman, Sean Baker, Lav Diaz, Michael Cimino, Abel Ferrara, Jonas Mekas, Bruno Dumont, Todd Haynes, Albert Serra, Radu Jude, Maren Ade, Luca Guadagnino, Kelly Reichardt, Alfonso Cuaron – just to mention a few of the names involved.
A place for encounters and exchange, where new ideas take shape and collaborations get off the ground.
A window of opportunity to showcase your directing talent and share it both with fellow participants on the project and with the Locarno audience at the Academy Screenings (a screening of one of your shorts in a public venue of the Festival and part of the official program).
What is the perfect candidate profile?
Age from 18 to 35.
Fluent knowledge of English – you will need English to interact with all the other Academy participants and guests at Locarno.
A filmography including at least one short film directed by you that has been selected in an international festival.
Keen to join the other participants in exploring new ways of understanding and making cinema.
The Locarno Film Festival has a strong cinema identity: study the list of titles selected in recent years to ascertain whether your ideas about the cinema universe are in tune with the spirit of Locarno.
The directors selected for the Filmmakers Academy come from all over the world and from very different social backgrounds. Some have won prizes for best short film at prestigious festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Sundance or Venice, while others have gained recognition in specific global regions and are at the outset of an international career.
In recent years we have seen several go on to make that step up (Marcelo Martinessi from Paraguay, winner of best short film at Venice in 2016 and the Silver Bear in Berlin in 2018; Rina Tsou from Taiwan and Christos Massalas from Greece, both selected for the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes; Sameh Alaa from Egypt, winner of the Golden Palm for best short film at Cannes 2020; U.S. director Reinaldo Marcus Green, an Oscar nominee in 2022…).
Every year, our hope is to nurture new talents who in the future will receive awards and acknowledgments for the quality of their work as filmmakers.
The application submission fee is CHF 10.-. If your application is unsuccessful, the fee will not be refunded. It is not possible to give feedback to all applicants.
If selected, your own expenses will be limited to travel to and from Locarno, as well as meals. Accommodation, accreditation, and participation in screenings, masterclasses, and Festival events are free of charge. Additionally, daily meal vouchers worth CHF 10 will be provided to help cover some expenses.
18 March 2025 – application process opens
20 April 2025 – deadline for sending in your application
26 May 2025 – after this date you will receive an answer in respect of your application
6-16 August 2025 – participation in the Locarno Film Festival
We can tell you that it will be a unique experience, and we’re also pretty confident that you’ll enjoy it.
The Festival offers you:
Accommodation with breakfast at the Locarno youth hostel, from Wednesday 6 (check-in) to Saturday 16 August (check-out), in a twin-bedded room. Every participant will have to share a twin room with one other participant.
Accreditation giving admission to all screenings at the Locarno Film Festival.
Participation in the program of meetings organized by the Filmmakers Academy.
The possibility of screening one of your short films in a theater during the Academy Screenings (titles screened will be part of the official Festival program).
Networking events.
If all of the above meets your expectations, then you’re ready to fill in the application form and become a candidate.
For any further information please email us c/o locarnoacademy@locarnofestival.ch.
“We are happy to see increasingly stimulating diversity each year among the submissions sent to the Filmmakers Academy. It offers a beautiful picture of vitality for contemporary cinema. The most remarkable aspect this year is the palpable desire, evident through the numerous amazing short films that we saw, to expand the boundaries of cinematic language, opening up to contaminations with other forms of visual creation. Thanks to this, through the Filmmakers Academy, we not only see the most promising talents of the future emerging, but we see the future of cinema itself taking shape”.
Stefano Knuchel, Filmmakers Academy Project Manager
