Locarno Meets

An exemplary character actor with a distinctive face: that’s how Tim Blake Nelson is perhaps most often described. Yet beyond memorable roles in films by Steven Spielberg, the Coen Brothers, and Terrence Malick, Nelson is also an accomplished filmmaker in his own right, responsible for a handful of impressive works in a variety of genres.

This week, Nelson joins us on Locarno Meets while serving as a member of the jury at the 77ᵗʰ Locarno Film Festival and presenting the boxing drama “Bang Bang” out of competition at the Festival, following a successful debut at Tribeca. We took the chance to speak with the great actor about the appeal of genre, his boxing influences, and his ability to disappear into a role, whether through a physical transformation or by learning – as he is now doing – to convincingly play the mandolin at age 60.

Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner has one of the most immediately recognizable signatures as an auteur. Her films are known as much for their formal austerity as for their daring subject matter; they are films that – to use her phrase – “do not shout so loudly”.

Those are also the kinds of films that Hausner, as Jury President at the 77ᵗʰ Locarno Film Festival, did not want to overlook in favor of louder, splashier titles. When she met her fellow jurors for the first time, Hausner stressed that it was important to consider films whose emotional power develops inside the viewer more slowly, accruing over time.

We sat down with Hausner for a conversation on Locarno Meets to delve into her process in making films, her taste in cinema, the more than 30 takes it often takes to get a scene right, and her philosophy as president of a festival jury.

What are the ethics of AI art? Can it ever be a tool of artistic liberation or are AI systems inherently extractive? Should artists surrender knowledge of these tools or should they try to master them so they are put to better use?

These are some of the questions that came up in our conversation with filmmaker Paul Trillo, who has been experimenting with AI technologies for years. He was in Locarno as a guest at the ‘Future of Survival’ conference organized in parallel to the Festival itself, and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to speak about this controversial and disruptive technology with a world-renowned artist for whom it is a signature tool of expression.

The Portuguese filmmaker Edgar Pêra is an experimental artist in the truest sense of the word. Time and again, Pêra has embraced still-nascent technologies without hesitation and with enormous playfulness, as with early digital video or 3D. Whatever the technology, he then tries to use them as a “toy of consciousness”, paraphrasing Aldous Huxley.

In this conversation on Locarno Meets, Pêra discusses his latest work, “Telepathic Letters”, an AI-generated feature film based around a fictional exchange of letters between Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and American fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft. This memorably gonzo experiment had its world premiere at the 77th Locarno Film Festival (August 2024) and was one of the most talked about works in the program.

In 1994, a young Swiss-French rising star named Irène Jacob and a legendary Polish auteur, Krzysztof Kieślowski, travelled to Locarno to present “Three Colors: Red” on the Piazza Grande, in front of an audience of thousands of jubilant spectators. 30 years later, Jacob, now herself an established legend of international arthouse and commercial filmmaking, returned to Locarno to present the film while being honored with the Festival’s prestigious Leopard Club Award (2024).

We took the chance to sit down with Irène Jacob on Locarno Meets to reflect on the legacy of this monumental work and her remarkable and risk-taking career in the years since. In 2024 alone, Jacob has created indelible new films with Amos Gitai and Rithy Panh, each of which premiered to rave reviews at the Berlin and Venice film festivals. No matter the assignment, Irène Jacob continues to forge her own path – a deeply original one – within and through the landscape of international cinema.

French-Algerian-Palestinian actress and filmmaker Lina Soualem has spent the past few artistically productive years co-writing a TV series (“Oussekine”, 2020) as well as directing the celebrated films “Their Algeria” (2020), about her French-Algerian grandparents and their fraught relationship with their homeland, and “Bye Bye Tiberias” (2023), about her mother, the celebrated Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, and the women of her family who stayed in their Palestinian village in the Lower Galilee despite the effects of war, occupation, and erasure.

After premiering at the Venice Film Festival and having a successful distribution run arund the world, her film was nominated to represent Palestine at the Academy Awards in 2024. But Soualem was at the 77th Locarno Film Festival not primarily as a filmmaker but as a judge: she sat on the jury deciding the Swatch and MUBI First Feature Awards.

While she was in Locarno, we took the opportunity to sit down with Soualem on Locarno Meets to speak about how exactly she approached the work of navigating the complex relations of family, displacement, emigration, grief, and – yes – making films.

Following a successful premiere at South by Southwest, 24-year-old Swiss-American filmmaker Freddy Macdonald, the youngest directing fellow ever accepted to the American Film Institute, brought his audacious debut feature “Sew Torn” to the Piazza Grande at the 77th Locarno Film Festival.

We caught up with Freddy Macdonald on Locarno Meets during the Festival to discuss the unique genesis of the film, its many wild narrative twists and turns, as well as to unpack the influence of the Coen brothers on his work and talk about what it’s like to develop a film with one’s Dad.

“I think a lot of my work is about aspiring to something lofty. And then failing at it. Which I find funny”, says Alice Lowe, director and star of ‘Timestalker’, showed on the Piazza Grande at the 77th Locarno Film Festival.

In a free-flowing conversation on her influences and artistic aspirations, Lowe – a major star of UK sketch comedy of the 2000s, director of “Prevenge” and co-writer of “Sightseers” – sat down on Locarno Meets to talk through the sheer Britishness of her latest time travel comedy extravaganza, influenced by everything from Sally Potter to Powell & Pressburger to “Doctor Zhivago”, and getting her start at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival walking through a giant tambourine.

Joining us this week on Locarno Meets is Ehsan Khoshbakht, curator of a major retrospective focusing on Columbia Pictures during its heyday of 1929-59.

A centerpiece of the 77th Locarno Film Festival, this 44-film program redefined and recontextualized the legendary Hollywood studio during the tenure of its famously tyrannical president and co-founder: Harry Cohn.

In our wide-ranging conversation, Khoshbakht spoke about the work of assembling the retrospective using Columbia’s weekly release schedules in partnership with the Sony-Columbia archive, about Cohn’s complex legacy, and about the unusual amount of freedom afforded to auteurs and women creators at the studio during its Golden Age.

After “All We Imagine As Light” triumphed at Cannes this year, taking home the Grand Prix, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia headed to the Locarno Film Festival to serve on the main competition jury alongside the likes of director Jessica Hausner and star Luca Marinelli. While she was in town, we invited her to join us for a chat on Locarno Meets.

Kapadia took us through her journey from “A Night of Knowing Nothing”, her non-fiction masterpiece that won the Best Documentary Prize at Cannes in 2021, through to her new film, which marks a decisive turn to fiction. For Kapadia, the very act of making cinema is a political one, springing from the urgent dynamics of real life in a complex social, political, and class system like India’s.

Actress Paz Vega – one of the most recognizable faces of Spanish cinema – joins us for a conversation about her directorial debut: the piercing childhood drama “Rita”. This remarkable work, for which Vega served in a multitude of capacities – director, writer, executive producer, and in a prominent lead role – had its world premiere at the 77th Locarno Film Festival to acclaim from the audience and the press.

During the Festival, we caught up with Paz Vega to dig into this impressive first foray behind the camera. Set in the innocence of a childhood in Sevilla in 1984, and the domestic abuse that devastates that world, “Rita” is a bold work that deserves to be seen and discussed for a long time to come.

One of the most recognizable faces of British cinema – known best for “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” –, actor Nick Frost stopped over at Locarno to show his latest film, the centuries-spanning time travel romantic comedy “Timestalker”, on the Piazza Grande.

While in town, he sat down for a conversation on Locarno Meets to discuss the genesis of this one-of-a-kind new movie, expound on his admiration for director Alice Lowe – another beloved staple of British television comedy – and reflect on what it means to play a pretty evil dude across dozens of historical eras on screen.

One of the most beloved and influential directors of the past half century, Jane Campion – recipient of the Pardo d’Onore Manor at the 77th Locarno Film Festival –, joins us on Locarno Meets.

Campion’s is a career of remarkable firsts, whether as the first woman to win the Palme d’Or or the first woman to be nominated twice for the Academy Awards for Best Director (winning for “The Power of the Dog” in 2022). But her body of work is full of artistic risk-taking and daring pivots into uncharted territory. With Campion in our studio, we looked back together at her career, reflecting on her early days of film-going in London, on the genesis of many of her best-known projects, and on techniques for keeping the flame of inspiration alive.

On Locarno Meets, we're joined by five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, who shared some candid thoughts about his singular career while in Locarno to accept the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

In an in-depth conversation with the podcast host Alex Miller, Cuarón opened up about his new Apple TV series “Disclaimer”, starring Cate Blanchett, taking breaks from Hollywood with “Y tu mamá también” and “Roma” – that allowed him to refresh his practice –, coping with the reality of the world that hasn’t improved much since he made “Children of Men” almost twenty years ago, and the weight of being known as a visionary artist who also makes blockbusters, like “Gravity” or “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”.

A film 28 years in the making and shot across 24 countries, Tarsem’s gonzo masterpiece “The Fall” has long been woefully unavailable. The 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival saw a new 4K restoration, done in collaboration with MUBI, premiere on the 8,000-seat Piazza Grande in Locarno.

For this episode of our podcast Locarno Meets, Tarsem sat down for an in-depth discussion of this great UFO of film history, telling the epic story of its making, of the reasons for its long-time unavailability, of how it was rejected by studios and critics but revered as a cult classic by fans, and how seeing it on the big screen at the Locarno Film Festival is the best kind of validation.

There are no words to introduce Shah Rukh Khan, the Baadshah of Bollywood, recipient of the Pardo alla Carriera Ascona-Locarno Tourism at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. He is one of the biggest and most beloved movie stars in the world; for billions of people around the world, his name is virtually synonymous with legendary films of all descriptions – romances, comedies, action films.

When we caught up with SRK in Locarno – for this episode of our podcast Locarno Meets – we asked him about that range, about what he missed about filmmaking during the pandemic, and whether short-form storytelling on social media will ever be a rival to the big budget epics on which Shah Rukh Khan has built a name.

Outside of perhaps Alfred Hitchcock, it’s arguable that there has never been a film director as significant in Britain as Ken Loach. In his seven decade career, Loach’s unrivalled filmography has been the most potent, artistic voice for the dispossessed in his native England. It is a tragedy for both the art form and the country that his new film will be his last. At 87, the man is drawing a line under this remarkable career, which began in the 1960s and has enjoyed multiple peaks. His final film, ‘The Old Oak’, marks a completion of a trilogy of social dramas set in the north-east of England and is as touching and as human as either of the two that came before it.

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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Dive into the future of cinema in our latest podcast with Brian Newman, former Tribeca CEO and founder of Sub-Genre, as he looks at the future of film, festivals and streaming platforms through a new way of funding.

Through his company Sub-Genre, Brian explores the ever-evolving relationship between brands and cinema, working to bridge the gap and turn brand engagement into a new form of cinema, with Patagonia and Saint Laurent as great examples of how it could be done. Brian's aim is to explore the power of cinema to amplify brand values, reach underserved communities and navigate the delicate balance between commerce and art, opening up new avenues for marketing films beyond the traditional streaming model.

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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This week on LocarnoMeet filmmakers Maria Giselle Royer and Julia De Castro, who presented "On the Go" at Cineasti del Presente. A bold homage to Spanish cinema of the 1980s, specifically Gonzalo Garcia Pelayo's "Corridas de la Gria".

Shot in 16mm, this daring road movie weaves an adventurous narrative around a burnt-out nightclub, motherhood and surreal encounters. Renowned for its eclectic soundtrack and cultural exploration, On the Go is a visually stunning cinematic experience, enriched by its thought-provoking exploration of social issues.
The film introduces a campy cast into a vibrant and irrational realm, showcasing the directors' harmonious blend of creativity and mutual understanding.

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Greek filmmaker Sofia Exarchou discusses her second feature film, "Animal", which looks at the lives of so-called "animators" at beach hotels in Greece.

The film explores the challenges these employees face in a demanding job that requires constant high energy and unwavering smiles. These people use their bodies to convey raw emotions, making their physical movements a central aspect of the film's storytelling and choreography.

In our conversation, Exarchou touches on the difficulties of funding creative films like "Animal", capturing the physicality of the scenes and her sensitive portrayal of the tourism industry in her native Greece.

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Production designer Amos Sussigan, who served on the festival jury, engages in a thoughtful conversation about his work on Animal Farm and broader insights into the animation industry. He delves into the intricacies of character design, highlighting the challenges of capturing individuality while avoiding cartoonish stereotypes, drawing on his varied experience, including Space Jam 2.

Sussigan also touches on the (at the time) ongoing strikes in the industry and concludes with profound reflections on his preference for the role of production designer over that of director, citing the complexities of the latter in a committee-driven feature film environment. The interview offers a deep and nuanced perspective on animation and filmmaking.

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In a rich and provocative conversation, filmmaker Eduardo Williams discusses "The Human Surge 3," the would-be sequel to his 2016 work. This time, he shot it with 360-degree cameras, making for a singular cinematic experience.
 
He describes the interplay between script and improvisation that forms the backbone of his process, as well as the inherently political nature of cinema and the significant influence of video games on his work. Reflecting on online interactions and the potential of virtual reality in filmmaking, Williams offers deeper insights into his intense and distinctive approach to "The Human Surge 3".
 
Williams contrasts the grandiosity and strangeness of the title with the film's quotidian depiction of everyday life, emphasizing the looming presence of the apocalypse while spurning any obvious dramatic climax. This double perspective frustrates and subverts expectations and explodes the minutiae of the human condition into an elaborate spectrum of everyday situations.

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Austin actress and writer Katie Folger shines in the ensemble cast of Family Portrait, a unique film about a Texas family's struggle to get a group photo.
The production took an unconventional approach, reflected in both the casting and the visual language of the film. With room to experiment, Katie valued the immersive, "dream-like" shooting experience over traditional rehearsals and a strict script.

In addition to her film work, Katie wrote "Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man", a one-woman show exploring self-discovery and empowerment. Addressing sensitive topics such as sex from the perspective of growing up in a conservative family as an actress and comedian, she describes the experience of baring her soul to an audience as a form of spiritual alchemy. Active in Austin's artistic community, she is concerned about the evolving artistic landscape and strives to preserve the city's distinctive identity.

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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Join us for an exploration of resilience, creativity and the transformative power of cinema in the lives of our inspiring guests: director Gloria Carrión and producer Nadean Rawlins, both participants in the 2023 Open Doors Hub program focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Gloria shared her journey from the 2018 civil uprising in Nicaragua to the creation of Leaves of K., a film born out of oppression and forced migration. Faced with government restrictions, she found refuge in Toronto and, in a way, in Open Doors, which enabled her to develop "Pantasma", a poignant coming-of-age story that challenges notions of the enemy through animation and unique media.

Nadean, is in Locarno as the producer of "Raised by Goats" by Gibrey Allen, a film set in pre-independence Jamaica, exploring independence as individuals and as a country. She reflects on the transformative experience at Open Doors, the challenges of film funding in Jamaica and her commitment to making a difference.

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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Delve into the world of Lucy Kerr, an American filmmaker and artist based in New York, who was named one of the '25 New Faces of Independent Film' by Filmmaker Magazine in 2022! Her debut feature, "Family Portrait", which premiered at the 76th Locarno Film Festival, is set during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and offers a compelling exploration of family bonds and the enigmatic nature of time and space. Inspired by her own family experiences, the film transcends traditional storytelling, gradually transforming a seemingly ordinary family photo session into a ritual of transition.

"Family Portrait" has earned Kerr recognition, including the feature film grant from the Austin Film Society, the AirFrance Prize from FIDLab, and the New Horizons Award from US in Progress.

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay, Gus Van Sant... these are just some of the iconic filmmakers who have called on award-winning editor Pietro Scalia to help them realise their visions. With a career spanning over 30 years, 2 Oscars and many more awards, Scalia has helped shape some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history, "Gladiator", "Black Hawk Down" and "JFK" to name but a few.

In August, he received the Vision Award Ticinomoda in Locarno and sat down with our host Alexander Miller to share fascinating anecdotes, such as the first time he met Gus Van Sant or sitting in the editing room with Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg... the life of a Hollywood editor!

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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Luc Jacquet is an award-winning director and screenwriter with a passion for our planet and, in particular, Antarctica. This summer he was in Locarno to receive the Locarno Kids Award la Mobiliare, a recognition of the creative minds that are helping to shape the future of today's and tomorrow's younger generations.

Jacquet's work attempts to strike a balance between celebrating the beauty and poetry of nature as it is, and raising much-needed awareness of the dangers of climate change. While questioning the effectiveness of political films and the role of activists, he offers a refreshing perspective: finding an artistic response through the emotional connections that humans have with nature.

With his latest film, "Antarctica Calling", presented at the 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, Luc Jacquet invites the audience on a journey to feel the emotions of nature, from the majestic beauty of Antarctica to the vulnerability of its inhabitants.

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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Imagine this: you’re in your 20s, you’ve never worked in or studied film when suddenly you find yourself producing an indisputably brilliant generational movie. Marianne Slot has now worked as Lars von Trier’s production partner since the 1990s. Over the decades her production company, Slot Machine, has been a cathedral for independent cinema. If producers were gatekeepers, Slot is the person you want holding the keys.

As a producer for renowned filmmakers such as Lars von Trier, Lucrecia Martel, and Lisandro Alonso, we asked Marianne Slot about the importance of the creative bond between the director and producer, defending artistic freedom, tough times for independent cinema, and ask her: what does a film producer actually do?

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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Tractors, madness, creative freedom and the heavy burden of judging art. We sit down with the prolific French actor Lambert Wilson, who is also the President of the Jury for the Locarno Film Festival, to talk about his new film, why he sees acting as a tool to extend life and ask that one crucial question: above all, is it great cinema?

Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more.

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