There are 43 of them, and on August 5-15, both online and in theaters, they will give life to the Pardi di domani competition, as part of Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films. Twelve of them are in the national competition, while the remaining thirty-one will compete for international awards. The international jury assessing the films and giving out the Pardini will consist of Kiri Dalena, Mamadou Dia and Claudette Godfrey. Additionally, a new initiative, Padrini&Madrine, will guide the audience in terms of discovering the 43 films and their makers.
43 out of 2200
After weeks of careful, passionate consideration, having viewed over 2200 submissions, the Pardi di domani selection committee (Tizian Büchi, Liz Harkman, Stefan Ivančić and Head of Section Charlotte Corchète) has chosen the 43 films coming rom 34 countries, ranging from the United States to the Philippines, from Finland to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Naturally, this also includes Switzerland: «We are very pleased to present a global panorama of emerging filmmakers covering a rich selection of genres, subject matter, aesthetics and point of view. In this special year, as we all adapt in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we hope viewers around the world will be as moved and impressed by these films as we have been.»
The selection
The chosen filmmakers include old acquaintances of the competition, such as Renee Zhan, who presented her films in 2016 and 2018, Sorayos Prapapan, who competed last year, Octav Chelaru (Pardi di domani 2017), Gunhild Enger and Jacqueline Lentzou (Pardi di domani 2016). Other welcome returns include Mahde Hasan, Linh Duong and Phạm Ngọc Lân, three young filmmakers Locarno discovered recently via Open Doors, and now part of the international competition. The audience is also familiar with Zhannat Alshanova, who took part in 2019’s L’immagine e la parola workshop with Béla Tarr, and Hamza Bangash, whose film Dia was in the 2018 Open Doors line-up, returned as part of the 2019 Filmmakers Academy and won the first competitive edition of Locarno Shorts Weeks in 2020.
Here is the complete line-up of the two Pardi di domani competitions.
International competition:
1978, by Hamza Bangash – Pakistan – 2020
An Act of Affection, by Viet Vu – Portugal/Vietnam – 2020
Aninsri daeng (Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall), by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke – Thailand – 2020
Bethlehem 2001, by Ibrahim Handal – Palestine – 2020
Digital Funeral: Beta Version, by Sorayos Prapapan – Thailand – 2020
Ekti ekgheye film (A Boring Film), by Mahde Hasan – Bangladesh – 2020
Fish Bowl, di Ngabo Emmanuel –Rwanda – 2020
Giòng sông không nhìn thấy (The Unseen River), by Phạm Ngọc Lân – Vietnam/Laos – 2020
Gramercy, by Pat Heywood e Jamil McGinnis – USA – 2019
Here, Here, by Joanne Cesario – Philippines – 2019
History of Civilization, by Zhannat Alshanova – Kazakhstan – 2020
I ran from it and was still in it, by Darol Olu Kae – USA – 2020
Icemeltland Park, by Liliana Colombo – Italy/UK – 2020
Kako sam pobedio lepak i bronzu (How I Beat Glue and Bronze), by Vladimir Vulević – Germany/Serbia – 2020
Life on the Horn, by Mo Harawe – Somalia/Austria/Germany – 2020
Memby, by Rafael Castanheira Parrode – Brasil – 2020
Nour (Noor), by Rim Nakhli – Tunisia – 2020
O Black Hole!, by Renee Zhan – GUK – 2020
Pacífico Oscuro, by Camila Beltrán – France/Colombia – 2020
Parcelles S7 (Land Lot S7), by Abtin Sarabi – Senegal/Iran/France – 2020
Play Schengen, by Gunhild Enger – Norway – 2020
Retour à Toyama (Return to Toyama), by Atsushi Hirai – France – 2020
Spotted Yellow (Zarde khaldar), by Baran Sarmad – Iran – 2020
Statul Paralel (The Parallel State), by Octav Chelaru – Romania 2019
Szünet (Break), di Levente Kölcsey – Hungary – 2020
Ta cong an chu lai (Cloud of the Unknown), by Gao Yuan – China – 2020
The Chicken, by Neo Sora – USA – 2020
The End of Suffering (A Proposal), by Jacqueline Lentzou – Greece – 2020
Thiên đường gọi tên (A Trip to Heaven), by Linh Duong – Vietnam/Singapore – 2020
Thoughts on the Purpose of Friendship, by Charlie Hillhouse – Australia – 2020
Where to Land, by Sawandi Groskind – Finland – 2020
Concorso svizzero:
Bugs, by David Shongo – Democratic Republic of the Congo/Switzerland – 2019
Ecorce (Peel), by Samuel Patthey and Silvain Monney – Switzerland – 2020
Espiritos e Rochas: um Mito Açoriano (Spirits and Rocks: an Azorean Myth), by Aylin Gökmen – Switzerland/Portugal/Belgium/Hungary – 2020
Grigio. Terra bruciata (Burnt. Land of Fire), by Ben Donateo – Switzerland/Italy – 2020
Lachsmänner (Salmon Men), by Veronica L. Montaño, Manuela Leuenberger and Joel Hofmann – Switzerland – 2020
Megamall, by Aline Schoch – Switzerland – 2020
Menschen am Samstag (People on Saturday), by Jonas Ulrich – Switzerland – 2020
Nha Mila, by Denise Fernandes – Portogallo/Svizzera – 2020
Push This Button If You Begin To Panic, by Gabriel Böhmer – UK/Switzerland – 2020
The De Facto Martyr Suite, by Justine de Gasquet – Switzerland – 2020
Trou Noir (Black Hole), by Tristan Aymon – Switzerland – 2020
Um Tordo Batendo As Asas Contra o Vento (A Thrush Flapping Its Wings Against the Wind), by Alexandre Haldemann – Switzerland – 2020
The jury
With the selection comes the jury. It consists of three members, all involved with various incarnations of the short format, who will now have to choose the winning films. Kiri Dalena is a visual artist, filmmaker and documentarian from the Philippines, as well as a human rights activist and co-founder of the Southern Tagalog Exposure collective. Mamadou Dia is a Senegalese writer and director who garnered international attention with his short films Samedi cinema (2016) and Lost in transit (2018). In 2019, he won the Pardo d’oro and the Swatch First Feature Award in the Concorso Cineasti del presente with his feature debut Baamum Nafi. Claudette Godfrey is the Senior Programmer at the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW), focusing specifically on short films. Born in the US, she’s a seasoned jury member and speaker with major international film festivals under her belt.
The awards
These are the four Pardini the films will be competing for:
Additional awards:
The Cinema&Gioventù Jury will give out the following awards:
Padrini&Madrine
Padrini&Madrine is a new project, whereby 14 international filmmakers will accompany the audience and support the young talents in competition. Each of them will take part in a conversation with the directors of the shorts to discuss their work, answer questions and exchange ideas and perspectives on the job they have in common. These exchanges will be available to the public, online, during the days of the Locarno Film Festival.
The people choses for this initiative are filmmakers who have already experienced what the 43 directors are going through, having previously attended Locarno with their own works: Safia Benhaim, Benjamin Crotty, Sergio Da Costa and Maya Kosa, Cherien Dabis, Ted Fendt, Annemarie Jacir, Bouchra Khalili, Dane Komljen, Luis López Carrasco, Damien Manivel, Valérie Massadian, João Pedro Rodrigues and Angela Schanelec.
Further details on the encounters will be posted online, on the Festival’s website, where the conversations will be viewable on August 5-15.
The program
For the entire duration of Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films (August 5-15), the international Pardi di domani competition will be available worldwide, free of charge, on a VOD platform. Most of the Swiss films, on the other hand, will have their online viewings restricted to Switzerland. Each short will have a maximum of 1590 online viewers, matching the amount of people who can attend the physical screenings in Locarno every year. The free tickets have to be booked on the Festival website, 24 hours before the online screening, and will be available from the end of July. The films will also be shown in cinemas, at the PalaCinema in Locarno and the PalaVideo in Muralto, with proper premieres and subsequent repeat screenings.
Detailed information about tickets and safety measures for physical screenings is available on www.locarnofestival.ch.
