With submissions opening today, November 6, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about submitting a film to the Locarno Film Festival. With your film showing in the main program at Locarno, you’d be participating in one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious celebrations of cinema. For a chance to be part of that, submit your film here.
©Locarno Film Festival / Ti-Press
Nestled among the Alps in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, the picturesque city of Locarno is host, for 11 days in August, to an A-list festival, one of only a handful in the world certified that way. Since 1946, it has been one of the most sought-after places for emerging filmmakers and established auteurs alike to show their films.
226 films featured in the official selection in 2024. Many of them were exposed to the world – the press, the audience – for the very first time at our Festival, putting the belief of Giona A. Nazzaro, our Artistic Director, to the test: “Locarno is a truly one-of-a-kind place to test your film with an audience.” These titles are spread out across 11 sections, three of which are where new films compete for the Festival’s eye-popping list of prizes, including the grand prize – the world-famous Pardo d’Oro (Golden Leopard).
40 years ago, a young Jim Jarmusch scooped that prize for a film – maybe you’ve heard of it – called Stranger Than Paradise (1984). The year before that, 26-year-old Spike Lee from Atlanta, Georgia picked up a bronze version of the leopard after Locarno took a chance on his student film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). And two decades before that, a 32-year-old filmmaker named Miloš Forman, fresh out of film school in Czechoslovakia and a full five years before his move to Hollywood, brought his first feature, the low-key New Wave comedy Black Peter (1964), to Locarno. Like so many great filmmakers in the decades since, Forman took home the main prize.
Our main prize in 2024 went to Toxic (Akiplėša) by Lithuanian first time director Saulė Bliuvaitė, who also scooped the Swatch First Feature Award. In November, she was nominated for the prestigious critics' prize at the European Film Awards.
There are three deadlines – all at 2pm CET – that you should keep in mind for 2025 if you want your film to show at the Locarno Film Festival:
FEATURE AND MEDIUM LENGTH FILMS | DEADLINES
SHORT FILMS | DEADLINES
Films that competed at Locarno77 have gone on to show at the New York Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, San Sebastián, Toronto, Thessaloniki, the Viennale, São Paolo, Sarajevo, Seminici – Valladolid, RIDM – Montreal International Documentary Festival, Film Fest Hamburg, Tokyo Film Festival, El Gouna – Egypt, IDFA, Gijón, and countless others. Many have also been shortlisted for the Academy Awards, European Film Awards, and the most important national Awards.
©Astrid Ardenti
