Locarno Pro’s special 2020 edition (5-11 August) will take place completely online, offering opportunities for discussion, professional meetings on co-production and screenings to film industry professionals as a clear signal that the pandemic will not stop the program from being the industry professionals summer focal point.
HOW TO REGISTER – This year there is no Locarno Pro accreditation to access the events dedicated to professionals and the screenings, but you need register for each event or activity. Registrations are free, besides those for the Heritage Online Database. Here we will detail the highlights of Locarno Pro 2020.
StepIn 2020 in partnership with Variety
5-6-7 August at 5pm CEST/UTC+2
StepIn is one of the most renowned international think tanks imagining and discussing the way forward for the film industry. The virtual event will be hosted this year in the Variety Streaming Room, consisting of three 50-minute sessions taking place during the first three days of Locarno Pro.
These will deal, respectively, with the future of the theatrical distribution, the state of independent film production, and the future of film festivals and markets. Each session will be moderated by key journalists from Variety and will involve top international speakers from varied sectors of the film industry, such as, to name a few: Producer Rodrigo Teixeira (‘Call Me By Your Name’, ‘Port Authority’); NEON’s President of Distribution Elissa Federoff; Film4’s Director Daniel Battsek; Director/Writer Kasi Lemmons (‘Harriet’); Marche du Cannes’ Executive Director Jérôme Paillard; and important Film Festival Directors such as Alberto Barbera (Venice Film Festival), Lili Hinstin (Locarno Film Festival) and Tabitha Jackson (Sundance Film Festival).
SwissBiz Roundtable – “How much is a release worth?”
10 August from 6pm to 7.30pm CEST/UTC+2
This roundtable offers professionals in the Swiss film industry an analysis of this delicate historical moment in order to understand the trajectories and strategies that can help keep alive national auteur cinema. Five players of the Swiss industry moderated by Pascaline Sordet (Cinébulletin) will intervene as speakers: Joel Fioroni (Exhibitor, LUX art house), Andreas Furler (Founder and Managing Director, Cinefile), Karin Koch (Producer, Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion), Jela Škerlak (Head of Exhibition and Diversity and Eurimages Representative, Federal Office of Culture (FOC)), Thierry Spicher (Distributor, Outside The Box).
The working languages will be French and German, with no translation.
Heritage Online
Locarno Pro’s new digitally-based service dedicated to extending the outreach and distribution of Heritage Films through Video on Demand, expanding the range of titles offered by such services. It is composed built out of a year-round database and online events during Locarno Pro.
Heritage Online Roundtable
8 August at 5pm CEST/UTC+2
The distribution and presence of Heritage and Library films in Streaming Services: a conversation with Right Holders and Streamers on today’s and tomorrow’s presence of Heritage films in VOD Platforms, featuring international speakers such as Penelope Bartlett (The Criterion Channel), Geremia Biagiotti (Intramovies), Emilie Cauquy (Cinémathèque Française & Henri), Frédéric Maire (Cinémathèque Suisse) and Chiara Marañon (MUBI), moderated by Nick Vivarelli (Variety).
Heritage Online - The database
Thanks to Heritage Online, right-holders (international sales agents, film libraries, archives, institutes and restorers’ associations, etc.) will be able to present their catalogues — and include some titles in a dedicated Online Screening Room — to potential clients: operators in the world of VOD platforms, from generalist to niche offerings, from established names to emerging start-ups.
More information concerning registrations and conditions here.
Open Doors 2020
Professional meetings: Open Doors Hub & Lab
6-11 August
Open Doors is spotlighting film talents from South-East Asia and Mongolia through its international co-production platform (Hub) and producers' Lab.
Find out all about the 2020 selection
Individual online meetings with the selected project-holders and producers will be scheduled on 6, 7, 10, 11 August and can be requested by contacting the Open Doors team.
Open Doors Roundtable - “2020 in South East Asia: perspectives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines”
11 August at 2.30pm CEST/UTC+2
A public event moderated by Paolo Bertolin (Open Doors Artistic Consultant) is organized to shed light on the current situation in the film industries of the countries in focus.
Thanks to the contribution of leading professionals from the region, such as film directors Mouly Surya (Indonesia) and Antoinette Jadaone (the Philippines) as well as the producers Nandita Solomon (Malaysia) and Thu Thu Shein (Myanmar), the Open Doors Roundtable will tackle such topical subjects as the driving force of women creators in the local industries and the effects of the current global health crisis.
Films screenings for industry attendees
Locarno 2020 is still about films! On 5-15 August 2020, the Locarno Film Festival will offer a line-up aimed at online audiences, thanks to a digital screening room on the Festival’s website from 5 August, and partnerships with various renowned platforms. The full program is available on our website.
Locarno 2020 films can be accessed in the following ways:
Industry professionals can request exclusive access to Festival Scope Pro to watch part of the films of Locarno 2020. For more information and requests an access please contact locarnopro@locarnofestival.ch.
Access to online screenings is also possible by signing up for the Locarno Film Festival’s public streaming platform, which will be active on our website.
Availability of films in different regions is subject to agreements with rights holders.
Locarno 2020 is contributing to the reopening of local movie theaters, with an additional line-up of films to be shown, for the local audiences, in three of the cinemas in Locarno and Muralto.
The Locarno Pro 2020 program is possible thanks to the support of the Federal Office of Culture (FOC) / MEDIA Desk Suisse and the collaboration of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs for the Open Doors section.
