Locarno Film Festival announces 43 short films
The Locarno Film Festival, an annual film festival held every August in Locarno, Switzerland, has announced the 43 short films to be premiered.
The prestigious event, which was founded in 1946, remains one of the longest-running film festivals in the world and has built up a prolific reputation for its commitment to art house films. Now, as part of 2020s Pardi di domani international and Swiss competition sections, the event has announced the 43 short films to be discussed by a committee fronted by Charlotte Corchète.
With demand extremely high, the festivals was given the unenviable task of narrowing down the selected choices from the 2,200 shorts which were submitted for consideration. With multiple prizes available, the films will compete for the prestigious Pardino d’oro and Pardino d’argento awards.
The difficult task of picking a winner has been left down to Filipino artist and filmmaker Kiri Dalena, Senegalese director Mamadou Dia and Claudette Godfrey, senior programmer at SXSW.
“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 from 34 countries, ranging from the United States to the Philippines, from Finland to the Democratic Republic of Congo,” the event said in a statement. “Naturally, this also includes Switzerland.”
“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, Gunhild Enger and Jacqueline Lentzou. 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.”
See the full selections, below.
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/Japan – 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
Swiss competition:
- 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
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