Kicks-Off The 72nd Locarno Film Festival
There's no more entertaining way to end your vacations as to attend the 72nd Locarno Film Festival. It started yesterday with the screening of Ginevra Elkann's Magari at the Piazza Grande, just right after the skies finally cleared off the heavy rain clouds, which the night before have hindered the prefestival screening of Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing (1989), in a prestigious restored print celebrating the film's 30th anniversary.
From 7 to 17 August the four competitions will invade the screening rooms at Locarno72 with 50 short films and 29 features. Concorso internazionale, Concorso Cineasti del presente, Pardi di domani and Moving Ahead are the four souls of the Locarno Film Festival, each with a Pardo at stake.
And, of course, there will be eleven wonderful nights at the Piazza Grande where 8000 spectators could watch splendid cinematographic performance or even two every night of the Festival. It will also showcase the awaited Quentiin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Dakota Fanning, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Luke Perry and many others. The only disappointment is that the director himself won't honour Locarno72 with his presence as well as as the beloved couple of the main actors of the film.
Since 2000 the Prix du Public UBS, the only official award of the Festival to be awarded by the Piazza Grande audience, has been presented to films that are likely to make history. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Prix du Public UBS, and for the first time ever spectators can rate the Piazza Grande films digitally, using the new official Locarno Film Festival App. Last year the audience of the Piazza Grande awarded the Prix du Public UBS to Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman.
Last year the competent jury handed the Pardo d'oro (golden leopard) to the film The Land Imagined by YEO Siew Hua in the framework of the international competition.
Source: www.locarnofestival.ch
