Throughout its 66 year history, the Festival del film Locarno has occupied a unique position in the landscape of the major film festivals.

Thousands of film fans and industry professionals meet here every summer to share their thirst for new discoveries and a passion for cinema in all its diversity.

At Locarno they find a quality programme, rich, eclectic, surprising, and where emerging talent rubs shoulders with prestigious guests. The audience is the soul of the Festival, as exemplified in the famous evenings on the Piazza Grande, whose magical setting can accommodate up to 8,000 filmgoers every night. Geographically located at the crossroads of three great European regions, (Italian, German and French), Locarno is, precisely because of its enormous and multi-cultural audience, a unique launch platform for new films from all over the world.

Thus for industry professionals Locarno is an unmissable rendezvous and a landmark in the festival calendar: an invaluable meeting-place, and opportunity to unearth the gems from a challenging selection of world premières, to take the pulse of new tendencies, and explore new terrain opening up in contemporary cinema.

Media coverage lives up the promise of the event. The Festival is closely chronicled by media from all over the world -including Le Monde, Libération, La Repubblica, Die Welt, El Pais, The Guardian, The Independent, all the specialist press -including Screen International, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Le Film français, Les Cahiers du cinéma, Sight and Sound, not to mention the whole of the Swiss press.

Foto & Text: image.net