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It’s safe to call Canadian artist and filmmaker Bruce Labruce a Panorama mainstay; it’s been two decades and counting since Hustler White premiered in this Berlinale strand in 1996. Between The Misandrists and his latest, The Visitor (Panorama 2024), there was the indie feature Saint-Narcisse (TIFF/Venice 2021) and the porn feature The Affairs of Lidia (2022), to prepare us for what was to come––certainly a visit one’d have a hard time forgetting. A reimagining of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s acclaimed 1968 film Teorema wherein a handsome, nameless man infiltrates a bourgeois family to then change their lives forever through sex. Naturally, Labruce would pay tribute to a film that’s already queer and treats sex as a political tool for change. Even more so, he’d do it much more explicitly (with porn), provocatively (with political critique), and playfully (with campy humor).

Labruce shapes his artistic practice through a continuous...

Italian sales agent racks up deals during busy Cannes market.

Italian sales agent The Open Reel has scored North American deals for three titles on its slate: Swsx-prize winner A Place Of Our Own, Julián Hernández’s The Trace Of Your Lips and Dennis Shinners’s Barrio Boy.

Indian drama A Place Of Our Own by grassroots group Ektara Collective has been acquired by Dark Star Pictures for North America. Set in Bhopal, the drama follows two trans women as they seek to find alternative accommodation when their landlord evicts them without notice. It won the global audience award at Swsx in March.

International sales agency The Open Reel has unveiled the first trailer for director-producer Quentin Lee’s “Last Summer of Nathan Lee.”

Inspired by a real life incident from Lee’s high school years, the film follows the titular Nathan Lee, a teenager who finds out that he has brain cancer just before he turns 18, vows to live the remains of his life with passion and refuses to die a virgin.

The cast includes Harrison Xu, Matthew Mitchell Espinosa, Natasha Tina Liu, Aaron Guest and Dru Perez. The film is produced by Lee’s Margin Films, with screenwriter Dennis Escobedo and casting director Kit DeZolt also serving as producers alongside Lee.

“Last Summer of Nathan Lee” will have its world premiere at The Center for Asian American Media (Caam)’s CAAMFest 2023, which will take place from May 11 to 21.

Meanwhile, The Open Reel has also closed a number of sales on its slate titles.

The India programme explores the socio-political development of the country over the past 30 years.

US producer Christine Vachon and Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz are among the competition jury members for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Joining Vachon and Diaz is the director of Udine Far East Film Festival Sabrina Baracetti, Neptune Frost director Anisia Uzeyman and Mexican film critic Alonso Díaz de la Vega.

The jury are responsible for choosing the winner of the Tiger Award worth €40,000 as well as the Special Jury Awards worth €10,000. The competition line-up will be announced later this month.

India in...

Italian sales outfit The Open Reel also racked up further deals on its slate.

Italian sales and production company The Open Reel unveiled a raft of deals including sales of Valentin Merz’s debut feature De Noche Los Gatos Son Pardos (At Night All Cats Are Black) to Matchbox Films for the UK and Ireland, and Out Screen Pty for Australia and New Zealand.

De Noche Los Gatos Son Pardos, which is set during the shoot of a costume drama film in the countryside and follows events taking an odd turn after the director mysteriously disappears, premiered in competition at...

Julia Murat’s film is second from Brazil to win festival’s top honour.

The Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival’s 75th anniversary edition (August 3-13) has gone to Julia Murat’s Rule 34 (Regra 34), which had its world premiere in the Swiss festival’s international competition.

The award includes a cash prize of Chf 75,000 to be shared equally between the film’s director and producer.

Rule 34 is the story of a young law student whose sexual desires lead her into a world of violence and eroticism. It was part of the 2019 Berlinale Co-Production Market and last year received...

Rule 34International Competition(Jury: Michel Merkt, Laura Samani, Prano Bailey-Bond, Alain Guiraudie, William Horberg)Golden Leopard: Rule 34 (Julia Murat)Special Jury Prize: Gigi la legge (The Adventures of Gigi the Law) (Alessandro Comodin)Best Direction: Valentina Maurel (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Best Actress: Daniela Marín Navarro (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Best Actor: Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez (Tengo sueños eléctricos)Filmmakers Of The Present( Jury: Annick Mahnert, Gitanjali Rao, Katriel Schory )Golden Leopard: Svetlonoc (Nightsiren) (Tereza Nvotová)Special Jury Prize: Yak Tam Katia? (How Is Katia?) (Christina Tynkevych)Prize for Best Emerging Director: Juraj Lerotić (Sigurno mjesto (Safe Place))Best Actress: Anastasia Karpenko (How Is Katia?)Best Actor: Goran Marković (Safe Place)Special Mention: Den siste våren (Franciska Eliassen)First Feature(Jury: Boo Junfeng, Shahram Mokri, Madeline Robert)Best First Feature: Sigurno mjesto (Safe Place) (Juraj Lerotić)Special Mention: Love Dog (Bianca Lucas) and De noche los gatos son pardos (Valentin Merz)Pardi Di Domani(Jury: Walter Fasano,...

Brazilian filmmaker Julia Murat clinched the Golden Leopard prize in the main international competition of the 75th Locarno Film Festival with her latest feature Rule 34.

The film follows Simone, a young law student who finds a passion for defending women in abuse cases. Yet her own sexual interests lead her to a world of violence and eroticism.

Rule 34 is Murat’s third feature film after Pendular, which picked up the Fipresci Prize at the 2017 Berlinale. The Brazillian filmmaker’s first film, Found Memories, debuted at Venice.

Locarno’s Golden Leopard comes with a Chf 75,000 cash prize to be shared equally between the director and the producer. Murat produced the film alongside Tatiana Leite.

This year’s Golden Leopard competition jury was comprised of Swiss producer Michel Merkt, British filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond, French filmmaker Alain Guiraudie, American producer William Horberg, and Italian director Laura Samani.

In other main competition awards, the...

Set during the shoot for a costume drama film in the countryside, events take an odd turn when the director suddenly disappears.

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Valentin Merz’s debut film De Noche Los Gatos Son Pardos (At Night All Cats Are Black) which is set to premiere in the international competition at this year’s Locarno Film Festival (August 3-13.)

Italian sales outfit The Open Reel has world rights for the film except Switzerland where Vinca Film will distribute.

Set during the shoot of a costume drama film in the countryside, events take an odd turn when the director suddenly disappears.

Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman).The lineup for the 75th-anniversary edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Helena Wittmann, João Pedro Rodrígues, Aleksandr Sokurov and others, alongside retrospectives, tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEAlles über Martin Suter. Ausser die Wahrheit. (Everything About Martin Suter. Everything but the Truth.) (André Schäfer)Annie Colère (Blandine Lenoir)Bullet Train (David Leitch)Compartiment tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murder) (Costa-Gavras)Delta (Michele Vannucci)Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson)Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)Last Dance (Delphine Lehericey)Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman)My Neighbor Adolf (Leon Prudovsky)Paradise Highway (Anna Gutto)Piano Piano (Nicola Prosatore)Printed Rainbow (Gitanjali Rao)Semret (Caterina Mona)Une femme de notre temps (Jean Paul Civeyrac)Vous n'aurez pas ma haine (You Will Not Have My Hate) (Kilian Riedhof)Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman)Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann).Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAriyippu (Declaration) (Mahesh Narayanan)Balıqlara xütbə...

Ten world premieres among 17 international competition titles.

The Locarno Film Festival (August 3-13) has revealed the line-up for its 75th edition, which includes the world premiere of Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale.

The international competition will comprise 17 films, including 10 world premieres, which will vie for the coveted Golden Leopard awards.

Scroll down for full line-up

These titles include Fairytale, a Belgium-Russia co-production written and directed by Sokurov, whose films have played in Competition at Cannes five times with features including Russian Ark in 2002. His debut The Lonely Voice Of a Man received the Bronze Leopard in Locarno in 1987.

The...

It’ll be a field of seventeen competition offerings from the likes of master filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov (Fairytale) to a pair of first time (not unlike this year’s Berlinale) works from Swiss helmer Valentin Merz (De Noche los Gatos Son Pardos) and Costa Rican helmer Valentina Maurel (Tengo Sueños Eléctricos) that make-up Locarno’s Film Festival Golden Leopard competition (aka Concorso internazionale).

Fest topper Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro managed to land the likes of veteran French filmmakers such as Sylvie Verheyde and Patricia Mazuy (who launches Bowling Saturne – formerly titled Les jeunes filles à la peau blanche dans la nuit).…...

Returning for its milestone 75th edition, Locarno Film Festival has now unveiled its full lineup. Taking place from August 3 through 13th, the selection includes Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers of Flesh, Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s Une femme de notre temps, Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale, Patricia Mazuy’s Bowling Saturne, Abbas Fahdel’s Tales of the Purple House, Ana Vaz’s It Is Night In America, Leon Prudovsky’s My Neighbor Adolf, a massive Douglas Sirk retrospective, and much more.

“The selection of films that we have put together, after watching and appraising over 3,000 titles (of every length and format), is intended to be the mark of a time and of a cinema in motion,” Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro said. “A historic time that is moving in multiple directions simultaneously, and a cinema that is probing the issues facing the world, and how to live in it re- sponsibly, sustainably. The...

Energetic Italian sales agent Open Reel has closed world sales rights to Valentin Merz’s “De noche los gatos son pardos,” which will world premiere in this year’s Locarno Festival International Competition.

One of two first features in Locarno’s main competitive section, “De noche los gatos son pardos” (“At Night All Cats Are Black”) returns to Europe’s largest mid-Summer film event after winning the biggest prize last year at its First Look pix-in-post showcase focused on Swiss movies.

That prize went to the section’s boldest entry, a genre mashup of film shoot drama and comedic procedural which proves an ode to sexuality in its multiple manifestations, as well as to love and filmmaking.

Shot through with a meta conscience, “De noche…” turns on a highly disparate crew and cast shooting a sexually-souped costume drama in wooded hills. Suddenly, its director, Valentin disappears. Clodhopping local cops interview the crew,...

The Locarno Film Festival has announced the full line-up and juries for its 75th edition, which is due to unfold August 3-13.

The festival will get a starry kick-off on August 3 with the international festival premiere of David Leitch’s action-comedy Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt alongside an ensemble cast featuring Joey King, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Sandra Bullock, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji and Benito A Martínez Ocasio.

The film will be given a gala screening in the festival’s trademark 8,000-seat, open-air Piazza Grande arena.

Other titles due to get a splash on the Piazza Grande include Laurie Anderson’s Home Of The Brave, U.K. director Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe and German director Kilian Riedhof’s French-language drama You Will Not Have My Hate, based on the memoir of a man on how he and his son coped following the death of his wife in the 2015 Bataclan terror attack.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its 75th edition, sticking to its promise of discovering new talent.

A slew of debuting filmmakers will showcase their works, from Italy’s Nicola Prosatore with “Piano Piano” to Caterina Mona, focusing in “Semret” on an Eritrean single mother working at a Zurich hospital and dreaming of becoming a midwife.

Thomas Hardiman’s U.K.’s proposition “Medusa Deluxe,” a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition — boarded by New Europe Film Sales — is also bound to generate some excitement.

“‘Medusa Deluxe’ is one of the coolest debuts of the year,” the company’s CEO Jan Naszewski enthused to Variety.

“I’m sure it will rock the Piazza Grande and give the festival a great spark.”

But Locarno will also bring in heavyweights, starting with a screening of the much-anticipated Brad Pitt vehicle “Bullet Train,” directed by “Atomic Blond” helmer David Leitch,...

In a valley in the Swiss canton of Bern dominated by the local watchmaking industry, the first ever International Anarchist Congress was held in 1872. And inside a traditionally made clockwork watch, such as the factories of Bern would have been producing at the time, there is a tiny spiral wheel that balances the mechanism, called the unrueh — the unrest.

This dainty coincidence of echoing terminology at most might raise a “huh” from those of us into wordplay and social history and Twitter accounts that exclusively post images of machinery at work. But for Swiss director Cyril Schäublin, it becomes the kernel of “Unrest,” a gorgeously playful oddity glimmering with insight into ideology, photography, cartography, telegraphy, celebrity, solidarity, the flow of capital, the unruliness of time and the somehow noble lunacy of trying to tame such a massive concept into a brass doodad small enough to fit in a waistcoat pocket.