The Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland opens tomorrow, Wednesday, and will honor the famous Indian Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, New Zealand directors Jane Campion and Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, along with the French-Swiss actress Irene Jacob.
Founded in 1946, the Locarno Film Festival is one of the longest running annual film festivals in the world.
The films are shown in the central square of Locarno on Lake Maggiore, a symbol of Swiss cultural life and featured on the 20 Swiss franc banknote.
The open Piazza Grande can accommodate up to 8,000 people, and films are shown on one of the largest screens in the world.
Rukh Khan, 58, will receive the Pardo alla Carriera award on Saturday, which honours artists whose work has helped redefine cinema.
“His rich and wide-ranging contribution to Indian cinema is unparalleled,” said festival artistic director Giona Natsaro. “Rukh Khan is a king who has never lost touch with the audiences he has addressed. This brave and daring artist has always been willing to challenge himself.”
The festival, in its 77th session, which continues until the 17th of this month, will screen 225 films.
The Golden Leopard is the grand prize. Directors who have won it include Italy's Roberto Rossellini, Americans John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Milos Forman, Jim Jarmusch, and Britain's Mike Leigh.
Seventeen films are competing for the Golden Leopard, all of which will be screened for the first time, including films from Lithuania, France, Austria, Italy and South Korea.
The grand prize comes with a cash prize of 75,000 Swiss francs ($87,400) split between the director and producer.
This largest film event in Switzerland will include an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures.
Achievements
New Zealander Jane Campion will be honoured with the prestigious award, which is given to distinguished figures in world cinema. She was the first woman to be nominated twice for the Best Director Oscar, first for The Piano in 1993 and again for The Power of the Dog in 2021.
Prominent winners of this award include Italian composer Ennio Morricone, French-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, and Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci and Dutch director Paul Verhoeven.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Mexican Alfonso Cuarón, who won the Oscar for Best Director for “Gravity” in 2013 and “Roma” in 2018.
French-Swiss actress Irène Jacob, who starred in The Double Life of Veronique (1991) and Three Colours: Red (1994), will receive the Club Award, which is given to cinematic works that touch the collective imagination.
American producer Stacey Sher, known for her films “Pulp Fiction,” “Get Shorty,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight,” will be honored with the International Achievement Award in Filmmaking.
It is reported that about 150 thousand people attended this festival last year.