It’s August, so the leopard is ready to roar again. In its 78th year, the Locarno Film Festival, located in Switzerland by the blissful Lake Maggiore, returns with a slate that’s as hot as the summer Swiss sun. It’ll be my second year attending the festival, which quickly shot to the top of my list of favorite film destinations after last year featured films from Radu Jude and Hong Sang-soo, and a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures. It also introduced me to a picturesque town whose many river cobblestone streets and winding Lombard-style buildings converge on the Piazza Grande, an open-air square that hosts 8000-seat screenings.
Indeed, there is nothing better than stumbling out of a movie late at night, into the humid, steamy air, and seeing the glow of a screen bigger than most buildings lighting up the sky.
This year, several titles and celebrations have already caught my eye. Here are just a few goodies that Locarno 2025 has to offer.
A Tribute to Lucy Liu
Liu has spent the better part of three decades carving a place in Hollywood as a larger-than-life action hero. She first found success on “Ally McBeal,” where she gained Emmy and SAG nominations playing the fierce lawyer Ling Woo, before launching into movies like “Kill Bill,” “Charlie’s Angels,” and “Kung Fu Panda.” Now with “Rosemead,” an intimate drama that sees Liu playing an immigrant widow, Liu is approaching quieter roles. Not only will Erin Lin’s film have its international premiere at Locarno, Liu will also receive the festival’s lifetime achievement award. It’s a recognition that, considering Liu’s illustrious career, feels overdue.
Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960
Last year, Locarno’s Retrospettiva section paid tribute to Columbia Pictures. This year, it’s British postwar cinema. Curated by filmmaker and critic Ehsan Khoshbakht, the celebration will showcase 40 major classics and little-known rarities from the era’s most imperative stars and directors. Some of my personal favorites that’ll be screening include Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom,” Jules Dassin’s “Night and the City,” and David Lean’s “The Passionate Friends.” Some of the rarities I’m most looking forward to are George King’s “The Shop at Sly Corner,” Wendy Toye’s “The Stranger Left No Card,” Daniel Brit’s “The Three Weird Sisters,” and much more. This programme is so deep, it’s going to be hard to pull myself away to see any new movies.
Concorso Internazionale
The festival’s main competition, which will award the Golden Leopard to the top film, is brimming with some intriguing works. For one, there’s Romanian auteur Radu Jude’s near-three-hour Dracula film. Conversely, Japanese master Naomi Kawase is back with “Yakushima’s Illusion.” It’s her first film since the melancholic drama “True Mothers,” and it stars Vicky Krieps.
Sho Miyake, who I personally believe is among Japan’s best underseen directors, also has “Two Seasons, Two Strangers,” starring Shim Eun-kyung. Also, Abdellatif Kechiche, the filmmaker behind “Blue is the Warmest Color,” will arrive in Locarno with the third installment in his Mektoub, My Love series, “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due.”
With these films and more, it’s already shaping up to be a deep competition.
Keep One Eye Open
Up and down the lineup, there are a few other noteworthy mentions. Canadian director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut, “Blue Heron,” will have its world premiere at Locarno before heading to the Toronto International Film Festival. Considering several of her shorts have been featured on Criterion Channel, one wonders if her deeply personal coming-of-age story might be the breakout of the festival.
Former David Lynch collaborator Duwayne Dunham—who served as editor on “Blue Velvet” and “Wild at Heart”—also has a new film produced by Lynch himself: “Legend of the Happy Worker.” Starring Thomas Haden Church and Colm Meaney, this offbeat Western could have enough star power and passion to reach beyond Locarno, back to America.
Finally, I have to shout out Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis.” Yes, it’s an “old” title. Hence why it’s playing in the Histoire(s) du Cinéma as part of a tribute to Academy Award-winning costume designer Milena Canonero (“The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Barry Lyndon”), who is receiving the festival’s Vision Award. I just wanted to bring it up because Coppola was recently rushed to a hospital in Rome for a heart procedure. Though the auteur behind “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather” quickly announced he was fine, if you happen to be walking around the PalaCinema on August 10, then try to sneak in a watch of Coppola’s self-produced wild swing as it was meant to be seen, on a big screen surrounded by mostly Italian-speaking patrons.
