Successful Locarno77 inaugurates new era for the film festival

As its 77th edition draws to a close, the Locarno Film Festival looks forward to a new era, building on past successes and embracing positive change for the future. Locarno77 showed a path forward for the Festival, bringing increased audience numbers (+3.5%) and engagement across the board.

For 11 days, theaters in Locarno were packed with spectators eager to discover the best of international cinema, while its bars, restaurants, and hotel lobbies were the impromptu sites for dialogue and exchange about the future of film. At the award ceremony on August 17, the powerful Lithuanian drama Akiplëða (Toxic), directed by first-time director Saulė Bliuvaitė, took home the Festival’s coveted Pardo d’Oro in the Concorso Internazionale. The Prix du Public UBS went to Reinas by Klaudia Reynicke, and the Letterboxd Piazza Grande Award to Gaucho Gaucho by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw.

Audience numbers were up across the board, with the total audience at all screenings standing at 152,000 (90,000 in the various venues of the Festival and 62,000 in Piazza Grande alone), an increase of 3.5% compared to 2023. People buying festival passes also increased by +2%, especially among students, whose bought in increased numbers, showing a rise of more than 7%. As for professional attendees, accreditations (including online) saw an increase of 6.5% – totalling 4,940, of whom 1,884 were industry professionals and 793 were journalists, critics, and photographers.

In addition to screenings, the Locarno Film Festival shows that it is unique among all the major A-list festivals with its comprehensive offering for emerging talents, which covers a slate of initiatives for kids (Locarno Kids la Mobiliare), teenagers (Atelier du Futur), and for filmmakers, artists, critics, professionals, and other up-and-coming creatives from around the world (Locarno Academy and BaseCamp). At the same time, the Rotonda by la Mobiliare served as a place for entertainment, community, and discussion just a stone’s throw from the Piazza Grande, with a music, arts, and entertainment offering that brought in roughly 115,000 participants, an increase of 9.5% over the previous edition.

Locarno77 also saw extraordinary results on the Festival’s digital platforms, reflecting a transformed strategy for guiding the public through various media platforms both during the Festival and around the year. Record breaking audience growth and engagement in editorial publications, texts, videos, and social media is the unmistakable story of the data from Locarno77 – on YouTube alone, the Festival saw an increase of +265% in views and +105% increase in subscribers, meanwhile on Instagram over 7.1m people were reached during the festival period and followers increased by +6%.

Maja Hoffmann, President: “I am very proud of the success of the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. Together with audiences from all over the world, with old and new friends and with my family, I experienced films of exceptional quality and encountered a rich diversity of cultures that connect through film. I am pleased to have welcomed audiences and film professionals in a truly international event where open-minded and experimental ways of seeing the world teach us that only through risk-taking and edging towards unknown territories can we create a better future. I am grateful to everyone who contributed in making the Festival a reality this year and I am looking forward to the next edition, as Locarno continues to lead in the field of global cinema, bringing unique experiences to our audiences.”

Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director: “A truly unique edition that marked once more what makes Locarno such a cherished festival both with audiences worldwide and within the film industry. Creativity and hope for a better tomorrow were the elements that ran through all the sections. Cinema is a driving force and Locarno is a flagship for it. We are truly proud of this edition and grateful for the tremendous team effort behind its success.”

Raphaël Brunschwig, Managing Director: “As we begin this new chapter in the long history of our Festival, we would like to send a huge thank you to all our partners, the press, industry attendees from around the world, suppliers, and of course the loyal public, who return time and again to make this festival a truly extraordinary experience.”