The Locarno Movie Pageant has re-upped Italian movie critic Giona A. Nazzaro as its creative director for the subsequent three years.
Nazzaro, a former head of the Venice Movie Pageant’s Critics’ Week, has been main the outstanding Swiss occasion devoted to indie cinema since 2021, beneath a five-year mandate that expires this yr.
Throughout his watch, Nazzaro — who was born and raised in Switzerland — has bolstered Locarno’s function as a driver for arthouse titles, serving to them attain the widest audiences doable. One living proof, cited by Nazzaro in an announcement, is the worldwide success of final yr’s Golden Leopard winner “Poisonous,” an examination of younger feminine friendship that marked the debut characteristic of Lithuanian director Saulė Bliuvaitė. After Locarno, the movie went on to play at 70 festivals.
“I want to thank President Maja Hoffmann and the complete board of administrators of the Locarno Movie Pageant for the belief and esteem positioned in me and within the crew that I’ve the privilege of main,” Nazzaro mentioned in an announcement. “To pursue collectively the work of those first 5 years, in a second filled with unheard-of transformations within the audiovisual sector and movie business — at a posh historic second — is an thrilling problem that may encourage us confidently in direction of our eightieth anniversary.”
A longtime Locarno fest collaborator previous to changing into its chief in 2021, Nazzaro has additionally served on choice committees for the Rome, Turin and Visions du Reel festivals, in addition to the Pageant dei Popoli in Florence. He has authored a number of books and essays, together with on Hong Kong cinema, postmodern motion movies and monographs on Abel Ferrara, Spike Lee and Gus Van Sant.
The upcoming 78th version of Locarno will run Aug. 6-16.
