The Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors program has announced its 2026 award winners, with Talemwa Pius's 'A Vineyard for a Lobster' from Uganda and Mohammed Sheikh's 'Accept My Plea for a Burial' from Somalia clinching top cash prizes. Other winners include 'Too Much Music,' 'Chapa 100,' 'Spring Story,' and 'Yazz' across various Locarno Pro initiatives.
The Locarno Film Festival saw a protest remembering the 60,000 victims of Gaza, occurring alongside the announcement of Locarno Pro winners including 'Spring Story' and 'The Surubí'. The festival also featured discussions on modern desire and control.
Locarno Pro is set to host a packed program for film industry professionals, including the StepIn Industry Conflab and a conversation with Marco Perego-Saldaña, defying the typical summer slowdown.
Locarno Pro's First Look section, celebrating its 15th edition, has unveiled six new Uruguayan film titles, ranging from family stories to dramas about desire, in partnership with Uruguay's film institute ACAU.
Filmmaker Marco Perego, accompanied by his wife Zoe Saldaña, advised attendees at Locarno Pro not to produce independent films for financial gain, but to trust the director's vision.
A panel at Locarno Pro, featuring executives from mk2, Design Otherwise, and Lucky Red, debated the role of data and algorithms in selecting powerful films, citing 'Ida' and 'Moonlight' as examples that might have been overlooked by data.
The director of Locarno Pro highlights how major industry shifts, suchs as the potential Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, are influencing the programming and infrastructure of the global film industry, including the Locarno Film Festival.
Florian Hoffmann's drama 'Yazz,' which centers on a teenager in a UN compound in the Central African Republic, secured two major awards at the Locarno Pro Awards' Alliance 4 Development platform.
Film industry data analyst Stephen Follows presented data at Locarno Pro 2026, revealing a surprisingly high number of 'nepo baby creatives' in this century's top 100 films.
The Locarno Film Festival's industry strand, Locarno Pro, is tackling major issues facing the film industry, including artificial intelligence, algorithms, and the balance between consolidation and creative freedom.