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Festival abuzz despite only getting “leftovers”

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It may be Europe's biggest outdoor cinema, but a hush quickly descended on Locarno's Grand Piazza as thousands of people prepared for a final night of entertainment.

The Locarno International Film Festival drew to a close on Saturday after 11 days of exploring cinematic achievements in all forms and languages.

The festival’s last remaining world premier, The Two Horses of Genghis Khan, was shown after the main awards were announced to the crowd in the town’s theatrically lit Italianate square.

Asian creativity continued its domineering presence at the festival, with the main Golden Leopard prize going to Chinese-born director Xiaolu Guo’s production of She, a Chinese.

The acclaimed writer-turned-director says her tale of a girl who leaves Chinese village life for the big city and ends up in London, pregnant and facing an uncertain future, aims to challenge traditional Chinese cinematic style and act as a bridge between cultures.

Other winners

Ursula Antoniak’s Dutch-Irish production, Nothing Personal, was the other big award winner, collecting best actress, best first feature, the youth jury prize, the international critics’ Fipresci prize, the Ecumenical jury prize and the International Art and Essay Cinema Confederation prize.

Swiss film, Giulias Verschwinden, by Christoph Schaub meanwhile won the UBS public vote prize.

Overall attendance at the festival fell by 12 per cent, with a total audience of 157,057, compared with 180,008 in 2008.

Despite near perfect weather conditions throughout the event, audience numbers in the Grand Piazza varied wildly, a reflection of the public’s interest – or lack of it – in the choice of paid-for screenings on the big screen.

Audiences ranged from the low point of 2,500 on a night dedicated to Japanese animation to the most popular evening on Wednesday, a special Swiss cinema day, when 7,800 people came to see the Swiss-Italian-Hungarian production, La Valle delle Ombre.

“Most people come for the Piazza Grande, but they [only] show popular films. There is the other side of Locarno which is the serious side, where there are some very good sections,” noted Ronald Bergan, a film critic for The Guardian newspaper.

Leftovers

Bergan, who was among the jurists awarding this year’s Fipresci Prize, said there had been five “respectable” films in the international competition, but there was a clear winner that had been unanimously decided by the international film critic jury.

He berated the lack of good films generally available to festivals like Locarno and blamed the industry’s fixation on screening at the hottest events. Being an “A-list” festival, Locarno must come up with world and international premiers for its competition, but Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Venice usually take the “cream” of the crop, he told swissinfo.ch.

“There are too many festivals and too few world-premier films. Most people want to go to Venice. Some of them still want Cannes first. Most A-festivals have what is left. So this year, out of 18 films, I have to say we found five that we thought we could give the prize to.”

A Locarno regular, Bergan was disappointed by the festival’s decision to give a Leopard of Honour to William Friedkin, who he described as a “has-been director”, and the choice of Japanese animation for this year’s retrospective.

“It was the wrong year for me. We are just flooded with Manga. Everywhere you look you see these little kids with their occidental eyes, staring at you. No matter how technically wonderful some of them are or miraculous. For me they are for 12-year-olds and under, or for immature adults.”

But he acknowledged that the section had been very comprehensive, noting, “I take my hat off to them for doing it one year”.

This year was the last chance for outgoing artistic director Frédéric Maire to put on the retrospective, something he had been keen to do since coming into the role in 2006.

Bigger buzz

The festival’s film selection also attracted fewer industry professionals than last year, with around 160 buyers and sales agents in town, compared with 210 in 2008. There were 50 participating producers, down from 80 last year.

Also missing were major United States companies and British buyers who have attended the festival in the past. However the leading French and Germans were again attending in healthy numbers.

“We have all the best art house companies from all over Europe represented here. The number is less than last year but is still very, very good,” said Nadia Dresti, from the festival’s industry office, which helps pair up directors and producers with buyers and distributors.

“I think it was a good festival with good professionals attending. It seems like every year Locarno has a very positive buzz that people who haven’t come before come to discover. In this sense the festival is growing because the awareness of the festival, internationally speaking, is bigger and bigger,” she told swissinfo.ch.

The festival was also a chance for Swiss productions to be showcased, said promoter Francine Brücher, as she packed down the Swiss Films pavilion on the last day.

“As Locarno is one of the biggest international film festivals, it is important for Swiss productions to be seen here. For us it is an important window. The visibility for Swiss films has been great. It has been just as good as in previous years and we had films in every section.”

She said the production of Giulias Verschwinden had been well received and was excited that the Franco-Swiss entry in the international competition, Complices, had its world premier on the Grand Piazza. “From Locarno, things are going to happen,” she added.

Jessica Dacey in Locarno, swissinfo.ch

International Competition – Golden Leopard
SHE, A CHINESE by Xiaolu Guo (UK, Germany, France)

International Competition – Special Jury Prize
BUBEN.BARABAN by Alexei Mizgirev (Russia)

International Competition – Best Director
Alexei Mizgirev
for BUBEN.BARABAN (Russia)

International Competition – Leopard for Best Actress
Lotte Verbeek
in NOTHING PERSONAL

International Competition – Leopard for Best Actor
Antonis Kafetzopoulos
in AKADIMIA PLATONOS

Filmmakers of the Present Competition – Golden Leopard
THE ANCHORAGE by C.W. Winter and Anders Edström (US, Sweden)

Leopard for the Best First Feature
NOTHING PERSONAL by Urszula Antoniak (The Netherlands, Ireland)

Leopards of Tomorrow – Golden Leopard
BELIEVE by Paul Wright, United Kingdom (Scotland)

Swiss National Competition – Golden Leopard
LAS PELOTAS by Chris Niemeyer (Switzerland)

Youth Jury Prize
Urszula Antoniak for NOTHING PERSONAL, Netherlands / Ireland

Prix du Public UBS
GIULIAS VERSCHWINDEN by Christoph Schaub (Switzerland)

Variety Piazza Grande Award
SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT by Detlev Buck (Germany)

FIPRESCI Prize
NOTHING PERSONAL by Urszula Antoniak (The Netherlands, Ireland)

International Art & Essay Cinema Confederation Prize
NOTHING PERSONAL by Urszula Antoniak (The Netherlands, Ireland)

Critics Week
PIANOMANIA by Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck (Austria, Germany)

Before the opening of this year’s festival, two producers’ associations lodged a formal complaint with the Federal Culture Office.

Targeting the Office’s cinema division headed by Nicolas Bideau, they accuse the cinema commission of bias and lacking in transparency.

According to the two associations, some productions receive more financing than initially foreseen while others have to accept minimal subsidies.

At a news conference on August 7, the director of the Federal Culture Office, Jean-Frédéric Jauslin, described the criticism as “unfounded”. He added the complaint would be examined by his office’s lawyers.

At a news conference shortly afterwards, the two associations said they hoped their complaint would bear fruit.

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