Sho Miyake’s “Two Seasons, Two Strangers” has won Locarno’s top award, its Golden Leopard for titles playing in the Swiss festival’s main International Competition.
As noticed by Variety, the film was warmly received at the festival, charming the critics with its tale of two people who meet by the sea. Based on the manga “Mr. Ben and His Igloo, A View of the Seaside” by Yoshiharu Tsuge, it’s sold by Bitters End.
Jury president Rithy Panh and jury members Joslyn Barnes, Ursina Lardi, Carlos Reygadas and Renée Soutendijk also recognized “White Snail” by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, which scored Locarno’s Special Jury Prize and best performance for Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov. The film, about a Belarusian model dreaming of a career in China, slowly transforms into a love story between two outsiders.
Another acting award went to Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić, prized for theur perfirmances in Hana Jušić’s “God Will Not Help“. Croatian director wanted to comment on the “troubling resurgence of so-called ‘traditional values,’ often couched in nostalgic fantasies of patriarchal order,” she said.
She also aimed to “reclaim the figure of the witch, a historical symbol of female defiance and nonconformity, against these attempts to re-domesticate women’s bodies and desires. With this film, I wanted to suggest that figures like Teresa and [shepherdess] Milena could easily be among us today: women who unsettle the structures that seek to discipline them.”
Best direction award went to Abbas Fahdel for “Tales of the Wounded Land,” while Alexandre Koberidze’s “Dry Leaf” received a Special Mention. In his much-anticipated follow-up to “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?,” he focuses on a father looking for his daughter, ending up with an unusual road movie.
In a major sidebar at the festival, Filmmakers of the Present, dedicated to emerging talent, the Golden Lepoard went Pardo d’Oro was given to “Hair, Paper, Water…” by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý.
Cecilia Kang won its Emerging Director Award for “Hijo Major”, opening up about her story of the migration journey of a Korean family to Argentina in search of a better life.
“I think I make films as a way to understand who I am,” Kang told Variety.
“My own sense of identity has always been shaped by this cultural duality. Even though it has nourished me in many ways, it has also been a complex and contradictory presence in my life – at times even a painful one.”
Levan Gelbakhiani, acting in “Don’t Let the Sun” by Jacqueline Zünd, also earned recognition, as well as Margherita Spampinato‘s “Sweetheart” – a lighthearted drama about a boy spending his summer with an elderly woman. It went on to earn two awards: Special Jury Prize Cine+ and a performance Leopard for veteran actor Aurora Quattrocchi.
Quattrocchi was the only professional actor in the cast.
“We held a casting in [Sicilian city] Trapani, looking for real grandmothers, nonnas. They were adorable and really enjoyed staying together. They were always on set, even when it wasn’t needed. Also, they always encouraged me. They always called me ‘gioia mia,’ ‘my joy,’ too. That part [of making the film] was really magical,” recalled the director.
She added: “When I told them we were selected by Locarno, they just said: ‘We always knew it would work out’.”
‘White Snail’
©PANAMA FILM / RAUMZEITFILM
Here is the full list of awards:
International Competition
Pardo d’Oro – Grand Prize of the Festival and City of Locarno
CHF 75,000 ($93,000) to be shared equally between the director and the producer, to:
“Two Seasons, Two Strangers” by Sho Miyake, Japan
Special Jury Prize – Cities of Ascona and Losone
CHF 30,000 ($37,200) to be shared equally between the director and the producer, to:
“White Snail” by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, Austria, Germany
Leopard for Best Direction – City and Region of Locarno
CHF 20,000 ($24,800) to the director, to:
Abbas Fahdel for “Tales of the Wounded Land,” Lebanon
Leopard for Best Performance to Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić for “God Will Not Help” by Hana Jušić, Croatia, Italy, Romania, Greece, France, Slovenia
Leopard for Best Performance to Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov for “White Snail”
Special Mention
“Dry Leaf” by Alexandre Koberidze, Germany/Georgia
Filmmakers of the Present Competition
Golden Leopard
CHF 35,000 ($43,400) to be shared equally between the director and the producer, to:
“Hair, Paper, Water…” by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, Belgium, France, Vietnam
Emerging Director Award – City and Region of Locarno
CHF 20,000 to the director to:
Cecilia Kang for “Hijo Major,” Argentina, France
Special Jury Prize Ciné+
A promotional campaign to the value of CHF 25,000 ($31,000) on Ciné+ channels at the time of its theatrical release in France, to:
“Sweetheart” by Margherita Spampinato, Italy
Best Performance
To Aurora Quattrocchi for “Sweetheart” and Levan Gelbakhiani for “Don’t Let the Sun” by Jacqueline Zünd, Switzerland, Italy
Pardi di Domani
Auteur Short Film Competition
Pardino d’Oro WePresent by WeTransfer for the Best Auteur Short Film
CHF 15,000 ($18,600) to the director, to:
“A Very Straight Neck” by Neo Sora, Japan/China
Concorso Internazionale
Pardino d’Oro Arts3 Foundation for the Best International Short Film
CHF 10,000 ($12,400) to the director, to:
“Hyena” by Altay Ulan Yang, USA
Pardino d’Argento Arts3 Foundation for the International Competition
CHF 5,000 ($6,200) to the director, to:
“Still Playing” by Mohamed Mesbah, France
Pardi di Domani Best Direction Award – Bonalumi Engineering
CHF 2,000 ($2,480) to the director, to:
“Primary Education” by Aria Sánchez and Marina Meira,
Cuba/Spain/Brazil
Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award
Sponsored by Medien Patent Verwaltung, in subtitling in three central European languages, to: “Force Times Displacement” by Angel WU, Taiwan
Concorso Nazionale
Pardino d’Oro SRG SSR, Best Swiss Short Film
CHF 10,000 ($12,400) to the director, to:
“Rio Remains Beautiful” by Felipe Casanova, Belgium, Brazil, Switzerland
Pardino d’Argento SRG SSR, National Competition
CHF 5,000 ($6,200) to the director, to:
“Tuser Toner” by Francesco Poloni, Switzerland
Best Swiss Newcomer Award
Equipment and services offered by Downtown Studio (CHF 10,000: $12,400) and Taurus Studio (CHF 2,000: $2,480), to:
“L’avant poste 21” by Camille Surdez, Switzerland
Locarno Film Festival Short Film Candidate – European Film Awards: “Rio Remains Beautiful”
First Feature
Swatch First Feature Award
CHF 15,000 ($18,600) to the director, to:
“Blue Heron” by Sophy Romvari, Canada, Hungary
Pardo Verde
Founded together with WWF, supported by ARX and Wyss Academy For
Nature
Pardo Verde
CHF 20,000 ($24,800) to the director, to:
“Mare’s Nest” by Ben Rivers, United Kingdom, France, Canada
Special Mentions
“Hair, Paper, Water…”
“A South Facing Window” by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, France, Mongolia
Ecumenical Prize
Offered by the Reformed Churches and the Catholic Church of Switzerland, to the value of CHF 10,000 ($12,400) to the director, to:
“Solomamma” by Janicke Askevold, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Finland
Special Mention
“Le Lac” by Fabrice Aragno, Switzerland
FIPRESCI Prize
“Dry Leaf”
Europa Cinemas Label
“With Hasan in Gaza” by Kamal Aljafari, Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar
Junior Jury Awards
First Prize (CHF 6,000: $7,440)
“Le Lac”
Second Prize (CHF 4,000: $4,960)
“Dracula” by Radu Jude, Romania, Austria, Luxembourg, Brazil
Third Prize (CHF 2,000: $2,480)
“Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due” by Abdellatif Kechiche, France
The Environment Is Quality of Life Prize (CHF 3,000: $3,720)
offered by the Ticino Department of Internal Affairs:
“Two Seasons, Two Strangers”
Special Mention
“Mosquitoes” by Valentina Bertani and Nicole Bertani, Italy
Best film in Filmmakers of the Present, to:
“A Balcony in Limoges” by Jérôme Reybaud, France
Special Mentions
“Blue Heron”
“Follies” by Eric K. Boulianne, Canada
Leopards of Tomorrow
Inernational Competition
“Blind, into the Eye” by Atefeh Kheirabadi and Mehrad Sepahnia, Germany/Iran
National Competition
“Black Mornings” by David Gonseth, Switzerland
Concorso Corti d’Autore
“A South Facing Window” by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, France/Mongolia
Special Mention, International Competition
“Once in a Body” by María Cristina Pérez González, Colombia, USA
Open Doors Screenings
The Environment is Quality of Life Prize
“The Envoy of God” by Amina Abdoulaye Mamani, Niger, Burkina Faso, Rwanda
Critics Week Awards
Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique – Prix SRG SSR
CHF 5,000 ($6,200) to the director and the producer, to:
“Celtic Utopia” by Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén, Sweden, Ireland
Marco Zucchi Award
CHF 2,000 ($2,480) to the formally and most aesthetically innovative documentary, to:
“In the Penal Colony” by Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia, and Alberto Diana, Italy
