09-07-2025
‘Dracula' by Radu Jude, David Lynch-Exec Produced ‘Happy Worker' Set for Locarno Lineup
Get ready for Dracula, a movie made with the participation of the late filmmaking legend David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, this year's Cannes winner It Was Just an Accident, and much more, as the Locarno International Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the lineup for its 78th edition. Dracula by Romanian director Radu Jude will get its world premiere as part of the Swiss fest's competition program, while Duwayne Dunham (Return of the Jedi, Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) will bring the debut of Legend of the Happy Worker, executive produced by Lynch, to the out-of-competition lineup.
Locarno, taking place Aug. 6-16, will also present the latest works from the likes of Abdelletif Kechiche, Vincent Grashaw, Sho Miyake, Ben Rivers, and Rosanne Pel, among others.
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Locarno's Concorso Cineasti del Presente sidebar, which puts the spotlight on first and second features, will include the likes of coming-of-drama Fantasy by music video and short film director Kukla, as well as drama Olivia by Sofía Petersen.
Meanwhile, some of this season's film festival favorites and classics will screen in Locarno's main Piazza Grande section, taking place on the town's main square set up with 8,000 seats. Films that can be seen there include Jafar Panahi's Cannes 2025 winner and Testa O Croce? (Heads or Tails?) by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, featuring John C. Reilly as Buffalo Bill.
Overall, the fest will screen 221 films, including 99 world premieres. 'The films of the 78th edition represent what is alive, necessary, and daring in contemporary cinema today,' Locarno's artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro said. 'A cinema entirely in the present tense, devoid of any nostalgia and projected forward towards an open, dynamic, inclusive future that is to be imagined together, once again. A playful and dangerous cinema that takes many risks, but also a cinema that does not forget to laugh and smile, and to question history in all its aspects.'
In a press kit for the lineup announcement, Nazarro wrote: 'Let's regain the world one film at a time.' He added: 'Building the program of the Locarno Film Festival means engaging with the living matter of contemporary cinema. A cinema that unfolds while the world is undergoing violent upheavals, while we witness – in real time – horrors that we had only read about in history books or studied in archival footage. The question is simple, and brutal in its inevitability: what is the place of cinema when the proliferation of images is unstoppable and continuous?'
His answer: 'We regain the world (and perhaps peace) one film at a time. … The cinema that presents itself at the crossroads with history for the 78th edition of the festival is a cinema that, on the one hand, does not turn its gaze away from reality, and, on the other, explores the still possible forms of the image without forgetting to smile at the absurdities of our lives. A cinema that is playful, takes risks, dreams, and provokes; a cinema that stubbornly remains in the world.'
Jackie Chan will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at Locarno next month, Emma Thompson will get the Leopard Club Award, and Lucy Liu will receive a career honor.
Check out the Locarno film festival's lineup for its main feature competition and other key sections unveiled on Tuesday below:
Concorso Internazionale Program (competition lineup)
As Estações (The Seasons) by Maureen Fazendeiro – Portugal, France, Spain,Austria – 2025World premiere
Bog Neće Pomoći (God Will Not Help) by Hana Jušić – Croatia, Italy, Romania,Greece, France, Slovenia – 2025World premiere
Donkey Days by Rosanne Pel – Netherlands, Germany – 2025World premiere
Dracula by Radu Jude – Romania, Austria, Luxembourg – 2025World premiere
Dry Leaf by Alexandre Koberidze – Germany, Georgia – 2025World premiere
Le Bambine (Mosquitoes) by Valentina Bertani, Nicole Bertani – Italy, Switzerland,France – 2025World premiere
Le Lac by Fabrice Aragno – Switzerland – 2025World premiere
Linije Želje (Desire Lines) by Dane Komljen – Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,Netherlands, Croatia, Germany – 2025World premiere
Mare's Nest by Ben Rivers – United Kingdom, France, Canada – 2025World premiere
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due by Abdellatif Kechiche – France – 2025World premiere
Sehnsucht in Sangerhausen (Phantoms of July) by Julian Radlmaier –Germany – 2025World premiere
Solomamma by Janicke Askevold – Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Finland –2025World premiere
Sorella Di Clausura by Ivana Mladenović – Romania, Serbia, Italy, Spain – 2025World premiere
Tabi to Hibi (Two Seasons, Two Strangers) by Sho Miyake – Japan – 2025World premiere
Tales of the Wounded Land by Abbas Fahdel – Lebanon – 2025World premiere
White Snail by Elsa Kremser, Levin Peter – Austria, Germany – 2025World premiere
With Hasan in Gaza by Kamal Aljafari – Palestine, Germany, France, Qatar – 2025World premiere
Fuori Concorso Program (out-of-competition lineup)
Bobò by Pippo Delbono – Italy – 2025World premiereDeathstalker by Steven Kostanski – Canada – 2025World premiereE by Anna Eriksson – Finland – 2025World premiereExile by Mehdi Hmili – Tunisia, Luxembourg, France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia – 2025World premiereI Live Here Now by Julie Pacino – USA – 2025European premiereIl Vangelo die Giuda (Judas' Gospel) by Giulio Base – Italy, Poland – 2025World premiereKeep Quiet by Vincent Grashaw – USA – 2025World premiereKerouac's road: the beat of a nation by Ebs Burnough – United Kingdom, USA– 2025International premiereLe Chantier by Jean-Stéphane Bron – France, Switzerland – 2025World premiereLegend of the Happy Worker by Duwayne Dunham – USA – 2025World premiere
Nova '78 by Aaron Brookner, Rodrigo Areias – United Kingdom, Portugal – 2025World premiereSilence by Eduardo Casanova – Spain – 2025World premiereSome Notes on the Current Situation by Eran Kolirin – Israel – 2025World premiereThe Deal by Jean-Stéphane Bron – Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium –2025World premiereEpisodes 3-6
Concorso Cineasti Del Presente Program
Affection Affection by Alexia Walther, Maxime Matray – France – 2025World premiere
Balearic by Ion de Sosa – Spain, France – 2025World premiere
Becoming by Zhannat Alshanova – France, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Lithuania,Sweden – 2025World premiere
Blue Heron by Sophy Romvari – Canada, Hungary – 2025World premiere
Don't Let the Sun by Jacqueline Zünd – Switzerland, Italy – 2025World premiere
Fantasy by Kukla – Slovenia, North Macedonia – 2025World premiere
Folichonneries (Follies) by Eric K. Boulianne – Canada – 2025World premiere
Gioia Mia (Sweetheart) by Margherita Spampinato – Italy – 2025World premiere
Hijo Mayor by Cecilia Kang – Argentina, France – 2025World premiere
Nu Mă Lăsa Să Mor (Don't Let Me Die) by Andrei Epure – Romania, Bulgaria,France – 2025World premiere
Olivia by Sofía Petersen – Argentina, United Kingdom, Spain – 2025World premiere
The Fin by Park Syeyoung – South Korea, Germany, Qatar – 2025World premiere
The Plant From the Canaries by Ruan Lan-Xi – Germany – 2025World premiere
Tóc, Giấy Và Nước… (Hair, Paper, Water…) by Nicolas Graux, Trương Minh Quý –Belgium, France, Vietnam – 2025World premiere
Un Balcon À Limoges (A Balcony in Limoges) by Jérôme Reybaud – France –2025World premiere
Piazza Grande Program
Le Pays D'arto (In the Land of Arto) by Tamara StepanyanFrance, Armenia – 2025World premiere
The Birthday Party by Miguel Ángel JiménezGreece, Spain, Netherlands, United Kingdom – 2025World premiere
The Dead of Winter by Brian KirkUSA, Germany – 2025World premiere
Together by Michael ShanksAustralia, USA – 2025Swiss premiere
Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value) by Joachim TrierNorway, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden – 2025Swiss premiere
Police Story by Jackie ChanHong Kong – 1985
Testa O Croce? (Heads or Tails?) by Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo ZoppisItaly, USA – 2025Swiss premiere
The Shining by Stanley KubrickUnited Kingdom, USA – 1980
The Deal by Jean-Stéphane BronSwitzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium – 2025Swiss premiereEpisodes 1&2
Irkalla Hulm Jijiljamish (Irkala – Gilgamesh's Dream) by MohamedJabarah Al-DaradjiIraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, France, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia – 2025World premiere
La Petite Dernière by Hafsia HerziFrance, Germany – 2025Swiss premiere
Rosemead by Eric LinUSA – 2025International premiere
Un Simple Accident (It Was Just an Accident) by Jafar PanahiIran, France, Luxembourg – 2025Swiss premiere
Kiss of the Spider Woman by Bill CondonUSA, Uruguay – 2025International premiere
Open Doors – Features
Ancestral Visions of the Future by Lemohang Mosese – France, Lesotho, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar – 2025Swiss premiere
Le Rêve De Dieu by Fousseyni Maïga, Mariam Kamissoko – Mali – 2025European premiere
Nome by Sana Na N'Hada – Guinea-Bissau, France, Portugal, Angola – 2023
Omi Nobu (The New Man) by Carlos Yuri Ceuninck – Cape Verde, Belgium, Germany, Sudan – 2023
The Bride by Myriam Birara – Rwanda – 2023
Une Si Longue Lettre (So Long a Letter) by Angèle Diabang – Senegal, Mali, France, Ivory Coast, Egypt – 2025European premiere
Vuta N'kuvute (Tug of War) by Amil Shivji – Tanzania, South Africa, Germany, Qatar – 2021
When Nigeria Happens by Ema Edosio Deelen – Nigeria – 2025World premiere
Open Doors – Short Films
Bougainvillea by Yasir Faiz – Egypt, Sudan – 2024Swiss premiere
Le Dernier Voyage by Abdoulaye Sall – Mauritania, Senegal – 2023
L'Envoyée De Dieu (The Envoy of God) by Amina Abdoulaye Mamani – Niger, Burkina Faso, Rwanda – 2023
Jangu by Patience Nitumwesiga – Uganda – 2022Swiss premiere
Where My Memory Began by Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda– Sierra Leone – 2024Swiss premiere
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