AI, virtual and digital worlds at the heart of the Locarno Film Festival

Artificial intelligence, and generative artificial intelligence in particular, is a hot topic these days, in Hollywood and beyond. So it’s no surprise that the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, which kicks off Wednesday, is featuring films on the theme of artificial intelligence and digital technologies in several parts of its lineup.

Last month, when presenting the Locarno77 programme, Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Swiss festival, had already mentioned “the whole discussion around artificial intelligence” as one of the themes that would be addressed throughout the festival. “We didn’t set out to find these themes. We didn’t say, ‘OK, we’re going to organise a festival focused on certain themes,’” he stressed. On the contrary, after completing the selection for Locarno 2024, his team noticed general and underlying themes. “The festival is a catalyst for major dialogues, for intensive exchanges,” Nazzaro concluded.

What might surprise festival-goers is how different the filmmakers’ approaches to digital worlds and AI are. They range from narrative feature films to documentary feature films to a film using AI images.

Below is THRLet’s look at three key films that will have their world premieres at Locarno and that address the issues of AI and virtual worlds.

Real by Adele Tulli — screened in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente section, which highlights first and second feature films.

Italian filmmaker Tulli (Normal) is back. His new 83-minute film may well take viewers to places like South Korea. But he does so to explore topics that viewers in many parts of the world are familiar with, or at least familiar with.

“Real “The exhibition aims to explore the ongoing metamorphoses triggered by our relationship with digital technologies, through an associative mosaic of stories, highlighting different aspects of life in a hyperconnected reality,” explains a description on the Locarno festival website.

At his press conference, Nazzaro called it “an essayistic documentary film about artificial intelligence, the Internet” and more.

“My intention is to offer the audience a kaleidoscopic, immersive and stimulating visual journey, exploring what it feels like to be human in the digital age, trying to raise critical questions about some of its disturbing aspects and crucial challenges,” explains Tulli. THR.

“There is no doubt that some of these innovations are reshaping our world,” she also emphasizes. Her goal was therefore to “raise questions about the profound social transformations of the digital age.”

Discover an excerpt from Real below.

Electric child by Simon Jaquemet — projection on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, the large square in the Swiss city, which can accommodate 8,000 people.

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