It’s revealing (Toxic), the feature-length debut by Lithuanian writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė, which explores the human body and mysterious modeling agencies, is the winner of the 2024 Locarno Film Festival’s international competition, being awarded the Pardo d’Oro, or Golden Leopard, on Saturday in the Swiss city. Locarno77 organizers called the film “a sharp portrait of teenage girls and the crushing expectations placed on them.”
At the same time, the Special Jury Prize was awarded to Austrian author of Iraqi origin Kurdwin Ayub for her second feature-length fiction film. Mon (Moon). The film follows Sarah, a former martial artist, who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy Jordanian family. “It’s about sisters, no matter where they come from, and cages, no matter where they are,” Ayub says.
Lithuania, which has a population of about three million but was represented by two feature films in international competition at Locarno this year, won additional awards on Saturday. The best director prize went to Laurynas Bareiša for Sess (Dry drowning), about two sisters who experience a life-changing family tragedy. THRCritics have called the filmmaker’s second feature film “subtle and captivating.”
Locarno also awarded its two Best Performance Awards. One went to Dry drowning stars Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevičius. The other went to Kim Minhee, the star of Hong Sangsoo’s film. Suyoocheon (By the stream).
The international jury of Locarno77 was chaired by Austrian author Jessica Hausner and also included actor/writer/director/producer Tim Blake Nelson, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia (Everything we imagine as light), Italian actor Luca Marinelli (Old Guard) and Belgian producer Diana Elbaum (She, Green border).
Among other Locarno distinctions, the Golden Leopard in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente programme, which highlights first and second feature films, went to Sacred Electricity.
In the same section, the Leopards for best performance were awarded to Callie Hernandez (Alien: Covenant; The Earth) for her role in Courtney Stephens Inventionas well as Anna Mészöly for her role in Black Point (Lesson learned) by Hungarian director Bálint Szimler.
Two awards for best first feature film were presented to Toxic (Swatch First Feature Award), as well as that of Sylvie Ballyot Green line (Mubi Award – First Feature Film).
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, hailed “a truly unique edition that once again illustrated what makes Locarno such a beloved festival, both by audiences around the world and by the film industry. Creativity and hope for a better future were the elements that ran through all sections. Cinema is a driving force and Locarno is its standard-bearer.”
He praised the “ability of the Locarno festival to identify the most innovative talents of the…
Discover more from The Times Of Update
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
