All the French films at the 77th Locarno Film Festival

10 JULY 2024

Filmmakers Virgil Vernier, Sylvie Ballyot and Pia Marais will represent French cinema this year at the Locarno Film Festival (August 7 to 17) with their films Cent mille milliards, Green Line, and Transamazonia, presented in International Competition. Three works that build a bridge between fiction, experimental film, and documentary, genres dear to the Swiss festival, a major rendez-vous for auteur cinema, which this year will welcome over thirty French films – including minority-French productions and shorts – most of them world premieres.

Virgil Vernier had already presented her earlier feature Sophia Antipolis at the festival and returns to Locarno with Cent mille milliards. Whereas, for filmmakers Pia Marais and Sylvie Ballyot, this is their first time. Marais, from South Africa, will accompany Transamazonia, a drama set in the Amazon rainforest, while Ballyot will present Green Line, in which a Lebanese woman retraces her childhood under the bombs.

Cent mille milliards

Four other French co-productions complete the French presence in the competition: new films by Wang Bing (the second part of his trilogy begun with Youth (Spring), Marta Mateus, from Portugal, and Ala Eddine Slim from Tunisia.

Fabrice Du Welz, whose Adoration was presented in the Piazza Grande in 2020, will accompany out-of-competition La Passion selon Béatrice, focusing on Béatrice Dalle. Also out-of-competition: the highly personal My Darling Family by Isild Le Besco, who competed at Locarno in 2011 with Bas-fonds. The prolific Bertrand Mandico, a regular of the Swiss festival, completes the out-of-competition French presence with his crazy new creation, Dragon Dilatation.

Dragon Dilatation

Last but not least, six French short films will be presented at Locarno, including the new animated film by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel, The Exploding Girl, which will be revealed in the Corti d'autore Competition.

The Exploding Girl

Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet guests of honor

The two French artists, both actors and filmmakers, who star together in Luca Giodice's Le Deluge (a Franco-Italian co-production that is the festival's opening film), will receive the Excellence Awards Davide Campari. Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the festival, underlined the importance of these awards, saying in an interview with Variety: "Working in the service of a French and European tradition of an auteur cinema that often intersects with the reasons of a cultured popular cinema, the two performers have shown extraordinary sensitivity in the composition of their roles, thus giving rise to artistic, personal trajectories that are appreciated by audiences."

Other tributes

Another tribute will also be paid to filmmaker Laurent Cantet, who passed away recently, and French-Swiss actress Irène Jacob who will receive a Léopard Club Award. Three Colours : Red by Krzysztof Kieslowski, emblematic of her career, will be screened during the festival.

Unifrance's presence at Locarno

On Saturday August 10, Unifrance will host a cocktail reception in honor of French cinema, in the presence of the French Ambassador to Switzerland and delegations of French films at the festival (by invitation only).

Furthermore, in its desire to support the international development of emerging French producers, Unifrance has renewed its partnership with the festival, and will be allowing three member companies to take part in the Match Me! program

All the French films at the 76th Locarno Film Festival

(unless otherwise noted, the films are 100% French or majority-French productions)

International Competition

Cent mille milliards by Virgil Vernier
Green Line by Sylvie Ballyot
Transamazonia by Pia Marais
Youth (Hard Times) by Wang Bing (French co-production share not specified)
Fogo do Vento by Marta Mateus (French co-production share not specified)
Agora by Ala Eddine Slim (minority-French production)

Out-of-competition

La Passion selon Béatrice by Fabrice Du Welz
Dragon Dilatation by Bertrand Mandico
My Darling Family by Isild Le Besco

Piazza Grande

Mexico 86 by César Díaz (French co-production share not specified)
Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham (French co-production share not specified)
The Flood by Gianluca Jodice (French co-production share not specified)
Dog on Trial by Laetitia Dosch (minority-French production)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof (French co-production share not specified)
Savages by Claude Barras (minority-French production)