Swiss director Alain Tanner will be awarded the Swisscom Leopard of Honour at the 63rd edition of the Locarno International Film Festival (August 4 - 14).

The director, who won the Golden Leopard at Locarno for his first feature Charles, Dead Or Alive in 1969, went on to make films including Les Annees Lumiere, Une Flamme Dans Mon Coeur and Fourbi.

Tanner is the third Swiss director to receive the Leopard of Honour award following Jean-Luc Godard (1995) and Daniel Schmid (1999)

Previous recipients have also included Manoel de Oliveira, Ken Loach, Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Wim Wenders, and, in 2009, William Friedkin.

“I am delighted to come to Locarno to receive this prestigious award. It is a festival close to my heart, to which I am strongly attached, and one I have always supported,” said Tanner.

Festival artistic director Olivier Père added: “I feel this award is a well-deserved tribute to a filmography that demonstrates a rare independence and intelligence. A testament to, and critique of, their times, Alain Tanner’s films dare to venture into the realms of dream, poetry, desire and rebellion.”