The Locarno International Film Festival is not flustered by the Sarajevo Film Festival’s decision to bring its 16th edition forward a week to July 23-31, according to Locarno’s industry office chief Nadia Dresti.

She said the announ-cement would not affect Locarno, which runs August 4-14, nor its relationship with Sarajevo. “As far as the industry’s presence in Locarno is concerned, the producers attending the CineLink market in Sarajevo are not necessarily the same ones interested in discovering the projects we present in Open Doors.

“Our co-production market focus each year is in a different region located in South America or Asia — we will never cover Eastern Europe. And the producers know the right market to attend to meet their needs.”

Speaking exclusively to Screen, Locarno artistic director Olivier Pere (pictured) offered more hints on his “new vision” for the festival. He said selecting world premieres is important, but not an obligation”. Although, the festival has stressed that the International Competition and the Filmmakers of the Present competition will continue to screen world or international premieres in their line-ups.

While Pere has brought in fresh faces for his team of selectors, he decided to retain Jose Michael Buhler, Frank Braun and Beki Probst as the advisory committee for the Piazza Grande programme. “It was important for me to benefit from the experience and knowledge of this committee,” he said 

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