Emma Thompson

Source: Nick Haddow via Locarno

Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson is to receive the Leopard Club Award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, which takes place August 6-16 August.

The Leopard Club Award will be awarded to Thompson on August 8 when the festival will premieres thriller The Dead of Winter by Brian Kirk on the Piazza Grande.

Thomson stars in and executive produced The Dead Of Winter, which follows a widowed fisherwoman (Thompson) trapped in a Minnesotan blizzard who interrupts the kidnapping of a teenager (Laurel Marsden), only to realize that she is the young victim’s only hope. It is produced by Stampede Ventures and augenschein.

Thompson is the only person in the history of the Academy Awards to have won for both acting and screenwriting.

Her notable roles include Howards End (1992), The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1996), the Harry Potter series (2003-2011), Love Actually (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Cruella (2021), Matilda the Musical (2022), and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022).

Previous Leopard Club Award winners include Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow, Andy García, Stefania Sandrelli, Adrien Brody, Meg Ryan, Hilary Swank, Kasia Smutniak, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Irène Jacob.

Giona A. Nazzaro, the Locarno Film Festival’s artistic director, said: “Honouring the talent of a performer as brilliant and multifaceted as Emma Thompson with the Leopard Club Award is due recognition of an artist who has moved us, made us think, entertained us and, most importantly, never ceased to surprise us.”