Attendance at this year’s edition of Locarno Film Festival was 6% up on 2022 at the event’s halfway point, according to the festival’s managing director Raphael Brunschwig.
A 22% increase in admissions to the festival’s indoor screening venues up to Monday evening (Aug 7) compensated for the 12% drop in audience figures at the nightly open-air screenings on the town’s Piazza Grande due to heavy rain which dissuaded many from attending on the festival’s first two evenings.
Head of press Fiorenza Conforti confirmed that total attendance on the Piazza Grande had topped 38,000 by Tuesday night (Aug 8) when Ken Loach’s The Old Oak was presented. The veteran UK director and regular collaborator Paul Laverty were greeted by a minute-long standing ovation by a capacity audience. Conforti said that the Piazza Grande venue is “now almost reaching the pre-pandemic numbers of attendance.”
Locarno Pitching Day
Six projects from Swiss and Italian production companies were presented during the festival to potential partners at the third edition of the Locarno Pitching Day organised by the Ticino Film Commission in cooperation with Locarno Pro.
This year’s line-up included Loic Hobi’s debut feature Bad Gays to be produced by former Bankside Films executive Michael Graf through his Zurich-based company Cloud Fog Haze Pictures, and Filippo Demarchi’s The Silence of David, to be produced by Samir at Dschoint Ventschr. Also presented were Turin-based La Sarraz Pictures’ genre film Beyond Time by co-directors Paolo Casalis and Stefano Scarafia, and Locarno-born Valentina Shasivari’s debut feature La Perla which she had been developing within this year’s Locarno Residency.
Development fund
A €300,000 development fund to fund projects for the Germam speaking area has been set up by six partner companies.
Hugofilm Features, the producer of last year’s Swiss Oscar candidate A Piece of Sky, and Zodiac Pictures, whose credits include the TV series Neumatt and family film Der Räuber Hotzenplotz, are partners with Germany’s Claussen+Putz and Wüste Film and Austria’s Film AG and Lotus Film in the co-development initiative DAS DACH.
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