Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh is to serve as jury president of the international competition at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, which takes place August 6-16.
Panh is known for investigations into Cambodian history both during and after the years of the Khmer Rouge dictatorship. His most recent film, Meeting with Pol Pot, starring Irène Jacob and Grégoire Colin, debuted last year at Cannes.
His very first feature documentary Site 2 in 1989, about a refugee camp on the Cambodian-Thai border, won an award at the Festival of Amiens. He also picked the top prize for Un Certain Regard in Cannes with The Missing Picture in 2013, which secured an Oscar nomination. Everything Will Be OK, screened in competition at the Berlinale in 2022, winning a Silver Bear.
Locarno’s international competition jury, chaired by Panh, will award the Pardo d’Oro – the Golden Leopard - on the final day of the festival on August 16.
“Cinema offers the opportunity to discover new perspectives, cultures, and stories,” said Panh. “If we have patience, cinema rewards us with its grace. Cinema can also preserve history, influence mindsets, and provide a space for reflection and escape. I am convinced that the diversity of viewpoints and narrative experiences enriches our understanding of the world. As the president of the jury, I wish to highlight films that celebrate this diversity and offer unique perspectives.”
Giona A. Nazzaro, drtistic director of Locarno said: “Rithy Panh is widely regarded as a key figure in twentieth-century cinema. His gaze has reinvented the forms of contemporary filmmaking, creating a historiography in images that has exerted an incalculable influence on countless film directors. As an authoritative witness of our time, his passionate search for truth, his anti-dogmatic approach, and his genuine commitment, as well as his capacity to move freely between the numerous forms of present-day film-making were the crucial elements that prompted us, spontaneously and enthusiastically, to offer him the task of President of the Jury of the Concorso Internazionale at the 78th Locarno Film Festival.”
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