Teen flick wins top prize at Locarno Film Festival

The Locarno Film Festival has been running since 1946 – Copyright AFP Yan DOBRONOSOV

Robin MILLARD

“Toxic”, a Lithuanian film about the bond between two teenage aspiring models seeking to escape their bleak home town, won the top prize as the Locarno Film Festival Saturday.

The debut feature-length movie by Saule Bliuvaite saw off competition from 16 other films to win the Golden Leopard at the Swiss festival.

This year’s festival also honoured Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, and directors Jane Campion and Alfonso Cuaron with special awards.

Bliuvaite, at 30, was the youngest of the directors competing for the Golden Leopard.

She said her film was about an age when people are in transition between childhood and adulthood, fitting in neither role.

“The sense of being stuck between two worlds and looking for direction is universal,” the Lithuanian said.

The Golden Leopard comes with a prize fund of 75,000 Swiss francs ($86,600), shared between the director and the producer.

Previous winners include Roberto Rossellini, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Milos Forman, Mike Leigh and Jim Jarmusch.

– ‘King Khan’ draws huge crowd –

Bollywood superstar Khan, 58, was given the Pardo alla Carriera award for people whose artistic contributions have redefined cinema.

“So many people stuffed up in a little square and so hot: it’s just like being home in India,” he told the packed piazza.

“I truly believe cinema has been the most profound and influential artistic medium of our age.

“Awards like this encourage me to keep on trying to embody all the facets of life, to embody all the emotions.”

The 77th festival, which began on August 7, featured 225 films, including 104 world premieres and 15 debut movies.

Mexican filmmaker Cuaron, who won the best director Oscars for “Gravity” (2013) and “Roma” (2018), received the lifetime achievement award.

“When I set out to do a film, it’s pure instinct,” he said.

“All of it is an instinctive process. So, I’m not stopping to overthink things. I’m just trying to put them together and to realise the film I have slowly built in my head.”

On choosing projects, he said: “With my current rate of making films, I honestly don’t have that many more in me. So I decided, if I’m going to do something, it should be something that wouldn’t be able to exist without me.”

– Enthusiasm versus fear –

New Zealand’s Campion was recognised with the Leopard of Honour, given to outstanding personalities of world cinema.

She is the first woman to be nominated twice for the best director Oscar: first for “The Piano” (1993) and then for “The Power of the Dog” (2021), which secured her the Academy Award.

“Filmmaking is all about making mistakes, trying stuff, learning. What’s essential is that your enthusiasm must be greater than your fear,” the 70-year-old said.

Locarno is Switzerland’s largest film event. Nearly 150,000 people attended last year’s festival.

Founded in 1946, Locarno is one of the world’s longest-running annual film festivals and focuses on auteur cinema.

Held on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland, films are shown in Locarno’s central square on one of the largest screens in the world.

The open-air Piazza Grande holds up to 8,000 moviegoers — a feature of Swiss national life depicted on the country’s 20-franc banknotes.