Riz Ahmed To Be Feted By Locarno; Swiss Summer Fest Unveils Full Line-Up With Competition Slots For Quentin Dupieux, Lav Diaz & Sofia Exarchou
05.07.2023 - 11:29
/ deadline.com
UK star Riz Ahmed will be feted with a career achievement award at the upcoming 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, running August 2 and 12.
The Sound Of Metal actor will be presented with the Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening night ceremony on the festival’s landmark Piazza Grande open-air cinema.
The ceremony will premiere Yann Mounir Demange’s semi-autobiographical short film Dammi, in which Ahmed participated alongside Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek and Suzy Bemba.
The tribute will also screen Bassam Tariq’s 2020 rapper drama Mughal Mowgli, which Ahmed starred in and also produced and co-wrote, as part of it program.
Locarno announced the tribute during its announcement on Wednesday of its full 2023 line-up.
French directorial duo Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel’s The Falling Star will open the festival as part of the Piazza Grande program, which also features Justine Triet’s 2023 Cannes d’Or Winner Anatomy of a Fall, Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or contender The Old Oak and the world premiere of Luc Jacquet’s Antarctica Calling.
The festival’s main International Competition will showcase 17 films this year, 16 of them world premieres.
Golden Leopard contenders include French director Quentin Dupieux’s secretly-shot film Yannick, which will be released simultaneously in France; Filipino director Lav Diaz’s Essential Truths Of The Lake and Greek director Sofia Exarchou’s Animal, her second film after San Sebastian New Directors Award winner Park.
Another 15 titles by emerging directors will play in the festival’s Filmmakers of The Present Competition (Concorso Cineasti del presente), including Singaporean filmmaker Nelson Yeo’s Dreaming And Dying, U.S. director Lucy Kerr’s Family