Film awards announced for virtual Locarno festival

An international jury at the Locarno Film Festival has announced the awards of this year’s virtual edition. The Argentinian and Swiss winners of the Pardo prizes for best film projects will not pick them up in person as the festival is being held online this year.

This year the festival decided to support independent productions that were halted due to the pandemic. Ten films from Switzerland and ten from abroad took part in a section called “The Films After Tomorrow”, with two winners each being awarded a CHF70,000 ($77,000) prize.

Lucrecia Martel’s Argentinian documentary film “Chocobar”, about the murder of activist Javier Chocobar in 2000, was judged one of the two best projects. The other CHF70,000 “Pardo” award went to “Zohari” by Swiss director Mari Alessandrini.

The plot of Zohari is also based in Argentina, telling the story of a friendship struck up between a girl with Swiss roots and a Mapuche Indian in the Patagonian steppe.

The Campari special jury award has gone to “Selvajaria” by Miguel Gomes. The Swatch Award, endowed with CHF30,000 has been won by “De Humani Corporis Fabrica” ​​by Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor.

The jury awarded the SRG SSR Award for the production “Lux” by Raphaël Dubach and Mateo Ybarra.