Locarno 2025: Three Belgian films in the spotlight!
This year, at its 78th edition taking place from August 6 to 16, 2025, one Belgian feature film and two short films will have their world premieres at Locarno.
Founded in 1946, the Locarno Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals in the world. Dedicated to auteur cinema, it takes place every summer in the Italian-speaking Swiss town of Locarno. Created to showcase new trends, the festival has often been ahead of the curve in spotting the talents of young filmmakers who later became leading figures of their generation.
Hair, Paper, Water… (Tóc, Giấy và Nước…) the second collaboration between Trương Minh Quý et Nicolas is competing in the "Cineasti del Presente" section. The film is produced by Dérives.
Rio remains beautiful, the second short film by Felipe Casanova, will be unveiled to the public for the first time. Co-produced with Un Point Bleu Pâle, this film follows his first short, Loveboard, which was presented in 2023 at Kurzfilmtage Winterthur before traveling to many festivals that same year.
Within the revelry of Rio's Carnival, Ilma writes to her son. How does she sense his presence in the crowd? Suspended in time, the celebration becomes a space of memory and political resistance.
Another world premiere is A Sky So Low, the third short film by Joachim Michaux, produced by Naoko Films.
November 1989. Victor, an architecture graduate, travels to Brussels to find Elina, his summer love, but she seems to have vanished. He meets Damian, an English journalist preparing to cover the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Rosie, a mischievous young Dutch woman. Together, they set out in search of Elina through the sultry night to the rhythm of New Beat music.
Also worth noting is the selection in the same “Pardi di Domani” section of the film Air Horse One by Lasse Linder, co-produced by the Belgian company White Boat Pictures, with the support of the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel. The "Locarno Kids" section will also feature the animated films Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake by Irène Iborra, co-produced by Panique!, as well as Mary Anning by Marcel Barelli, co-produced by La Boîte, ... Productions and Versus Production. Barelli will receive the Locarno Kids Award on the 12th of August on the Piazza Grande. Finally, Obi Nobuby Carlos Yuri Ceuninck and co-produced by Neon Rouge Production will be in the "Open Doors Screening" selection.
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