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Festival coverage

Locarno Film Festival

5 August – 15 July 2026

The 79th edition of Locarno Film Festival runs from August 5 to 15. It will open with the world premiere for Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s The Green Eyes. We're currently in the process of inputting details, so please check back.

Other years (8)

Latest reviews

  • Death Has No Master
    Review preview for Death Has No Master

    That sense of human frailty – in mind as well as body – which haunts much of European colonial literature is strongly in evidence here.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    In Venezuela, the heiress of a colonial cacao plantation and its entrenched guardians enter a duel for the land, where the only harvest left is violence.
  • As Light As Air
    Review preview for As Light As Air

    Primarily a patchwork piece devoted to conveying an enigmatic sense of place, rather than following a clear through line.

    Sunil Chauhan · 3 out of 5
    Documentary about Sufi pilgrims.
  • The Invite
    Review preview for The Invite

    Wilde's direction is assured, there's some gorgeous framing and frequent Rogen collaborator Adam Newport-Berra's camera makes the most of what's in front of it.

    Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
    Joe and Angela are on thin ice, and tonight might be when it all falls apart. Unfortunately, their upstairs neighbours are about to arrive for dinner, and everything that can go wrong goes worse.
  • Paper Tiger
    Review preview for Paper Tiger

    The issue is that if you strip out the elevated craft and A-list performances, what is left is the sort of bread-and-butter plot arc Cagney & Lacey used to rely on back in the day.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    Two brothers pursue the American Dream but get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme.
  • All Of A Sudden
    Review preview for All Of A Sudden

    Hamaguchi’s most pointed provocation is not that the nursing home becomes excessive in its care, but that ordinary neglect has trained us to see basic tenderness as excess.

    Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
    The director of a nursing home in Paris has an encounter with a terminally ill Japanese playwright that transforms her life.
  • Cotton Queen
    Review preview for Cotton Queen

    A beguiling mix of magic-realist fable, coming-of-age drama & post-colonial critique.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    In Sudan, Nafisa picks cotton and learns from her grandmother. The arrival of a young businessman, threatens to change their way of life.
  • Mother!
    Review preview for Mother!

    In the realm of the insane reason has no place. Anything is possible. Even the impossible

    Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
    Uninvited guests threaten a couple's relationship.
  • Red Hollywood
    Review preview for Red Hollywood

    For an outsider, it's hard to imagine a country growing up without these narratives.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A documentary about the films caught up in Hollywood's hunt for Communist infiltrators.
  • Welcome Mr Marshall!
    Review preview for Welcome Mr Marshall!

    A lot of the film's subversiveness comes from the juxtaposition between what the narrator says (and you can almost hear the chuckle in Rey's voice) and what we see.

    Rebecca Naughten · 4 out of 5
    A small Spanish village is thrown into disarray by the news that a delegation of Americans is on its way, bringing the possibility of untold riches.
  • The General
    Review preview for The General

    The General does an extraordinary job of keeping the audience gripped.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A train engineer tries to retrieve his locomotive from behind enemy lines.

A–Z of Locarno Film Festival 2026 reviews

Features

  • Prison memories
    Petra Volpe, Rob Morgan and Kingsley Ben-Adir on Alzheimer's drama Frank & Louis
  • Misfit on the margins
    Denis Côté and Larissa Corriveau on the themes and challenges of Nobody's Violence
  • Wool power
    Concrete Land director Asmahan Bkerat on learning about herself as she filmed a Bedouin clan's life
  • Lost Boys
    Wayne Wapeemukwa on drawing on reality for Manhunt while avoiding a true crime approach
  • Open Invite
    Olivia Wilde on reinvention, improvisation and why her latest movie had to be shot on film
  • Same movie, different mode
    James Gray, Miles Teller and Adam Driver discuss making Paper Tiger
  • Caught in The Currents
    Milagros Mumenthaler on the psychological journey of her latest film
  • Keitel - a man for all seasons
    Youth star Harvey on Sorrentino, Campion and Scorsese.

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