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Festival coverage

Locarno Film Festival

6 August – 16 August 2025

The 78th edition of the Swiss festival will run from August 6 to 16. Emma Thompson, Alexander Payne and Jackie Chan will be among the stars who are honoured.

Other years (8)

Latest reviews

  • Mare's Nest
    Review preview for Mare's Nest

    Rivers' dreamlike approach has the quality of memory in places, full of figments and fragments, although that inevitably means some episodes are more engaging than others.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    A child's adventures in an adult-free world.
  • Solomamma
    Review preview for Solomamma

    Askevold’s refusal to offer easy answers is compelling.

    Saba Osanadze · 3 out of 5
    When a single mother discovers the identity of her sperm donor, her pursuit of truth blurs the boundaries between love, ethics, and self-deception.
  • Dry Leaf
    Review preview for Dry Leaf

    The blurry, hazy images recorded entirely on a discontinued Sony Ericsson cellphone – frequently in long takes – make it a hardly digestible slow cinema challenge, yet rewarding as an aesthetic experience.

    Lucija Furac · 3.5 out of 5
    A father goes looking for his missing photographer daughter across rural Georgia.
  • The Dead Of Winter
    Review preview for The Dead Of Winter

    A serviceable thriller with a good bit more soul than most.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A woman alone in the middle of a snowy wilderness discovers that a teenager has been kidnapped and that she may be the only person who can save her.
  • Sentimental Value
    Review preview for Sentimental Value

    What marks Trier out is his ability to take on intellectual ideas like this but make them play out in ways that don’t feel forced or overly constructed.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    In the wake of their mother's death, two sisters grapple with their relationship with their filmmaker father as he tries to involve one of them in his latest project.
  • Two Seasons, Two Strangers
    Review preview for Two Seasons, Two Strangers

    The summer-winter dynamic may lean a tad on the obvious side, but the structure primes us to meditate on the way friendships form during different stages of life, and which lives they’re most likely to change.

    Jeremy Mathews · 4 out of 5
    A scriptwriter is processing what is happening in her life. She meets an innkeeper while traveling.
  • Mosquitoes
    Review preview for Mosquitoes

    Shot in squared off 1.85:1 ratio – except for a handful of ‘world expanding’ moments – the choice is fitting for the intensity of the children’s gaze.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    1997 Linda is eight years old, has few teeth, a very rich grandmother and a beautiful, dangerous and disruptive mother. It will be the encounter with two peers, sisters Azzurra and Marta, that will teach her how to become a child.
  • Don't Let The Sun
    Review preview for Don't Let The Sun

    As an exercise in world building, Zünd nails a vibe of general otherworldliness.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    A man who is hired to be a father figure for a young girl begins to forge an unexpected connection.
  • Hyena
    Review preview for Hyena

    A visually inventive watch even if it is going over familiar turf

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A student faces a choice about whether to run with the pack at an intense art school.
  • Celtic Utopia
    Review preview for Celtic Utopia

    Doesn’t just reflect the reality of modern Ireland but actively embraces it when it makes its presence felt.

    Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
    Documentary considering Ireland's contemporary music scene, but also that of a postcolonial society wrestling with its heritage.

A–Z of Locarno Film Festival 2025 reviews

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