The festival, the region, the world

For 80 years, the festival has turned the Locarno region into an international meeting-place. Like a thunderstorm, it arrives almost without warning and departs just as abruptly, leaving both physical and emotional impacts. The event allows the people of Ticino to meet others and opens up new horizons for them; they make profits and gain professional experience. This great annual event has always been met with a variety of responses: enthusiasm at the cultural and economic level, but also mistrust in political and social circles. 

Criticisms that the festival is too elitist or too expensive often mask a certain difficulty in accepting that for 10 days the city no longer belongs to the people of Locarno alone. How can they reclaim the space and make sense of the event? With its support coming mostly from the canton and the Swiss Confederation rather than from the municipal authorities, the festival is certainly closely linked to the region’s identity. So much so that it is even viewed as the region’s international calling-card.

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This video is part of the exhibition «We are the festival too! New voices on the history of the Locarno Film Festival».