While the bulk of the conversation when it comes to festivals in the second half of the year goes to those happening in the fall, in just a few weeks, one of the finest-curated events will begin. Locarno International Film Festival consistently premieres some of our favorite films of the year — 2016 had Hermia & Helena, The Ornithologist, Rat Film, The Dreamed Path, and many more — and now the line-up for the 2017 edition has arrived.
A highlight from this year’s line-up includes La Telenovela Errante, a Raul Ruiz film that was unfinished at the time of his death in 2011, but has since been completed by his widow and editor, Valeria Sarmiento. There’s also new films from Ben Russell, Wang Bing, Denis Côté, and Serge Bozon (starring Isabelle Huppert!), as well as previous premieres by Aaron Katz, Jim McKay and John Carroll Lynch, and bigger-profile features such as the Noomi Rapace-led What Happened on Monday, Atomic Blonde, Good Time, and The Big Sick.
Check out the line-up below, along with our reviews where available.
PIAZZA GRANDE
Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World, Francesca Comencini, Italy
Atomic Blonde, David Leitch, U.S.
Chien, Samuel Benchetrit, France
Tomorrow and Thereafter, Noemie Lvovsky, France
Three Peaks, Jan Zabeil, Germany, Italy
Good Time, Josh and Ben Safdie, U.S.
Gotthard – One Life, One Soul, Kevin Merz, Italy
I Walked With a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur, U.S.
Iceman, Feliz Randau, Germany, Italy, Austria
Let The Corpses Tan, Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Belgium, France
Lola Pater, Nadir Mokneche, France
Sicilia!, Jean-Marie Straub, Italy, France, Germany
Sparring, Samuel Jouy, France
The Big Sick, Michael Showalter, U.S.
The Song of Scorpions, Anup Singh, Switzerland, France
What Happened to Monday, Tommy Wirkola, U.K.
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
9 Doigts, F.J. Ossang, France, Portugal
Good Manners, Juliana Rojas & Marco Dutra, Brazil
Charleston, Andrei Cretulescu, France, Romania
Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun, Travis Wilkerson, U.S.
Freedom, Jan Speckenbach, Germany
Gemini, Aaron Katz, U.S.
Gli Asteroidi, Germano Maccioni, Italy
Goliath, Dominik Locher, Switzerland
Good Luck, Ben Russell, France, Germania
La Telenovela Errante, Raul Ruiz, Chile
Lucky, John Carroll Lynch, U.S.
Madame Hyde, Serge Bozon, France
Mrs. Fang, Wang Bing, China, Germany
Dragonfly Eyes, Xu Bing, Cina
A Skin So Soft, Denis Cote, Canada
Winter Brothers, Hlynur Palmason, Denmark, Iceland
Wajib, Annemarie Jacir, Palestine, France
En el Séptimo Día (On the Seventh Day), Jim McKay, U.S.
Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 2 through the 12th.