Locarno Meets

This week on #LocarnoMeets, we sat down with Alexander Payne, the comedic genius behind some of the best films of the past three decades, including “The Holdovers”, “Election”, and “Sideways”. He joined us to discuss his career, working with George Clooney on “The Descendants”, and his low, low budgets.

Iraqi filmmaker Mohamed Al-Daradji’s latest film (“Irkalla: Gilgamesh's Dream”), which premiered on the Piazza Grande during Locarno78, was hailed as a major achievement, both in terms of its artistry and the circumstances of its production. He joined us to discuss the myth of Gilgamesh, shooting a movie in Baghdad, and being shot at in Baghdad.

When, in August 2025, we had the honour of awarding the Raimondo Rezzonico Award to the Lebanese independent company Abbout Productions – founded by Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine – we could never have imagined that, just a few months later, we would find ourselves facing the current dramatic international situation and that war would be raging harsher than ever in Lebanon.At the time, in Locarno, these two outstanding producers joined our podcast to discuss their careers and the future of Lebanese cinema. We spoke about the trauma of the Beirut explosion in 2020, the work of creative producing and the Arab film community, as well as their films “Costa Brava, Lebanon” and “Memory Box”.

Serving as head of the Locarno78 jury last year, Rithy Panh is a legend of Cambodian cinema. Over his thirty year career, he has tirelessly interrogated the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge with creativity and originality. He joined us on the latest episode of #LocarnoMeets to talk about movies, TikTok, and the demagogues of the tech world.

Vicky Krieps is one of the definitive European actors of her generation. But her new film, the astonishing “Yakushima's Illusion”, which world premiered at Locarno78, dropped her deep into an ancient forest on the eponymous Japanese island, the mystical place that once served as, among other things, the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki's “Princess Mononoke”. We talked about preparing for a role as a pediatric heart surgeon, adapting to the sounds of the forest, and the challenge of accommodating the Japanese way of doing things.

Best known for “21 Bridges” and his work on television shows like “Game of Thrones”, director Brian Kirk’s much anticipated new film is the icy thriller “The Dead of Winter” starring Emma Thompson in a bravura role as a steely Minnesotan widow named Barb. As the film premiered to acclaim on the Piazza Grande at Locarno78, we sat down with Kirk to dig into the mechanics of shooting in snow and collaborating with a living legend.

Nadia Tereszkiewicz is the actor at the heart of “Heads of Tails?” an award-winning new spaghetti western by Italian filmmaking duo Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis. This magnetic actress joined us on the latest episode of LocarnoMeets to talk about “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”, John C. Reilly, corsets, and horses.

The Swiss director, cinematographer, and close collaborator on some of Jean-Luc Godard’s final works Fabrice Aragno made his debut as a feature filmmaker at Locarno78 with the hypnotic “Le Lac”, a near-wordless experimental romantic drama that takes place during a sailing competition on Lake Geneva.Aragno joined us on Locarno Meets to discuss his work to capture the spirit of the lake itself, why every film is a documentary of its own making, what it meant to see “La Notte” as a young man, and the profound personal influence of working so long and so closely with JLG.

Colm Meaney is the definitive Irish character actor of his generation, having starred in classics like “The Commitments”, “The Damned United”, and “Layer Cake” over a near 50-year career. Meanwhile, his roles in Hollywood blockbusters like “Die Hard 2”, “Con Air”, and “The Last of the Mohicans”, as well as on TV in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, have cemented his place as one of those character actors we’re always happy to see appear in a movie. Meaney joined us to discuss his new movie – Duwayne Dunham’s “The Legend of the Happy Worker” – and to tell us quite why digital cameras suck.

From ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Blue Velvet’ to Disney Channel originals, nobody has had a career like Duwayne Dunham’s. In the latest episode of Locarno Meets, the singular editor and director reflects on cutting some of the most iconic films of our time, explores longstanding collaborations with George Lucas and David Lynch – from ‘Twin Peaks’ to ‘Wild at Heart’ – and dives into his “Western capitalist fairy tale,” the new feature ‘Legend of the Happy Worker’, which premiered out of competition at Locarno78 and marks the final film to feature Lynch’s name as executive producer.

A comedian from New York who knows what’s wrong with the movie industry, Maysoon Zayid spent Locarno78 haranguing cinema executives about the kind of work being produced, and she joined us on Locarno Meets to do the same.“The idea that diversity only applies to diverse audiences is a supremacist mindset” says the Palestinian-American comic, a disability rights advocate uncompromising in her critiques of how and why movies get made. In Locarno last year to speak at StepIn during Locarno Pro, Zayid’s many insights were a powerful and much-needed provocation on the first day of our industry activities.

We start the new year off with another episode of our movie podcast Locarno Meets, this time in conversation with the iconic star LucyLiu and Eric Lin, director of her celebrated film “Rosemead”.Winner of the Prix du Public UBS – the audience award – at Locarno78, “Rosemead” tells the heart-wrenching, real-life story of a woman, played by Liu, who discovers her teenage son is obsessed with violent fantasies and plans to act on them. Only her drastic intervention can stop him from destroying everything they’ve built as a family and bringing harm to others.We sat down with Lucy Liu and her director Eric Lin to discuss this extraordinary film and dig into the specifics of Liu’s remarkable performance.

Ed Guiney is an Irish producer known for his collaborations with filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos and Joana Hogg. We invited him to join us on Locarno Meets to give his insights on the state of indie filmmaking in Europe, his artistic partnership with Yorgos Lanthimos, Letterboxd’s influence on arthouse attendance, and his definition of the role of producer.

Over the course of a more than 45-year career, Willem Dafoe has played everything, from the Green Goblin in “Spider-Man” to Jesus Christ in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ”. But crucially, he has never rested on his laurels, and continues to collaborate on ever more bold and daring projects with a new generation of emerging filmmakers.In Locarno to present Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s caustic “The Birthday Party” on the Piazza Grande, we sat down with Dafoe on Locarno Meets to talk about how you should find your own role when on set, working with David Lynch on “Wild at Heart”, juggling the demands of Hollywood and the arthouse, and getting fired from the set of “Heaven’s Gate” for laughing at a dirty joke.

Our guest this week on Locarno Meets is Bill Condon, the man behind some of the biggest movie musicals of the modern age, from “Chicago” to “Dreamgirls” to “Beauty and the Beast”. He joined us to talk timeliness, down and dirty prison dramas, working with Jennifer Lopez’s tight schedule, and how it all combined in his latest film “Kiss of the Spider Woman”, which was the closing film of Locarno78.

An eye-popping, heart-pounding genre film that premiered at Locarno78, “I Live Here Now” is a very funny, very scary, and very weird debut movie from Julie Pacino. This week on LocarnoMeets, the director joins us to talk about pink paint, David Lynch, and being traumatized on the set of “The Devil’s Advocate”.

This week on Locarno Meets we're joined by the Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who – in a remarkable and emotional in-depth discussion – talks about leaving Iran, the retribution she faced for debuting in Hollywood with “Body of Lies”, the Women, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendegī, Āzādī) movement, making the extraordinary and disturbing “Alpha” with Julia Ducournau, and finally the joy – and physical toll – of making high-octane action movies.

Joining us this week on Locarno Meets is Eskil Vogt, the Norwegian screenwriter and filmmaker best known for his collaborations with Joachim Trier that include the celebrated “Oslo, August 31st”, “The Worst Person in the World”, and this year’s “Sentimental Value”. We chatted with Vogt about that ongoing creative partnership, the difficulties and revelations of working in middle age, and working with children on his own film “The Innocents”, which premiered in Cannes in 2021.

Our video podcast Locarno Meets is back for its third season, and for the first episode we sat down with Emma Thompson to talk about her new thriller “Dead of Winter”, which is now released in the UK following its world premiere at Locarno78, as well as her theory of adapting Jane Austen, her origins in sketch comedy, and bundling her Best Screenplay Oscar through airport security. Locarno Meets: a Locarno Film Festival original podcast – brought to you by UBS – where established legends of cinema and exciting new talents chat about art, life, movies, and everything in between.

For our final episode for season two of Locarno Meets, we were delighted to be joined by actress Caroline Goodall, whose illustrious career has seen her turn in remarkable performances in now-classic films by many of the greatest names in contemporary cinema. Goodall was in Locarno to promote her latest film, the Piazza Grande-playing “Sew Torn”, directed by the prodigious young director Freddy MacDonald. We spoke with the marvellous actress about working, in this case, with a gifted filmmaker in his early twenties, as well as reminiscing about some of her major films, like “Schindler’s List”, “Hook”, “The Princess Diaries”, and Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac”.

Close your eyes for a moment and think of the sound a lightsaber makes. Think of the sound of Darth Vader breathing. Think of E.T. saying he wants to phone home. All those sound effects are the work of legendary sound designer Ben Burtt.At the 77ᵗʰ Locarno Film Festival, Burtt was in town to collect the Vision Award Ticinomoda, given to celebrate his exceptional career as a sound artist in Hollywood. From a childhood spent tape recording the sounds of movies from television to his pioneering effects work with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Ben Burtt has lived a life through sound.

Producers don’t always get their day in the spotlight. At the 77ᵗʰ Locarno Film Festival, the Raimondo Rezzonico Award was given to legendary indie producer Stacey Sher, who is responsible for a genuinely eye-popping line-up of iconic movies. Just to name a few: “Pulp Fiction”, “Erin Brockovich”, “Reality Bites”, “Out of Sight”, “Mathilda”, “Mrs. America”, “Contagion”, “Man on the Moon”, “Gattaca”, “Django Unchained”, “The Hateful Eight”, and recently the Hugh Grant-starring horror film “Heretic”. Anybody with a career like that has plenty of stories to share, and when Sher joined us on Locarno Meets, she certainly didn’t disappoint.

This week on Locarno Meets, we caught up with Italian star Luca Marinelli, best known to international audiences for his roles in “M”, “The Eight Mountains”, and “Martin Eden”. Marinelli was in Locarno to serve on the main jury at the 77ᵗʰ edition of the Festival alongside some of the leading lights of auteur cinema. We took the opportunity to sit down with the charismatic and thoughtful actor to discuss his early influences – including watching De Sica and Fellini movies as a child –, his extraordinary performances done inside and outside of the Italian film industry, and his criteria for what makes a good movie.

An exemplary character actor with a distinctive face: that’s how Tim Blake Nelson is perhaps most often described. Yet beyond memorable roles in films by Steven Spielberg, the Coen brothers, and Terrence Malick, Nelson is also an accomplished filmmaker in his own right, responsible for a handful of impressive works in a variety of genres.This week, Nelson joins us on Locarno Meets while serving as a member of the jury at the 77ᵗʰ Locarno Film Festival and presenting the boxing drama “Bang Bang” out of competition at the Festival, following a successful debut at Tribeca. We took the chance to speak with the great actor about the appeal of genre, his boxing influences, and his ability to disappear into a role, whether through a physical transformation or by learning – as he is now doing – to convincingly play the mandolin at age 60.

Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner has one of the most immediately recognizable signatures as an auteur. Her films are known as much for their formal austerity as for their daring subject matter; they are films that – to use her phrase – “do not shout so loudly”. Those are also the kinds of films that Hausner, as Jury President at the 77ᵗʰ Locarno Film Festival, did not want to overlook in favor of louder, splashier titles. When she met her fellow jurors for the first time, Hausner stressed that it was important to consider films whose emotional power develops inside the viewer more slowly, accruing over time. We sat down with Hausner for a conversation on Locarno Meets to delve into her process in making films, her taste in cinema, the more than 30 takes it often takes to get a scene right, and her philosophy as president of a festival jury.

What are the ethics of AI art? Can it ever be a tool of artistic liberation or are AI systems inherently extractive? Should artists surrender knowledge of these tools or should they try to master them so they are put to better use? These are some of the questions that came up in our conversation with filmmaker Paul Trillo, who has been experimenting with AI technologies for years. He was in Locarno as a guest at the ‘Future of Survival’ conference organized in parallel to the Festival itself, and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to speak about this controversial and disruptive technology with a world-renowned artist for whom it is a signature tool of expression.

The Portuguese filmmaker Edgar Pêra is an experimental artist in the truest sense of the word. Time and again, Pêra has embraced still-nascent technologies without hesitation and with enormous playfulness, as with early digital video or 3D. Whatever the technology, he then tries to use them as a “toy of consciousness”, paraphrasing Aldous Huxley. In this conversation on Locarno Meets, Pêra discusses his latest work, “Telepathic Letters”, an AI-generated feature film based around a fictional exchange of letters between Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and American fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft. This memorably gonzo experiment had its world premiere at the 77th Locarno Film Festival (August 2024) and was one of the most talked about works in the program.

In 1994, a young Swiss-French rising star named Irène Jacob and a legendary Polish auteur, Krzysztof Kieślowski, travelled to Locarno to present “Three Colors: Red” on the Piazza Grande, in front of an audience of thousands of jubilant spectators. 30 years later, Jacob, now herself an established legend of international arthouse and commercial filmmaking, returned to Locarno to present the film while being honored with the Festival’s prestigious Leopard Club Award (2024). We took the chance to sit down with Irène Jacob on Locarno Meets to reflect on the legacy of this monumental work and her remarkable and risk-taking career in the years since. In 2024 alone, Jacob has created indelible new films with Amos Gitai and Rithy Panh, each of which premiered to rave reviews at the Berlin and Venice film festivals. No matter the assignment, Irène Jacob continues to forge her own path – a deeply original one – within and through the landscape of international cinema.

French-Algerian-Palestinian actress and filmmaker Lina Soualem has spent the past few artistically productive years co-writing a TV series (“Oussekine”, 2020) as well as directing the celebrated films “Their Algeria” (2020), about her French-Algerian grandparents and their fraught relationship with their homeland, and “Bye Bye Tiberias” (2023), about her mother, the celebrated Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, and the women of her family who stayed in their village in the Lower Galilee despite the effects of war, occupation, and erasure. After premiering at the Venice Film Festival and having a successful distribution run arund the world, her film was nominated to represent Palestine at the Academy Awards in 2024. But Soualem was at the 77th Locarno Film Festival not primarily as a filmmaker but as a judge: she sat on the jury deciding the Swatch and MUBI First Feature Awards. While she was in Locarno, we took the opportunity to sit down with Soualem on Locarno Meets to speak about how exactly she approached the work of navigating the complex relations of family, displacement, emigration, grief, and – yes – making films.

Following a successful premiere at South by Southwest, 24-year-old Swiss-American filmmaker Freddy Macdonald, the youngest directing fellow ever accepted to the American Film Institute, brought his audacious debut feature “Sew Torn” to the Piazza Grande at the 77th Locarno Film Festival.  We caught up with Macdonald on Locarno Meets during the Festival to discuss the unique genesis of the film, its many wild narrative twists and turns, as well as to unpack the influence of the Coen brothers on his work and talk about what it’s like to develop a film with one’s Dad.

“I think a lot of my work is about aspiring to something lofty. And then failing at it. Which I find funny”, says Alice Lowe, director and star of ‘Timestalker’, showed on the Piazza Grande at the 77th Locarno Film Festival. In a free-flowing conversation on her influences and artistic aspirations, Lowe – a major star of UK sketch comedy of the 2000s, director of “Prevenge” and co-writer of “Sightseers” – sat down on Locarno Meets to talk through the sheer Britishness of her latest time travel comedy extravaganza, influenced by everything from Sally Potter to Powell & Pressburger to “Doctor Zhivago”, and getting her start at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival walking through a giant tambourine.

Joining us this week on Locarno Meets is Ehsan Khoshbakht, curator of a major retrospective focusing on Columbia Pictures during its heyday of 1929-59. A centerpiece of the 77th Locarno Film Festival, this 44-film program redefined and recontextualized the legendary Hollywood studio during the tenure of its famously tyrannical president and co-founder: Harry Cohn. In our wide-ranging conversation, Khoshbakht spoke about the work of assembling the retrospective using Columbia’s weekly release schedules in partnership with the Sony-Columbia archive, about Cohn’s complex legacy, and about the unusual amount of freedom afforded to auteurs and women creators at the studio during its Golden Age.

After “All We Imagine As Light” triumphed at Cannes this year, taking home the Grand Prix, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia headed to the Locarno Film Festival to serve on the main competition jury alongside the likes of director Jessica Hausner and star Luca Marinelli. While she was in town, we invited her to join us for a chat on LocarnoMeets.  Kapadia took us through her journey from “A Night of Knowing Nothing”, her non-fiction masterpiece that won the Best Documentary Prize at Cannes in 2021, through to her new film, which marks a decisive turn to fiction. For Kapadia, the very act of making cinema is a political one, springing from the urgent dynamics of real life in a complex social, political, and class system like India’s.

Actress Paz Vega – one of the most recognizable faces of Spanish cinema – joins us for a conversation about her directorial debut: the piercing childhood drama “Rita”. This remarkable work, for which Vega served in a multitude of capacities – director, writer, executive producer, and in a prominent lead role – had its world premiere at the 77th Locarno Film Festival to acclaim from the audience and the press. During the Festival, we caught up with Paz Vega to dig into this impressive first foray behind the camera. Set in the innocence of a childhood in Sevilla in 1984, and the domestic abuse that devastates that world, “Rita” is a bold work that deserves to be seen and discussed for a long time to come.

One of the most recognizable faces of British cinema, known best for “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”, actor Nick Frost stopped over at Locarno to show his latest film, the centuries-spanning time travel romantic comedy “Timestalker”, on the Piazza Grande. While in town, he sat down for a conversation on Locarno Meets to discuss the genesis of this one-of-a-kind new movie, expound on his admiration for director Alice Lowe – another beloved staple of British television comedy – and reflect on what it means to play a pretty evil dude across dozens of historical eras on screen.

One of the most beloved and influential directors of the past half century, Jane Campion – recipient of the Pardo d’Onore Manor at the 77th Locarno Film Festival –, joins us on Locarno Meets. Campion’s is a career of remarkable firsts, whether as the first woman to win the Palme d’Or or the first woman to be nominated twice for the Academy Awards for Best Director (winning for “The Power of the Dog” in 2022). But her body of work is full of artistic risk-taking and daring pivots into uncharted territory. With Campion in our studio, we looked back together at her career, reflecting on her early days of film-going in London, on the genesis of many of her best-known projects, and on techniques for keeping the flame of inspiration alive.

On Locarno Meets, we're joined by five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, who shared some candid thoughts about his singular career while in Locarno to accept the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In an in-depth conversation with the podcast host Alex Miller, Cuarón opened up about his new Apple TV series Disclaimer, starring Cate Blanchett, taking breaks from Hollywood with Y tu mamá también and Roma – that allowed him to refresh his practice –, coping with the reality of the world that hasn’t improved much since he made Children of Men almost twenty years ago, and the weight of being known as a visionary artist who also makes blockbusters, like Gravity or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

A film 28 years in the making and shot across 24 countries, Tarsem’s gonzo masterpiece The Fall has long been woefully unavailable. The 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival saw a new 4K restoration, done in collaboration with MUBI, premiere on the 8,000-seat Piazza Grande in Locarno. For this episode of our podcast Locarno Meets, Tarsem sat down for an in-depth discussion of this great UFO of film history, telling the epic story of its making, of the reasons for its long-time unavailability, of how it was rejected by studios and critics but revered as a cult classic by fans, and how seeing it on the big screen at the Locarno Film Festival is the best kind of validation.

There are no words to introduce Shah Rukh Khan, the Baadshah of Bollywood, recipient of the Pardo alla Carriera Ascona-Locarno Tourism at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. He is one of the biggest and most beloved movie stars in the world; for billions of people around the world, his name is virtually synonymous with legendary films of all descriptions – romances, comedies, action films. When we caught up with SRK in Locarno – for this episode of our podcast Locarno Meets – we asked him about that range, about what he missed about filmmaking during the pandemic, and whether short-form storytelling on social media will ever be a rival to the big budget epics on which Shah Rukh Khan has built a name.

This week on #LocarnoMeets, we're joined by Eugene Hernandez, director of the Sundance Institute, as he reflects on his decades-long relationship with the famous festival in Park City, Utah, beginning with his first visit in 1993. He underscores Sundance's roots as a supporter of independent storytelling, dating back to its founding principles established by Robert Redford, and highlights the Institute's commitment to championing trailblazing artists in the face of industry challenges.Looking to the future, Eugene envisions Sundance going deeper rather than bigger, focusing on direct support for filmmakers and adapting to shifting industry dynamics. He discusses the festival's efforts to engage diverse audiences through varied and innovative strands and programs in Utah and at virtual festivals, as well as its material support of art house theatres and the Art House Convergence Network, which reinforces the Institute's role as a bridge between independent filmmakers and audiences. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on #LocarnoMeets, we're joined by filmmakers María Gisèle Roya and Julia De Castro, whose feature debut together "On the Go" premiered in Cineasti del Presente. Theirs is a bold homage to Spanish cinema of the '80s, specifically Gonzalo Garcia Pelayo's "Corridas de la Gria".Shot in 16mm, this irreverent and energetic road movie concocts an adventure playground-like narrative around a burnt-out nightclub, the ins and outs of motherhood, and various surreal encounters. Celebrated for its eclectic soundtrack and omnivorous cultural explorations, "On the Go" is a sumptuous cinematic odyssey, enriched and enlivened by its torpedoing, unravelling, and carefree rejigging of a myriad of social issues.The film plunges its cast of campy misfits into a vibrant and irrational outer realm, showcasing the directors' gift with blending anything-goes creativity and keen mutual understanding. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on #LocarnoMeets, Greek filmmaker Sofia Exarchou discusses her second feature film, "Animal", which looks at the lives of so-called "animators" at beach hotels in Greece.The film explores the challenges these employees face in a demanding job that requires constant high energy and unwavering smiles. These people use their bodies to convey raw emotions, making their physical movements a central aspect of the film's storytelling and choreography.In our conversation, Exarchou touches on the difficulties of funding creative films like "Animal", capturing the physicality of the scenes and her sensitive portrayal of the tourism industry in her native Greece. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Production designer Amos Sussigan, who served on the festival Pardi di Domani jury, engages in a thoughtful conversation about his work on Animal Farm and broader insights into the animation industry. He delves into the intricacies of character design, highlighting the challenges of capturing individuality while avoiding cartoonish stereotypes, drawing on his varied experience, including Space Jam 2.Sussigan also touches on the (at the time) ongoing strikes in the industry and concludes with profound reflections on his preference for the role of production designer over that of director, citing the complexities of the latter in a committee-driven feature film environment.The interview offers a deep and nuanced perspective on animation and filmmaking. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a rich and provocative conversation, filmmaker Eduardo Williams discusses "The Human Surge 3," the would-be sequel to his 2016 work. This time, he shot it with 360-degree cameras, making for a singular cinematic experience. He describes the interplay between script and improvisation that forms the backbone of his process, as well as the inherently political nature of cinema and the significant influence of video games on his work. Reflecting on online interactions and the potential of virtual reality in filmmaking, Williams offers deeper insights into his intense and distinctive approach to "The Human Surge 3". Williams contrasts the grandiosity and strangeness of the title with the film's quotidian depiction of everyday life, emphasizing the looming presence of the apocalypse while spurning any obvious dramatic climax. This double perspective frustrates and subverts expectations and explodes the minutiae of the human condition into an elaborate spectrum of everyday situations. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Austin actress and writer Katie Folger shines in the ensemble cast of Family Portrait, a unique film about a Texas family's struggle to get a group photo.The production took an unconventional approach, reflected in both the casting and the visual language of the film. With room to experiment, Katie valued the immersive, "dream-like" shooting experience over traditional rehearsals and a strict script.In addition to her film work, Katie wrote Getting in Bed with the Pizza Man, a one-woman show exploring self-discovery and empowerment. Addressing sensitive topics such as sex from the perspective of growing up in a conservative family as an actress and comedian, she describes the experience of baring her soul to an audience as a form of spiritual alchemy. Active in Austin's artistic community, she is concerned about the evolving artistic landscape and strives to preserve the city's distinctive identity.Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Explore the captivating world of director Moussa Sene Absa, best known for his trilogy of films portraying Senegalese women. Absa, a true artist at heart - director, composer, painter - shares insights into his dynamic and insightful filmmaking process. Drawing parallels between himself and a bird, he navigates seamlessly between mediums, intuitively choosing to express his emotions through pencil, camera or music.Absa's films intertwine drama and tenderness, loss and love, narratives that he crafts through the inspiration of lyrics, creating a universal language of art that resonates emotionally. Join us as Absa reflects on the deep connection between music, painting and filmmaking, highlighting the simplicity that touches him deeply and the childlike wonder that fuels his cinematic exploration. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Renowned film producer and former Head of Movies at Amazon Studios, Ted Hope, embarks on a compelling conversation challenging the evolving role of platforms in the film industry.With a career marked by transformative moments, including bringing Spike Lee and Jim Jarmusch to Amazon, Hope questions the pervasive influence of streaming platforms. He advocates a shift in perspective, urging the recognition of streaming as a utility rather than a determinant of content creation. An outspoken proponent of artist autonomy, Hope proposes an "Artist's Bill of Rights", envisioning a future where creators maintain control over their works and revenues across diverse creative landscapes. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us for an exploration of resilience, creativity and the transformative power of cinema in the lives of our inspiring guests: director Gloria Carrión and producer Nadean Rawlins, both participants in the 2023 Open Doors Hub program focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. Gloria shared her journey from the 2018 civil uprising in Nicaragua to the creation of Leaves of K., a film born out of oppression and forced migration. Faced with government restrictions, she found refuge in Toronto and, in a way, in Open Doors, which enabled her to develop "Pantasma", a poignant coming-of-age story that challenges notions of the enemy through animation and unique media. Nadean, is in Locarno as the producer of "Raised by Goats" by Gibrey Allen, a film set in pre-independence Jamaica, exploring independence as individuals and as a country. She reflects on the transformative experience at Open Doors, the challenges of film funding in Jamaica and her commitment to making a difference. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dive into the future of cinema in our latest podcast with Brian Newman, former Tribeca CEO and founder of Sub-Genre, as he looks at the future of film, festivals and streaming platforms through a new way of funding. Through his company Sub-Genre, Brian explores the ever-evolving relationship between brands and cinema, working to bridge the gap and turn brand engagement into a new form of cinema, with Patagonia and Saint Laurent as great examples of how it could be done. Brian's aim is to explore the power of cinema to amplify brand values, reach underserved communities and navigate the delicate balance between commerce and art, opening up new avenues for marketing films beyond the traditional streaming model. Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay, Gus Van Sant... these are just some of the iconic filmmakers who have called on award-winning editor Pietro Scalia to help them realise their visions. With a career spanning over 30 years, 2 Oscars and many more awards, Scalia has helped shape some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history, "Gladiator", "Black Hawk Down" and "JFK" to name but a few. In August, he received the Vision Award Ticinomoda in Locarno and sat down with our host Alexander Miller to share fascinating anecdotes, such as the first time he met Gus Van Sant or sitting in the editing room with Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg... the life of a Hollywood editor! Subscribe to Locarno Meets for lively conversations about art, culture life and everything in between with the likes of Lambert Wilson, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Marianne Slot, Luc Jacquet, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, and more. Locarno Meets is a Locarno Film Festival original production, brought to you by UBS. Follow us on InstagramFollow us on TikTokSubscribe to our Newsletter Host: Alexander MillerAudio Producer: Jack BoswellVideo Producer: Claudia Campoli  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.