Locarno Film Festival gets a New Artistic Director
Renowned Italian programmer, critic and curator Giona
A. Nazzaro was recently appointed as the Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.
Giona A. Nazzaro, an Italian national born in Zurich and a veteran of international film culture and festivals, will assume his full-time role at the start of the new year, but he is already working with Nadia Dresti, the interim artistic director and head of Locarno Pro, to put together the upcoming edition of the Festival, Locarno74.
Born in Zurich, Switzerland Nazzaro has been General Delegate of the International Film Critics’ Week at the Venice Film Festival since 2016 and is a member of the artistic committee of IFFR – International Film Festival Rotterdam. Nazzaro has worked with several other film festivals, including the Turin Film Festival, the Rome Film Fest and the Festival deiPopoli in Florence. He has written and curated monographic studies on directors such as Gus Van Sant, Spike Lee and Abel Ferrara. As editor of a number of volumes he effectively introduced the study of Hong Kong cinema to Italy and has also conducted research in new strategies for serial narration in television.
“The entire Festival Board embraced his name unanimously at a meeting that took place on November 4,” the Locarno Festival in a statement said.
“It is a vital hotbed of ideas, looking creatively to the future”. Giona A. Nazzaro provides this description of the Locarno Film Festival, which will bear his signature as of January 1, on the day of his official appointment as the next artistic director, it added.
“It is an honor to direct the Locarno Film Festival, an institution which has always prioritized quality, auteur filmmaking and which today more than ever is a vital hotbed of ideas, looking creatively to the future of the moving image. I will be setting straight to work in the hope of being able to re-open the Piazza Grande, the beating heart of the Festival and an iconic symbol of the resilience of cinema,”Giona A. Nazzaro stated commenting on his appointment.
Locarno President Marco Solari declared: “In Giona Nazzaro we have an ideal match for the artistic profile of the Locarno Film Festival. Expert and knowledgeable, already perfectly familiar with Locarno, equipped with the planning skills for our festival’s indispensable future innovations in the digital environment, a person who has an international mindset but also strong ties to Ticino and Switzerland.”
From 2010 to 2020 Giona Nazzaro was a programmer and curator on the selection committee of the Visions du Réel Festival in Nyon, and he has also collaborated with the Locarno Film Festival, as a moderator.