Locarno Head Giona A. Nazzaro On The “Razzle Dazzle” Of ‘Bullet Train’, Competition Between Festivals, Breakout Directors & Why The Piazza Grande Makes Sense For An Awards Season Launch
29.07.2022 - 12:49
/ deadline.com
Locarno Film Festival artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro is gearing up for the lakeside event’s 75th-anniversary edition from August 3 to 13. In his second year in the job, he has pulled together an eclectic programme spanning mainstream Hollywood and experimental filmmaking.
David Leitch’s action-comedy Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt, makes its international festival premiere as the opening film on Locarno’s famed Piazza Grande square. Pitt will not be in attendance, but his co-star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, is set for the Piazza and will receive the festival’s Excellence award alongside Daisy Edgar Jones, Jason Blum, and Matt Dillon who are also set to receive honors.
Other films set to screen in the festival’s famed 8,000-capacity open air venue include Laurie Anderson’s Home Of The Brave, Anna Gutto’s Paradise Highway, starring Juliette Binoche as a truck driver who traffics a young girl, and post-Bataclan terror attack drama You Will Not Have My Hate by German director Kilian Riedhof. The festival also returns with a full industry schedule, including its annual StepIn sessions and masterclasses with Christine Vachon and Lucius Barre.
Nazzaro talked to Deadline about his distinct programming style, mixing mainstream and arthouse fare, the challenge of attracting big studio films, and his desire to push Locarno into the awards season conversation.
DEADLINE: This is your second year as artistic director and your first festival ‘proper’ after Covid. How have you found pulling together the event?
GIONA A. NAZZARO: Last year was a rush because we decided to open up the Piazza. Then the situation changed, which meant we could add more cinemas. We had to adjust to the situation as we were going. This year, we knew that we