The 79th Locarno Film Festival wrapped up on Saturday in Switzerland, and the winners have been announced. Romanian director Florin Șerban took home the top prize with his drama You Don’t Belong Here. Hong Sangsoo won Best Director, while Monica Bellucci and Kim Minhee shared the Best Performance award.
The festival, held every summer in the small Swiss town on the shores of Lake Maggiore, featured 17 films competing for the Golden Leopard. This year’s edition celebrated films from Romania, South Korea, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and more.
‘You Don’t Belong Here’ Wins Golden Leopard
You Don’t Belong Here, known in Romanian as Nu E Locul Tau Aici, won the Pardo d’Oro, the festival’s highest honor. Director Florin Șerban, a key figure of the Romanian New Wave, made his return to feature filmmaking after eight years.
The father-son drama takes place in a small town. It follows Marius, a hospital head doctor, who is raising his teenage son Ioan alone after his wife passed away. Marius does not know that Ioan gets up at night to ride through town and damage cars with a group of masked vigilantes. His life falls apart when he discovers that the police believe his son committed a murder.
The jury praised the film “for the strength of its writing, the singularity of its vision, and its exceptional command of cinematic language”.
Șerban shared his thoughts on the film’s meaning on the festival website:
“My film is above all, a portrait of a way of seeing the world that may be disappearing. Or perhaps should disappear.”
The Golden Leopard comes with a cash prize of 75,000 Swiss francs (about $92,000), which is shared between the director and producer. Young actor Teodor Butănescu also received a special mention for his performance in the film.
Hong Sangsoo Wins Best Director for ‘Nowhere to Lay My Eyes’
South Korean director Hong Sangsoo won the Best Director award for his film Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, known in Korean as Nun Dul Dega Eomne. This marks the fifth time Hong has been invited to the Locarno Film Festival.
Hong previously won the Best Director award at Locarno in 2013 for Our Sunhi and took home the top Golden Leopard prize in 2015 for Right Now, Wrong Then.
Nowhere to Lay My Eyes is Hong’s 35th feature film. The story follows Sang-hee, played by Kim Minhee, who travels to Jeju Island in southern Korea to find her mother. She last saw her mother 10 years ago.
Monica Bellucci and Kim Minhee Share Best Performance Award
The Best Performance award went to two actors. Monica Bellucci won for her role in Giovanni Tortorici’s film Ketticè. Kim Minhee won for her performance in Hong Sangsoo’s Nowhere to Lay My Eyes.
This is not the first Locarno win for Kim Minhee. She also won the Best Performance award at the festival in 2024 for her role in Hong’s By the Stream.
Bellucci’s film Ketticè is an Italian coming-of-age story about teenagers searching for identity and wanting freedom. The movie was produced by Luca Guadagnino.
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Other Winners at the 79th Locarno Film Festival
The Special Jury Prize went to The Riverbank (A Margem do Rio), directed by Brazilian filmmakers Matheus Farias and Enock Carvalho.
In the Filmmakers of the Present competition, The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer (La Ilusión De Un Verano Sin Fin) by Argentine-American filmmaker Alessandra Sanguinetti won the Golden Leopard. The film also received the First Feature Award.
Beatrice Gibson won the Best Emerging Director Award for At Night. The Special Jury Prize in that competition went to Revolutionaries Never Die by Mohanad Yaqubi.
Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro commented on this year’s selection:
“A vital and contemporary slate of awards, in close dialogue with the transformations in the industry and in our world today. Whether in highlighting the Romania of You Don’t Belong Here, or the Brazil of The Riverbank, or the South Korea of Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, the jury upheld the primacy of form and of language.”
The Locarno Film Festival continues to be a major event for independent and international cinema, bringing attention to filmmakers from around the world.
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