Story of My Death (Historia de la Meva Mort) by Catalán filmmaker Albert Serra (pictured above) as well as Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez's Manakamana were awarded the top prizes, The Golden Leopard, as the Locarno Film Festival came to a close tonight in Switzerland.
The festival, known for adventurous art cinema programming and embracing up and coming filmmakers, honored acclaimed, unconventional films that stirred discussions during this year's festival.
Serra's feature, the story of Casanova and Dracula in the transition from the ages of Enlightenment to Romanticism, was the best picture winner in the International Competition at the 66th edtion of the Locarno festival. Manakamana from the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab, was the jury's pick for the best film in the concurrent Filmmakers of the Present competition at the Swiss film festival.
Runners-up for the top prizes in Locarno were Joaquim Pinto' remarkably personal new documentary, What Now? Remind Me (E Agora? Lembra-me) in the international competition and Gilles Deroo and Marianne Pistone's Mouton in the Filmmakers of the Present competition.
The full list of Locarno Film Festival winners is below.
Concorso internazionale
Golden Leopard, International Competition
Historia de la Meva Mort by Albert Serra, Spain/France
Special Jury Prize, International Competition
E Agora? Lembra-me by Joaquim Pinto, Portugal
Best Director
Hong Sangsoo for Our Suhni (U Ri Sunhi), South Korea
Best Actress
Brie Larson for Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, United States
Best Actor
Fernando Bacilio for El Mudo by Daniel Vega and Diego Vega, Peru/France/Mexico
Special Mentions
Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton, United States
Tableau Noir by Yves Yersin, Switzerland
Filmmakers of the Present Competition
Golden Leopoard, Filmmakers of the Present
Manakamana by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, Nepal/United States
Best Emerging Director, Filmmakers of the Present
Costa Da Morte by Lois Patiño, Spain
Special Jury Prize, Filmmakers of the Present
Mouton by Gilles Deroo and Marianne Pistone, France
Special Mention, Filmmakers of the Present
By the River (Sai Nam Tid Shoer) by Nontawat Numbenchapol, Thailand
Opera Prima
Best First Feature
Mouton by Gilles Deroo and Marianne Pistone, France
Special Mention
Manakamana by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, Nepal/United States
Piazza Grande
Prix du Public UBS
Gabrielle by Louise Archambault, Canada
Variety Piazza Grande Award
2 Guns by Baltasar Kormákur, United States
