57th Locarno International Film Festival

The film "Yasmin" by British director Kenny Glenaan is the winner of the Ecumenical Jury at the Locarno film festival. The jury awarded the film for the convincing identity of a young Pakistani woman. Above all, the film also draws a lively and touching portrait of the Muslims in England and is full of wit and irony despite the difficult subjects. This is thanks to the lively contact between the Muslim actors (laypersons as well as professionals) and the film team: the intensive exchange of experience has given the film a high degree of authenticity. The film crew was added to the Pakistani community during filming in October 2003 and was able to realistically reproduce the atmosphere in the film.

The prize is for the first time endowed with 20,000 SFr. tied to film distribution in Switzerland. The prize money is provided by the Protestant-Reformed and Roman Catholic churches in Switzerland.

In addition, the Ecumenical Jury awarded a Commendation the Italian film "Private" by Saverio Costanzo. He also won the festival's main prize, the Golden Leopard. The jury of the organisation of international film criticis (Fipresci) awarded its prize to the Japanese competition entry "Tonî Takitani" by Jun Ichikawa.