The 78th Locarno Film Festival will open on August 6 with Tamara Stepanjan's film “Le pays d'Arto” (In the Land of Arto, France, Armenia 2025) on the Piazza Grande. The Ecumenical Jury, which has been established in 1974, awards its prize to a film in the International Competition that uses artistic creativity to raise viewers' awareness of human, social, and religious values. The prize is worth CHF 10,000, donated by the Reformed Churches and the Catholic Church of Switzerland.
The retrospective, for which the festival has long been renowned, has been entitled “Great Expectations” for 2025 and is dedicated to British post-war cinema from 1945 to 1960. It comprises more than 40 contributions. The Honorary Golden Lion goes to Greek-American director Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, 2002; The Descendants, 2011).