Tim Blake Nelson, Payal Kapadia Join Locarno FIlm Festival Jury 2024

Tim Blake Nelson, the actor, writer, director, producer and regular Coen Brothers collaborator, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light), Italian actor Luca Marinelli (Old Guard), and Belgian producer Diana Elbaum (Elle, Green Border) will join Austrian director Jessica Hausner on the jury of the main competition section of the Locarno Film Festival.

They will decide the winner of the Pardo d’Oro — the Golden Leopard — in the Concorso Internazionale (International Competition) at the 77th edition of the Swiss film festival, which takes place Aug 7-17.

Locarno organizers touted the lineup of jurors as including “some of the most distinctive voices of contemporary cinema.”

Nelson also stars in Vincent Grashaw’s Bang Bang, which premieres in the Fuori Concorso (Out of Competition) section of Locarno 77.

The jury deciding the winner of the Pardo d’Oro — Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Filmmakers of the Present), the section for emerging directors with their first or second features, will be Nigerian filmmaker C.J. “Fiery” Obasi, whose Juju Stories (2021) screened at Locarno 74; French/Palestinian/Algerian filmmaker and actor Lina Soualem (Bye Bye Tiberias); and former Cahiers du cinéma editor, scholar and artistic director of the Cannes Critics’ Week Charles Tesson.

The jury tasked with honoring the best short films at Locarno are Italian scriptwriter, director and programmer Licia Eminenti; Malagasy curator, filmmaker, fashion designer and Madagascourt Film Festival founder Laza Razanajatovo; and French producer Juliette Schrameck (Eat the Night, The Worst Person in the World, Cold War).

Meanwhile, the winner of the Swatch First Feature Award at Locarno will be decided by Moroccan producer-director Khalil Benkirane, rising Finnish star Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves) and Swiss-Italian make-up designer Esmé Sciaroni (La chimera).

Finally, the Pardo Verde honor, which recognizes films that contribute to awareness and decisive action on climate change, will be decided by a jury of Swiss-Rwandan artist, writer and director Kantarama Gahigiri; French programmer and film critic Cédric Succivalli; and Swiss sustainability adviser, journalist, and arts manager Daniel Wiener.

“It is a tremendous privilege to welcome these talented artists and programmers to Locarno and to entrust them with the films our selection committees handpicked from the thousands that were presented to us,” said Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival. “It is through their creative gazes that this year’s official selection will be introduced to the world.”