Locarno is not “just” about the discovery of new film gems and the celebration of the art of cinema. It’s also about discussing and conducting business, about addressing the challenges facing the industry and about networking to enable all of that.
So, while people can explore new and classic cinema during the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, running Aug. 5-15, the Swiss fest’s Locarno Pro industry program returns with a spotlight on the big issues of the day and the future, along with much more, during its 15th edition, taking place Aug. 6-11.
The 2026 program of panels and keynotes will kick off with the traditional StepIn session, which will this year explore how power structures, politics, AI and data are reshaping independent cinema.
Also returning is Open Doors, the co-production platform and talent development program for filmmakers from regions where artistic expression is at risk. After all, Locarno Pro also sees itself as a talent incubation and training platform. This year marks the second year with a focus on Africa, with the spotlight being put on six projects in development, six producers and five directors.
Plus, in partnership with ACAU – Agencia del Cine y el Audiovisual del Uruguay, Locarno Pro’s First Look initiative for works-in-progress will showcase six Uruguayan films currently in post-production. The networking platform Match Me! and co-development program Alliance 4 Development also return, as do the classic film program Locarno Heritage and programs targeting young industry professionals in the U30 think tank.
Among the innovations this year is the launch of a Locarno Pro podcast and the inaugural Open Doors Connect program, which “allows foundations, film institutions, and organizations to join by sponsoring an industry professional, opening up new financing models, markets, and collaborations rooted in global equality.”
Markus Duffner, director of Locarno Pro in his sixth year, expects around 2,000 accredited industry guests to attend this year, with around three-quarters of those coming from Europe. Among the attendees are an estimated 800 producers, 350 buyers, about 100 sales agents and 300 film festival programmers.
Ahead of all the debates and networking, Duffner took time to talk to THR about the return of the Locarno Investment Community for its second year, the choice of Uruguay, the hot issues in focus and why AI will be touched on throughout the program.
After its debut last year, the Locarno Investment Community is back for its second edition. Why does this offering make so much sense, and what was the experience and feedback like last year?
In the first year of the investment community, we had about 40 private investors of different profiles – from private banks to philanthropic organizations, mostly from North America. Then there were European funds that are investing not only in projects but also in companies and slates. And there were also private individuals who are curious about how to invest in culture and in film in particular. We organize this in partnership with Oxbelly, which is developing talented scriptwriters, but also bringing in their ambassadors and philanthropic investors from the U.S. So, we created the program together, and last year, it was like the pilot edition with some closed-door sessions.
For this year’s second edition of the Locarno Investment Community, we will have around 45 investment players coming, and we will have a stronger program for them to also network and mingle with our talent. It’s an added value for both the Swiss industry and for the European industry in Locarno. So, I think it’s something that’s here to stay for us.
Are any participants from last year returning or are they all new?
I would say 25 percent are coming back, and then we have added new layers. It will also always depend on the films that are selected for the festival. We’re different from Sundance Catalyst or the Cannes Investorx Circle. We are really an informal platform. We create networking opportunities with all the lunches, one-to-one meetings and closed-door sessions, which are useful for both networking reasons, but also for training, education and mentoring for both the investors and our talent.
And everything in Locarno Pro is tailor-made and custom-made based on the profile of the people who are coming, so that we don’t waste anyone’s time. We think about who sits where at which table at lunch or why this person should meet with that person. Once you get to Locarno, we take care of you, and that’s unique.
And innovation is key. It’s not copy-paste. We stop and look at what our industry needs. The idea is to innovate our Locarno Pro platform because of the state of the traditional financing system. Everybody is worried about what’s going to happen in the future. This year continues that.
Tell me some more about those future concerns, please.
There are some earthquakes that are shaking up the infrastructure of the global industry. Let’s see what happens with the merger of Paramount and Warner. Let’s see what happens with everything that AI can do, as groundbreaking technologies will change the industry.
I’m not even talking about generative AI and the creative element, but what’s happening in the industry with those tools. Innovation is important for us. And for us, innovation is also about bringing new players to our platform. It’s our duty to offer new options to talents, filmmakers and producers.
How do the connections you enable lead to results?
We are pretty realistic. It’s not that the connections we create are leading to immediate results, but our incubation works, and we have some success stories, such as Flow, the Oscar-winning animation. This year, we also won a Silver Bear in Berlin [for best screenplay] with Nina Roza, which was one of our first-look works-in-progress from Canada last year.
In the Piazza Grande program this year, we have a film called The Chilean, which is co-produced by an Italian and a Chilean producer who met in 2017 in Locarno in our Match Me! [networking offering]. They even got a small grant from Ticino [which is the Swiss region that Locarno is part of] and got to shoot a few days in Locarno, so for me this is like the perfect story to show how Locarno Pro plays a role. Probably, this film wouldn’t have been made if it wasn’t for the platform we created.
How does Locarno fit into the annual schedule for film investors?
Investors either have funds, mostly smaller funds, or they can allocate $1 million a year, and they come to Locarno looking at the festival calendar. They have Venice and Toronto coming up, and then they have a few other smaller markets for potentially another $400,000 or so to invest. If you invest $100,000-$150,000 in each film, you’re scouting for projects. And there are some funds that need to spend their money by the end of the year. So for them to come to Locarno increases the potential for them to find a project. If we have 85 talents, and we match them based on their profile, there is a good chance.
Uruguay is the focus of this year’s first look works-in-progress showcase at Locarno Pro. How did you choose the country?
What we do when choosing a country is secure a partnership with a local institution to allow us to get the full picture of every country. And we work with this local partner a year in advance, or even a year and a half in advance. When we chose a focus on Spain, we were looking at post-COVID politics, and saw that the Spanish government invested so much money into cultural recovery after COVID that we thought, let’s do something with Spain. Within a couple of years, they must have a boom in projects and a lot of good films with commercial and festival potential.
Similarly, if you look at the Latin American landscape, given the current political situation in Argentina, I think Uruguay and Brazil now are the two thriving countries that are able to invest a lot in minority co-productions as well as majority co-productions. They have a very thriving industry at the moment. Uruguay, especially if you look at its proximity to Argentina and how it can compensate for that, is really interesting. And in talking with ACAU – Agencia del Cine y el Audiovisual del Uruguay, we felt this is a really good moment to focus on Uruguay.
This year’s six works-in-progress from Uruguay are a really diverse selection in terms of genres, in terms of geographical regions and in the way they are shot. They provide a really nice picture of Uruguay today.
In this year’s Locarno Pro panel discussions and keynotes, what are some of the key overarching themes?
We’re having over 50 speakers this year. StepIn, which is our thought-provoking kick-off event every year, [film industry data analyst] Stephen Follows is going to talk about our main topics, which will be reflected across the rest of the Locarno Pro program, which is: “Power. People. Data.” – and the future of them. He will address “Fear, Lies, and the Illusion of Control.”
We were thinking of our core themes even before the [Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery] merger news, and then we said: “Okay, this is a question of power, of course, but at the same time, it’s a question of the algorithm, so data.” There is subscription fatigue or fatigue of the algorithmization of products and content that is available not only online but also in cinemas nowadays.
Tell me a bit more about that and other themes!
Studios use algorithms to decide what to finance, to develop, and all that. Stephen Follows has been vocal about this. But for us, he will do a special intro.
Our program will also focus on gender equality nowadays in the industry and what it means to distribute a film today. And, of course, how to finance them will be a topic. We’ll talk about films versus formula – algorithms and consolidation versus creative freedom. That is not AI per se, but there is a lot of AI in there. We will think a lot about why cinema still matters and what it means to release a film. There is a little bit of activism in it, but we can see that fewer films are doing huge box office, and others are flopping, so this is a market trend that has been changing.
This year, we’ll also talk about the cost of inclusion. Who can afford to be in this industry? Things are changing so fast. Our ambition is not to find a solution, but to look at risk and opportunity, and maybe anticipate the market trends ahead. But the time horizons have changed. Before the pandemic, StepIn was aiming at five-year predictions. Now, the industry is moving so fast, with all the tech disruption, the market and all the politics, that if we can predict what happens next year or in two years, I would say we are doing a good job. For the first time, we will also do a podcast of about an hour with the topics in focus.
And AI will be a topic across the Locarno Pro sessions and events?
On all [panels and sessions], more or less, there is at least one person who is thinking about and covering AI. Everything is influenced by AI these days, including financing, distribution and sales. And since there is no legislation yet on a European level to create precise rules, so we want to allow for conversation and dialogue. We invite policymakers and members of film institutes too, who can then relate takeaways to their ministries of culture or the European Parliament so they understand what key players are going through.
Film restorations have also been a key part of Locarno Pro…
Yes, we have a full-day Heritage Monday dedicated to new restorations we present. We restore two films a year. This year, it was a Senegalese film from Safi Faye, Letter From My Village, and Dances With Wolves, the Academy Award winner by Kevin Costner, which will be shown in a second screening in the Piazza Grande on Friday night. Restoration really goes to what Locarno’s mission is, including finding new audiences for classic films and giving them a new commercial life.
