Locarno Director Touts Adventurous Lineup for Era of Algor

The artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival has described this year's program as deliberately "adventurous," framing the selection as a counterweight to the algorithm-driven culture that increasingly defines how audiences discover and consume cinema. Speaking ahead of the 79th edition of the Swiss festival, the director emphasized that the lineup was curated to resist homogenization and to celebrate the communal experience of watching films together.

Set to run through the first half of August, this year's Locarno will feature a broad mix of emerging auteurs, restored classics, and boundary-pushing works from established directors. The director acknowledged the pervasive influence of recommendation algorithms in the entertainment industry but argued that festivals like Locarno have a responsibility to champion films that challenge predictable patterns. "We are living in an era of algorithms," he said. "The whole point of a festival is to be the opposite of that - to be unpredictable, to surprise, and to trust that audiences want to be taken somewhere they didn't know they needed to go."

That philosophy has shaped a lineup that the director described as deliberately eclectic and sometimes confrontational. Rather than programming for broad marketability, the selection committee prioritized works that take formal risks or tackle difficult subject matter. The program includes several debut features alongside new films from directors who have long operated outside mainstream distribution channels. The director noted that the goal was not simply to showcase variety but to affirm the festival's core mission as a platform for discovery.

A festival built on shared experience

Beyond the cinematic ambitions of the individual titles, the director highlighted community as the thematic backbone of this year's edition. In an era where streaming platforms encourage solitary viewing and algorithm-driven feeds flatten taste into consumption data, Locarno is leaning into its identity as a gathering place. The director pointed to the festival's famous open-air screenings on the Piazza Grande as a symbol of that ethos - a space where thousands of people watch together, reacting in real time, forming a temporary public.

"Community is not just a theme in some of the films we selected - it is the reason the festival exists at all," the director said. "When you watch a movie in a crowd, you are reminded that cinema is a shared language, not a private algorithm refining your preferences. That feeling is irreplaceable." He noted that several films in competition this year explicitly deal with collective identity, solidarity, and the tensions between individual autonomy and belonging. Others, he added, explore more fractured forms of community - the ways technology both connects and isolates people.

The director also addressed the broader industry context, acknowledging that independent festivals face increasing pressure to justify their relevance in a landscape dominated by global streaming giants. But he argued that the very existence of algorithm-driven recommendations makes curated human programming more valuable, not less. "Algorithms are good at giving you more of what you already like," he said. "A good programmer gives you something you might not know you would like - and sometimes something you might not like at all, but that expands your understanding of what cinema can do."

Adventurous choices in a cautious industry

This year's selection includes several titles that the director characterized as "difficult" - not in terms of accessibility, but in terms of their refusal to conform to conventional narrative structures or visual language. He described the program as a deliberate challenge to the kind of polished, market-tested content that dominates online platforms. "Adventurous does not mean chaotic," he said. "It means trusting the intelligence of the audience, and believing that risk-taking cinema has a place alongside more familiar pleasures."

While the director declined to single out specific films before the full program announcement, he noted that the competition section includes works from regions and perspectives underrepresented in mainstream festivals. He also confirmed that the retrospective section will focus on a filmmaker whose career was shaped by collective, community-based modes of production - a choice that reinforces the overarching theme.

The festival has also expanded its industry and public programs to include discussions about algorithmic curation, the economics of independent distribution, and the role of festivals in preserving cinematic diversity. The director suggested that these conversations are urgent, as the film industry adapts to a reality where streaming data increasingly dictates what gets financed and produced.

"We are not naive about the power of algorithms," he said. "But at Locarno, we are making a statement that there is another way. It is a small statement, maybe, but it is a loud one." With a lineup designed to surprise and a commitment to collective viewing, the festival hopes to demonstrate that even in an era of personalized playlists, the magic of cinema remains rooted in shared discovery.

Source: Hollywood Reporter