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Locarno Year-Round: Spin-Off Events & Activities

In recent years, the Locarno Film Festival has found new ways to be present throughout the year other than its main 10-day event. With cinema, and alongside cinema at all times, thanks to its spin-off events.

Year-Round

SHORTS


Short films can be the spark that lights a filmmaker’s career ablaze. That's why we launched a year-round digital showcase called SHORTS, presenting new films every two weeks for the rest of the year and thus giving a new life to shorts that played in Locarno. Spectators from around the world can see some of the best titles from the previous editions of Locarno for free. Whether short films from emerging talents or classics from film history lovingly restored, you can find them all on this channel, including information on how long you have to watch them.

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August 2026

Le Vie dei Pardi


Each year, a small extension of the Locarno program comes to neighbouring city Lugano after the Festival is over, offering a selection of key titles projected outdoors. At its 24th edition in 2025, the Lugano film series allowed the public to see or rewatch some recent Locarno releases. Films included Solomamma by Janicke Askevold (Concorso Internazionale), Irkalla Hulm Jijiljamish (Irkalla - Gilgamesh’s Dream) by Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji (Piazza Grande), and Gioia mia by Margherita Spampinato (Concorso Cineasti del Presente). Due to bad weather, screenings took place inside the Padiglione Conza.

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october 2026

Locarno in Milan @ Cineteca Milano


An annual event reinforcing the synergies between the Cineteca Milano and the Locarno Film Festival. In October 2025, the city’s Cinema Arlecchino hosted an event dedicated to some of the most appreciated films from the 78th Festival edition, with screenings and meetings. The program was part of Cinema on the Docks, a creative hub on the Martesana, housed in the Biblioteca Morando Morandini. Seven films were presented to the Milanese public in 2025, including Golden Leopard winner Tabi to Hibi (Two Seasons, Two Strangers) by Sho Miyake and two Swiss co-productions: Le bambine by Valentina and Nicole Bertani from the Concorso Internazionale, and Don’t Let the Sun by Jacqueline Zünd from the Concorso Cineasti del Presente.

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october 19 - 31, 2025

Cinemagia


The Festival’s collaboration with Cinemagia continued in 2025 with the free screening on October 24 of Gioia mia the debut work by Italian director Margherita Spampinato, presented in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente and winner of the CINÉ+ Special Jury Prize and the Pardo for Best Actress (Aurora Quattrocchi). Four other films from past Locarno editions were also screened, all Swiss productions or co-productions: animations Sauvages, Yuku and the Himalayan Flower, Mary Anning, Fossil Hunter, and the short film Métropole by Theo Kunz, presented in 2024 in Pardi di Domani – National Competition.

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November 14 - 22, 2025

Open Doors Shorts at the Festival of Future Storytellers


The Festival of Future Storytellers in Munich presented a program consisting of the five short films selected for Open Doors during Locarno78: L'Envoyée de Dieu, Le Dernier Voyage, Where My Memory Began, Bougainvillea, and Jangu. This series of screenings marks the beginning of a four-year collaboration between the Open Doors section of the Locarno Film Festival and the Festival of Future Storytellers.

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November 20 - 30, 2025

Locarno Film Festival in Istanbul


Istanbul Modern Cinema brought to Istanbul a selection of nine films presented at Locarno78, mostly Turkish premieres: Follies, Phantoms of July, Dry Leaf, Blue Heron – winner of Swatch First Feature – With Hasan in Gaza, Late Shift, Yakushima’s Illusion, Two Seasons, Two Strangers – winner of the Pardo d’Oro – White Snail, winner of the Special Jury Prize and Best Performance, with the directors in attendance in Istanbul.

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November 27, 2025, January 29, March 28, 2026

LocarnoCare, in collaboration with SUPSI and City of Locarno


This initiative by the City of Locarno aims to open reflection on parenthood. The edition spans 2025-2026, involving cooperation with the Department of Education and Learning (DFA, SUPSI) and the Locarno Film Festival. The goal is to enrich exchanges and bring together teachers, families, and youth through cinema. At the GranRex Cinema in Locarno, participants are shown three short films from previous Locarno editions, touching on topics like inheritance between generations, loneliness, group dynamics, managing emotions, and the importance of context in human relationships.

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September 17, 2025

EmergenzaTerra, in collaboration with SUPSI


The 2025 edition of Emergenza Terra opened with a cinema evening curated by Stefano Knuchel, Locarno Factory director, in cooperation with the Locarno Film Festival. At the SUPSI Campus in Mendrisio, three short films, all addressing ecology and climate change themes - including Soleil gris by Camille Monnier, selected in 2024’s Pardi di Domani - were screened.

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august - december 2025

Retrospettiva Tour After Locarno78


After the 78th Locarno Film Festival, the retrospective “Great Expectations: Postwar British Cinema (1945-1960)” continued its global circuit to many countries accompanied by an English publication edited by Ehsan Khoshbakht for Les Éditions de l’Œil, with contributions from international critics. In Switzerland, the program was revived by the Swiss Cinematheque (August 29 - October 24, 2025), Kino REX Bern (October 2 - November 5, 2025), Stadtkino Basel (November 16 - December 31, 2025), and Filmpodium Zürich (November 15 - December 31, 2025)

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Spring 2026

Spring Academy


Over nine days, two expert mentors of the Spring Academy are invited to collaborate with seven emerging directors - selected via an open call – in the creation of six short films inspired by a single prompt. In 2025, the phrase was “Demain, il y aura quelque chose de nouveau” and the mentors were Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel. The Spring Academy is organized by the Locarno Film Festival and CISA in co-production with RSI, in cooperation with the Ticino Film Commission, supported by Hotel du Lac and Visuals Switzerland.

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march 5 - 8, 2026

FestivaLLibro


Organized by the Municipality of Muralto in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival, FestivaLLibro offers talks, book presentations, film screenings, illustration exhibitions, workshops, and shows for children in March. During the event, guest discussions accompany three screenings. In 2025, that was a meeting with Italian writer Donatella Di Pietrantonio followed by the screening of the film L'Arminuta, based on her novel; writer Andrea Vitali introduced Dino Risi’s classic La stanza del vescovo; and for the younger audience, the animated film Song of the Sea by Tomm Moore was shown. The three screenings in March 2025 took place at PalaVideo in Muralto.

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march 26, 2026

Locarno in Los Angeles


In 2025 the Academy Museum presented the restoration of the Swiss-French co-production Réperages (1977) by Swiss director Michael Soutter. The restoration was carried out by the Swiss Cinematheque alongside cinematographer Renato Berta, supported by Memoriav, at ColorGrade and Masé laboratories in Geneva.

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Spring 2026

Giornate del Cinema


Among the many cultural mediation initiatives by the Locarno Film Festival is the Giornata del Cinema (Day of Cinema), which offers a media education path dedicated to schools in the area. In 2025, two Cinema Day events were held. Typically, around 300 students from Ticino high schools attended a screening at GranRex cinema in Locarno, followed by a personal meeting with the director. The program continues with workshops organized with CISA showcasing cinema as both an art form and career opportunity.

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Pre-Festival Events & Screenings
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