Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner will serve as jury president of the Concorso Internazionale, overseeing the jury that will decide the winner of the Pardo d’Oro – the Golden Leopard – at the 77th Locarno Film Festival this August.
Jessica Hausner was born in Vienna in 1972 and began her career in short films after studying at the Film Academy of Vienna. Her presidency is a homecoming in many ways, as Locarno was the first international festival where her work made an impression. In 1997, her short film “Flora” won the main prize in the Pardi di Domani section..
“It is a great honor and also a great pleasure for me to preside over the main jury of this year’s Locarno Film Festival,” says Jessica Hausner. “The responsibility I feel is to respectfully hear the various opinions of my fellow jury members, as I truly believe that every person sees a different film and that every perspective is interesting to discuss. For me, Locarno is a festival that values artistic and original approaches in filmmaking and thus reinforces the avant-garde of world cinema. I am happy to contribute to this agenda because filmmaking is, in my opinion, about challenging our perspectives and finding new and unusual ways to look at things”.
Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director: “A vital and restless filmmaker, Jessica Hausner has created a diverse body of work reflecting the most hidden aspects of contemporary society with extraordinary depth. With clarity, steadfastness, and impeccable progression, she has imagined both spiritual and fantastical worlds that reflect the cogent richness of a complex and contradictory human experience. To have Jessica Hausner as jury president of the Locarno Film Festival’s Concorso Internazionale is an extraordinary honor and a guarantee that the films will be discussed by a jury led by one of the most extraordinary filmmakers working today”.
The Jury of the Concorso Internazionale, chaired by Jessica Hausner, will award the Pardo d’Oro on the final day of the Festival, Saturday 17 August. The full program of Locarno77 will be announced in a press conference on July 10.
