Attending the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival allows you to embark on a cinematic adventure, if you are so inclined and if you desire to do so. After all, there are all sorts of new envelope-pushing and experimental movies to explore.
Or you can see the latest from your favorite auteurs. Among others, the 2026 lineup of the Swiss festival will world premiere Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, the new film from South Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo (Right Now, Wrong Then), who is a former Golden Leopard winner at the fest, Canadian director Denis Côté’s Nobody’s Violence, and Sixteen Moments of My Life from Spain’s Albert Serra (Afternoons of Solitude).
Plus, there are screen classics, such as Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, plus a 4K restored version of the extended director’s cut of Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves.
Of course, Locarno will also feature star power, with 2026 fest honors set to be bestowed upon directors James Gray and Darren Aronofsky, Belgian-born actress Virginie Efira, Rick Baker, the seven-time Oscar winner behind some of cinema’s most fantastical creatures, as well as actresses Asia Argento and Isabella Rossellini.
Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, who put together the lineup for Locarno79 with his team, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about underlying and overarching themes that audiences may notice across the program, actors as “living history of cinema,” and allowing people to be surprised and experience a sense of wonder in the age of algorithms.
