The 53rd Locarno Film Festival was held from 2 to 12 August 2000 in Locarno, Switzerland. There were 18 films in competition. The opening film of the festival was the international premiere of X-Men directed by Bryan Singer. The Leopard of Honor was awarded to Paul Verhoeven, for his cinematic career, and his film Hollow Man had its European premiere on the Piazza Grande, the 10,000 seat open-air theater. A section called "Kings of the B's" was held to celebrate B-movies.
This was artistic director Marco Mueller's last year at the festival. After 9 years as the head of the festival Mueller left to become a film producer. Upon leaving he said it was hard to have a festival niche between big Hollywood summer releases and art house cinema, especially when losing out on films to the Venice Film Festival. Derek Elley of Variety remarked that, "Muller failed in his ambition to turn the well-regarded but basically eggheady Euro art-movie event into a glitzy fest to rival Venice." This was also the last year for recently hired festival president Giuseppe Buffi, who died two weeks before the opening night. In a closed meeting the day following Buffi's death, Mueller told the festival committee he would be resigning.
The Golden Leopard, the festival's top prize, was awarded to Father directed by Wang Shuo. The film was completed in 1996, but was banned by the Chinese government. Locarno artistic director, Marco Mueller arranged to smuggle the only English subtitled print out of China for the festival. Baba (Father) had its world premiere at Locarno and was shown without any prior advertising as a surprise film.
Official Jury
Official International Jury Naum Klejman, Jury president, Soviet film scholar and critic Todd McCarthy, American film critic Zhang Yuan, Chinese director Shinji Aoyama, Japanese director , French director Alessandro D'Alatri, Italian director , Swiss director Shirin Nashat, Iranian director Paz Alicia Garciadiego, Mexican screenwriter
Official Sections The following films were screened in these sections:
Piazza Grande
Piazza Grande English Title Original Title Director(s) Year Production Country Azzurro Denis Rabaglia 2000 Switzerland, Italia Crazy Hans-Christian Schmid 1999 Germany Hollow Man Paul Verhoeven 2000 USA Road Trip Todd Phillips 2000 USA Shaft John Singleton 2000 USA The Closer You Get Aileen Ritchie 1999 Great Britain The House of Mirth Terence Davies 2000 Great Britain X-Men Bryan Singer 2000 USA
International Competition
International Competition English Title Original Title Director(s) Year Production Country101 Reykjavík Baltasar Kormákur 1999 Iceland The Heart's Root A Raiz Do Coração Paulo Rocha 2000 PortugalFather Baba Shuo Wang 1996 China Fuck Me Baise-Moi Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi 2000 FranceBronx-Barbès Eliane de Latour 2000 France Chronically Unfeasible Cronicamente Inviavel Sérgio Bianchi 2000 Brazil Hold-Up Der Überfall Florian Flicker 2000 Austria A Lingering Face Feichang Xiari Lu Xuechang2000 ChinaGostanza Da Libbiano Paolo Benvenuti 2000 ItaliaHamlet Michael Almereyda 1999 USAFirefly Hotaru Naomi Kawase 2000 Japan Love, Money, Love L Amour, L Argent, L Amour Philip Gröning 2000 GermanyManila Romuald Karmakar 1999 Germany The Season of Guavas Mua Oi Nhat Minh Dang 2000 Vietnam In Vanda's Room No Quarto Da Vanda Pedro Costa 2000 PortugalNoutsas Scola Merab Kokotchachvili 2000 GeorgiaThe Low Down Jamie Thraves 2000 Great Britain Little Cheung Xilu Xiang Fruit Chan 1999 Hong Kong
Filmmakers of the Present The Concorso Cineasti del Presente, also known as the Filmmakers of the Present Competition, showcases first and second feature films from emerging filmmakers
Video Competition Video Competition – Filmmakers of the Present Original Title English Title Director(s) Year Production Country Addio Lugano Bella Goodbye Lugano Bella Francesca Solari 2000 Switzerland, France Asylum Chris Petit, Iain Sinclair 2000 Great Britain Das Himmler-Projekt The Himmler Project Romuald Karmakar 2000 Germany Delphine Seyrig, Portrait D Une Comète Delphine Seyrig, Portrait of a Comet Jacqueline Veuve 2000 Switzerland, France Fei-Ya! Fei-Ya!/Fly, Fly (Our Chinese Friends) Ingeborg Lüscher (Ying-bo) 1999 China, Switzerland Für Mich Gab S Nur Noch Fassbinder Die Glücklichen Opfer Des Rainer Werner F. For Me There Was Only Fassbinder the Happy Victims of Rainer Werner F. Rosa von Praunheim 2000 Germany I Thought I Was Seeing Convicts Harun Farocki 2000 France, Germany Jeanne, Aujourd Hui Jeanne, Today Marcel Hanoun 2000 France L Apprentissage De La Ville City Learning Gérard Mordillat 2000 France L Homme Aux Semelles D Or Man with Golden Soles Omar Amiralay 2000 France L Onore Delle Armi The Honor of Weapons Gianni Amelio 1999 Italia Les Yeux Fermés Eyes Closed Olivier Py 1999 France Luigi Einaudi. Diario Dell Esilio Svizzero Luigi Einaudi. Diary of the Swiss Exile Villi Hermann 2000 Switzerland Nina Marco Bellocchio 1999 Italia O Livro De Raul The Book of Raul Arthur Omar 1999 Brazil Ofelia - L Affresco Ofelia - The Fresco Marco Bellocchio 2000 Italia Om Namah Shivay - Om Gottes Willen To Namah Shivay - To Gottes Willen Nina Hagen 2000 Germany Once & Future Queen Todd Verow 2000 USA Pierre Ou Les Ambiguïtés - Trois Épisodes Stone or Ambiguities - Three Episodes Leos Carax 1999 France Puisi Tak Terkuburkan Poetry is not Buried Garin Nugroho 2000 Indonesia R 11 Eva Baratta, Vincenzo De Cecco 2000 Italia Seule Avec La Guerre Alone with War Danielle Arbid 2000 France, Belgium Sorelle Sisters Marco Bellocchio 1999 Italia Un Filo Di Passione A Thread of Passion Marco Bellocchio 1999 Italia Un Posto Al Mondo A Place in the World Mario Martone, Jacopo Quadri 2000 ItaliaOriginal titleEnglish titleDirector(s)YearProduction countryInner Voices ...A Film About ExpressionPeter Lindbergh1999USALa Commune (Paris,1871) Quatre EpisodesThe Town (Paris, 1871) Four EpisodesPeter Watkins1999FranceSobre Anos 60About 60sJean-Claude Bernardet2000BrazilTibetan TaoAllen Fong2000Hong Kong
Out of Competition Filmmakers of the Present - Out of Competition Original Title English Title Director(s) Year Production Country Ceux D'En Face Those Opposite Jean-Daniel Pollet 2000 France Cités De La Plaine Cities of the Plain Robert Kramer 2000 France Die Königin The Queen Werner Schroeter 2000 Germany El Acordeòn Del Diablo The Devil's Chord Stefan Schwieter 2000 Germany, Switzerland Histoire De Ma Vie Racontée Par Mes Photographies History of My Life Told by My Photographs Boris Lehman 2000 Belgium Inventario Balcanico Balkan Inventory Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi 2000 Italia Le Salaire De L Artiste The Artist's Salary Laurent Veuve, Jacqueline Veuve 2000 Switzerland Our Song Jim McKay 1999 USA Parvaz-E Zanbur Ledge Jamshed Usmonov 1998 South Korea, Tadjikistan Roji-E Alleys - Illustration Shinji Aoyama 2000 Japan Sanyu Happiness Robert Frank 2000 Switzerland, USA Tchoh Jamshed Usmonov 2000 Tadjikistan, Russia Time Code Mike Figgis 2000 USA Vies Alain Cavalier 2000 France Werangstwolf Clemens Klopfenstein 2000 Switzerland, Italia Ça, C Est Vraiment Toi That's Really you Claire Simon 2000 France
Special Session Special Session - Filmmakers of the Present Original Title English Title Director(s) Year Production Country Q Begegnungen Auf Der Milchstrasse Q Encounters on the Milky Way Jürg Neuenschwander 2000 Switzerland
Out of Competition
Out of Competition (Fuori Concorso) Original Title English Title Director(s) Year Production Country Aïe Ouch Sophie Fillières 2000 France Hey Ram Kamal Haasan 1999 India Ça Ira Mieux Demain It will be Better Tomorrow Jeanne Labrune 2000 France
Leopards of Tomorrow Leopards of Tomorrow (Pardi di Domani)