Raimondo Rezzonico Award

From its inception until the present day, cinema could not have surprised us so much without the courage, audacity and prescient gaze of those who have chosen to support freethinking and visionary projects. This is why, since 2002, the Locarno Film Festival has awarded the Raimondo Rezzonico Award to figures who have played a major role in international production.

The award ceremony, held in the prestigious setting of Piazza Grande, is paired with a program of representative titles from the careers of the past awardeed, as well as occasions during which the public is invited to delve more deeply into their work. In recent years, thanks to the awards given to Mike Medavoy, Arnon Milchan, Jeremy Thomas, Ted Hope, Gale Anne Hurd and Jason Blum, a journey has been undertaken among the most innovative realities of international production. A journey that will resume its course during the 2023 edition, with the new Raimondo Rezzonico Award: Marianne Slot.

2023: Raimondo Rezzonico Award to Marianne Slot

Marianne Slot’s career has intersected memorably with that of Lars von Trier (their collaborations date back to 1995), as well as close ties to a few of Latin America’s well-known names, including Lucrecia Martel and Lisandro Alonso. Always careful to safeguard the artistic integrity of any project with which she is involved, Slot has adapted fluidly and skillfully to working with established directors, as well as to taking risks by investing in projects such as theater director Emma Dante’s first film, Via Castellana Bandiera (A Street in Palermo, 2013), or Marian Crişan’s debut, Morgen (2010).

“Marianne Slot’s approach to film production has left a deep and lasting mark on contemporary cinema, rewriting the rules of the game for collaboration and ideation between filmmakers and producers, with her enduring preference for the singularity of the gaze and tireless defense of creative freedom. At a time when cinema risks flatlining into an endless repetition of existing models, Marianne Slot leads by example, demonstrating the beauty of both freedom and risk”.

Giona A. Nazzaro