In Piazza Grande, the audience is the jury
Since 2000 the Prix du public UBS, the only official award of the Festival to be awarded by the Piazza Grande audience, has been presented to films that are destined to become part of film history.
The Prix du Public UBS makes the audience its protagonist, allowing those in Locarno to rate the Piazza Grande films digitally, using the Locarno Film Festival app.
The Prix du public UBS, worth 30,000 Swiss francs, is decided solely on the base of the audience vote and will be presented at the official award ceremony on Saturday, 12 August 2023.
Over the years, the Prix du public UBS has often proved to be an important indicator of the commercial success of the films. In recent years, films such as Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick (2017), Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake (2016) and Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar (2011) have enjoyed considerable success. The film The Lives of Others, winner of the Prix du public UBS in 2006, also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year. Recently, Spike Lee’s film BlacKkKlansman (2018) won an Oscar only a few months after thrilling the Piazza Grande audience.
UBS has been a partner of the Locarno Film Festival since 1981 and, thanks to the Prix du public UBS and to the Locarno Film Festival app, it is delighted to promote the important role of the audience on the Piazza Grande.
UBS wishes all the spectators of the Locarno Film Festival an unforgettable cultural experience.
