Swiss-born director and designer Marcel Barelli will receive the Locarno Kids Award at the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival this summer.
He will be awarded the honor, presented by la Mobiliare, on the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 12. During the festival, Barelli will present the Swiss premiere of Mary Anning, chasseuse de fossiles, his new animated film dedicated to the British paleontologist and fossil pioneer “who revolutionized the discipline in the early decades of the 19th century.”
The fest also unveiled the lineup for this year’s Locarno Kids Screenings, the section dedicated to younger audiences. The program includes Arco, a French animated feature about unexpected friendship and the fate of a world impacted by climate change that won the best film award at this year’s Annecy film festival and counts Natalie Portman among its producers.
“Barelli has established himself as one of the most promising and original voices in Swiss and international animation cinema,” Locarno organizers said. “In short films, such as Gypaetus helveticus (2011), Vigia (2013) – winner of the Pardino d’Argento at the 66th Locarno Film Festival, Lucens (2015), and Habitat (2016), Barelli has developed a unique poetic style sensitive to themes of environmental sustainability, exploring the deep relationship between humans, animals, and nature. In 2022, he received the Swiss Film Award for best animated film with Dans la nature (2021).”
Said Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival: “Marcel Barelli represents an idea of resistance to the conformism of emotions, which becomes a light and dreamy trait to outline a world to rethink and rebuild, returning it to human beings of all ages. According to Barelli, cinema and animation are made of the same material as the most precious and generous dreams.”
The 78th edition of the Locarno festival takes place Aug. 6-16.
Here is the lineup for the Locarno Kids Screenings 2025:
Arco by Ugo Bienvenu – Opening Film
Swiss Premiere
Fantastique by Marjolijn Prins
World Premiere
Grevlingene (The Badgers) by Paul M. Lundø – Closing Film
World Premiere
io non ti lascio solo by Fabrizio Cattani
World Premiere
L’Olívia i el terratrèmol invisible (Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake) by Irene Iborra Rizo
International Premiere
Skrzat. Nowy początek (Pixie. The New Beginning) by Krzysztof Komander
International Premiere
Tichá pošta (Secret Delivery) by Ján Sebechlebský
International Premiere