Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers Wins Locarno Golden Leopard

Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers won the Golden Leopard, the top prize at the 78th Locarno Film Festival. The Japanese drama, adapted from Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga Mr. Ben and His Igloo, A View of the Seaside, follows Lee, a scriptwriter navigating personal changes. It marks Japan’s return to Locarno’s competition, the country’s fourth Golden Leopard since 1954.

White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, a romantic drama set around a Belarusian model and a morgue worker, received the special jury prize. Abbas Fahdel won best director for Tales of the Wounded Land. The acting honors went to Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić for God Will Not Help, and to Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov for White Snail. Alexandre Koberidze’s Dry Leaf received a special mention.

The jury, led by Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh, included Carlos Reygadas, Joslyn Barnes, Ursina Lardi, and Renée Soutendijk.

Other winners included Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý’s Hair, Paper, Water…, which won the Golden Leopard in the Cineasti del Presente competition for first and second features. Cecilia Kang was named best emerging director for Hijo Mayor. Aurora Quattrocchi (Gioia Mia) and Levan Gelbakhiani (Don’t Let the Sun) won acting awards in the section. The Swatch First Feature Award went to Blue Heron by Sophy Romvari.

Festival director Giona A. Nazzaro praised the edition as “beyond our wildest expectations,” calling cinema a force that unites communities. The closing night featured Bill Condon’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, while career honors were presented to Jackie Chan, Golshifteh Farahani, Emma Thompson, and Milena Canonero.

Here are the full winners of the 78th Locarno Film Festival.

Concorso Internazionale (International Competition)

Pardo d’Oro – Grand Prize of the Festival and City of Locarno
Tabi to Hibi (Two Seasons, Two Strangers) by Sho Miyake, Japan

Special Jury Prize – Cities of Ascona and Losone
White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, Austria/Germany

Pardo for Best Direction – City and Region of Locarno
Abbas Fahdel for Tales of the Wounded Land, Lebanon

Pardo for Best Performance
Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić for Bog Neće Pomoći (God Will Not Help) by Hana Jušić, Croatia/Italy/Romania/Greece/France/Slovenia
and
Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov for White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, Austria/Germany

Special Mention
Dry Leaf by Alexandre Koberidze, Germany/Georgia

Concorso Cineasti del Presente (for first and second features)

Pardo d’Oro – Concorso Cineasti del Presente
Tóc, Giấy Và Nước… (Hair, Paper, Water…) by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh
Quý, Belgium/France/Vietnam

Best Emerging Director Award – City and Region of Locarno
Cecilia Kang for Hijo Mayor, Argentina/France

Special Jury Prize CINÉ+
Gioia Mia (Sweetheart) by Margherita Spampinato

Pardo for Best Performance
Aurora Quattrocchi for Gioia Mia (Sweetheart) by Margherita Spampinato,
Italy
and
Levan Gelbakhiani for Don’t Let the Sun by Jacqueline Zünd, Switzerland/Italy

Pardi di Domani (showcasing short and medium-length films focused on experimentation and innovative forms)
 

Concorso Corti d’Autore
Pardino d’Oro WePresent by WeTransfer for the Best Auteur Short Film
A Very Straight Neck by Neo Sora, Japan/China

Pardino d’Oro Arts3 Foundation for the Best International Short Film
Hyena by Altay Ulan Yang, USA

Pardino d’Argento Arts3 Foundation for the International Competition
Still Playing by Mohamed Mesbah, France

Pardi di Domani Best Direction Award – BONALUMI Engineering
Primera Enseñanza (Primary Education) by Aria Sánchez and Marina Meira, Cuba/Spain/Brazil

Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award
Force Times Displacement by Angel Wu, Taiwan

Concorso Nazionale
Pardino d’Oro SRG SSR for the Best Swiss Short Film
O Rio De Janeiro Continua Lindo (Rio Remains Beautiful) by Felipe Casanova, Belgium/Brazil/Switzerland

Pardino d’Argento SRG SSR for the National Competition
Tusen Toner by Francesco Poloni, Switzerland

Best Swiss Newcomer Award
L’avant-Poste 21 by Camille Surdez, Switzerland

Locarno Film Festival Short Film Candidate – European Film Awards
O Rio De Janeiro Continua Lindo (Rio Remains Beautiful) by Felipe Casanova, Belgium/Brazil/Switzerland

First Feature
Swatch First Feature Award
Blue Heron by Sophy Romvari, Canada/Hungary

Pardo Verde (the Green Leopard for films from directors with a vision “linked to a new conception of humanity on planet Earth”) supported by the Ente Regionale per lo Sviluppo del Locarnese e Vallemaggia
Pardo Verde

Mare’s Nest by Ben Rivers, United Kingdom/France/Canada

Special Mentions
Tóc, Giấy Và Nước… (Hair, Paper, Water…) by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh
Quý, Belgium/France/Vietnam
and
Une Fenêtre Plein Sud (A South Facing Window) by Lkhagvadulam PurevOchir, France/Mongolia

INDEPENDENT JURIES AND AWARDS

Ecumenical Prize
Solomamma by Janicke Askevold, Norway/Latvia/Lithuania/Denmark/Finland

Special Mention
Le Lac by Fabrice Aragno, Switzerland

FIPRESCI Prize
With Hasan in Gaza by Kamal Aljafari, Palestine/Germany/France/Qatar
 

Junior Jury Awards
First Prize
Le Lac by Fabrice Aragno, Switzerland
Second Prize
Dracula by Radu Jude, Romania/Austria/Luxembourg/Brazil
Third Prize
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due by Abdellatif Kechiche, France
“The environment is quality of life” Prize
offered by the Ticino Department of Internal Affairs:
Tabi to Hibi (Two Seasons, Two Strangers) by Sho Miyake, Japan
Special Mention
Le Bambine (Mosquitoes) by Valentina Bertani and Nicole Bertani, Italy

The second Junior Jury assigned a prize to the best film shown in the section Concorso Cineasti del Presente:
Un Balcon à Limoges (A Balcony in Limoges) by Jérôme Reybaud, France
Special Mentions
Blue Heron by Sophy Romvari, Canada/Hungary
and
Folichonneries (Follies) by Eric K. Boulianne, Canada

Pardi di Domani
Concorso Internazionale
Blind, Ins Auge (Blind, Into the Eye) by Atefeh Kheirabadi and Mehrad
Sepahnia, Germany/Iran

Concorso Nazionale
Noirs Matins (Black Mornings) by David Gonseth, Switzerland

Concorso Corti d’Autore
Une Fenêtre Plein Sud (A South Facing Window) by Lkhagvadulam PurevOchir, France/Mongolia

Special Mention – for the Concorso Internazionale
Una Vez En Un Cuerpo (Once in a Body) by María Cristina Pérez González, Colombia/USA

Open Doors Screenings
“The environment is quality of life” Prize
L’Envoyée De Dieu by Amina Abdoulaye Mamani, Niger/Burkina Faso/Rwanda

Semaine de la Critique (Critics/Week)
Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique – Prix SRG SSR
Útóipe Cheilteach (Celtic Utopia) by Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén,
Sweden/Ireland

Marco Zucchi Award
Nella Colonia Penale (In the Penal Colony) by Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia, and Alberto Diana, Italy