The Festival del film Locarno will confer the Excellence Award Möet & Chandon to the French actress Chiara Mastroianni. The presentation ceremony will be on Friday 6 August in the Piazza Grande, the following day the public will have an opportunity to attend a discussion with the actress.

Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser (Making Plans for Lena), by Christophe Honoré

Chiara Mastroianni was born in Paris in 1972 to actors Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni. In 1994, with André Téchiné's My favorite season (1993), she was nominated for a César as Most Promising French Female Newcomer, and featured in Xavier Beauvois' Don't Forget You're Going to Die. Over the next few years the actress made her name in France and abroad, thanks to her performances in films from such high calibre directors as Robert Altman (Prêt-à-porter, 1994), Arnaud Desplechin (My Sex Life...or How I Got Into an Argument, 1995), Raoul Ruiz (Three Lives and Only One Death, 1996; Time Regained, 1999), Gregg Araki (Nowhere, 1997) and Manoel de Oliveira (La Lettre,1998).
In 1999, Chiara Mastroianni also made her Italian film debut, cast by Sergio Castellitto himself for his first film as director, Libero Burro (1999) and then by Francesca Comencini for Le parole di mio padre (2001).
Recently, she worked with director Arnaud Desplechin on A Christmas Tale (2008) and with Christophe Honoré on the film Love songs (2007). The latter also chose her as lead actress for Making Plans for Lena (2009).

Olivier Père, Artistic Director of the Festival del film Locarno, comments: "Undoubtedly one of the most talented actresses of her generation, Chiara Mastroianni has employed her heritage of talent and beauty to brilliant effect in a challenging and prestigious series of films, made with some of the masters of contemporary cinema and its best directors."

Every year the Festival del film Locarno's Excellence Award goes to one or more outstanding actors on the international scene. Previous recipients of this award: Oleg Menchikov, Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Michel Piccoli, Carmen Maura and Toni Servillo.

Moët & Chandon supports the Excellence Award for the second consecutive year.

The 63rd edition of the Festival del film Locarno takes place 4 - 14 August 2010.