The 64th Festival del film Locarno opens on Wednesday August 3 with a screening of J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 on the Piazza Grande.

 Following the success of the last night’s free screening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961, by Blake Edwards), sponsored by Valora and its president Rolando Benedick, the former president of Manor, which attracted an audience of 4,800 to the Piazza Grande, tomorrow there will be the Pre-Festival’s second free offering to local residents and tourists. The actress Magali Noël, the “Gradisca” of Federico Fellini’s masterpiece Amarcord (1973), will attend the screening, which is sponsored by  CSS Assicurazione.

 The official opening of the 64th Festival del film Locarno takes place on Wednesday August 3 on the Piazza Grande at 21.30 with the presentation of the official competition juries, and the screening of Super 8 by American director J.J. Abrams, produced by Steven Spielberg. Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter will also appear at the event.

 Participants in the special prize award ceremonies, discussions and Q & A sessions, and the numerous international guests for the 2011 edition include: Kabir Bedi, Guy Bedos, Daniel Brühl, Claudia Cardinale, Ingrid Caven, Daniel Craig, Gérard Depardieu, Abel Ferrara, Harrison Ford, Bruno Ganz, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Claude Goretta, Aleksei Guskov, Hannah Herzsprung, Isabelle Huppert, Hitoshi Matsumoto, Mike Medavoy, Kati Outinen, Pierre Richard, Anri Sala, Maribel Verdú, Olivia Wilde and many more.

For the occasion of the Vincente Minnelli Retrospective, the Festival is honoured to welcome the French actress Leslie Caron, one of the stars of An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958). On Thursday August 4 the actress will appear on the Piazza Grande stage for the introduction to the Retrospective and next day at 14.00 at the Magnolia – Spazio RSI, will participate in an open discussion about her autobiography with the public.

Swiss photographer and director Edo Bertoglio will be at Locarno as guest photographer for the Festival daily, Pardo Live, distributed every evening before the start of the Piazza Grande screenings. He will pick out Festival guests to feature their portraits in the  “Tomorrow’s Stars project”, published in Pardo Live.

Tomorrow, Tuesday August 2 will see the inauguration of the exhibition of projects from the Design and Architecture BA at SUPSI, made by students for the entrance areas to the Festival venues. The opening will take place at 17.00 at the altra Sala, and the exhibition runs from Wednesday 3 to Sunday 14 August.

The 64th edition of the Festival del film Locarno will conclude with the official awards ceremony on Saturday August 13.
 The full programme is available on the official site www.pardo.ch.