At the 63rd edition of the Locarno International Film Festival, a Swisscom Leopard of Honour will be awarded to the Swiss director Alain Tanner, who will hold a public Masterclass.

© Antonio Masolotti

Born in 1929 in Geneva, Alain Tanner made his first cinema feature film in 1969: Charles, Dead or Alive immediately picked up the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival. Two years later, The Salamander (1971) racked up 200,000 ticket sales in Paris. Alain Tanner thus established himself as a leading light of the ‘New Swiss Cinema', infused with a sense of youth and freedom that spread beyond its national borders.
Besides his numerous documentaries for television and the cinema, Alain Tanner has made 19 fiction features, screened at major international festivals, including Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976), In the White City (1983), Les Années lumière (1981, Jury Grand Prix at Cannes), Une flamme dans mon cœur (1987), Fourbi (1996), up until Paul s'en va (2004), which marked his farewell to the cinema.

« I am delighted to come to Locarno to receive this prestigious award, comments Alain Tanner. It is a Festival close to my heart, to which I am strongly attached, and one I have always supported ».

For Festival artistic Director Olivier Père, « I feel this Award is a well-deserved tribute to a filmography that demonstrates a rare independence and intelligence. A testament to, and critique of, their times, Alain Tanner's films dare to venture into the realms of dream, poetry, desire and rebellion. Exploring utopias and journeys, imaginary or real, the films of Alain Tanner are amongst the finest from new cinemas around the world, and have left a deep impression on several generations of viewers ».

Every year the Locarno Festival's Leopard of Honour celebrates one or more major contemporary filmmakers. Previous recipients include Manoel de Oliveira, Ken Loach, Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Wim Wenders, Aleksandr Sokurov, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Amos Gitai and, in 2009, William Friedkin. Following Jean-Luc Godard (1995) and Daniel Schmid (1999), Alain Tanner is the third Swiss director to receive this award.

A main sponsor of the Locarno Film Festival since 1998, Swisscom supports the Leopard of Honour for the second consecutive year.