Locarno Academy at Locarno Film Festival | apply now

Founded in 2010 with the aim of helping develop the abilities of emerging talents, the Locarno Academy is a Locarno Festival training project for young directors, professionals, students and film critics. Applications are invited for Critics Academy, Industry Academy and Documentary Summer School in August 2017.

The Locarno Critics Academy (2 – 12 August 2017) is designed for ten aspiring film critics who, as well as meeting established members of the critical community and the film world, will have an opportunity to work under the editorial guidance of Eric Kohn (Indiewire), Brian Brooks (Film Society of Lincoln Center), Ruedi Widmer (ZHdK), Florian Keller (ASJC) and Adrian Nicca (Cineman.ch), covering the Festival with articles and reviews that will be published on PardoLive, Criticwire, Filmcomment.com, Cineman.ch and, from 2016, also in Filmbulletin. The program also allows for additional meetings with journalists attending Locarno, round tables with Festival guests and meetings with other professionals. The Critics Academy is a joint initiative with Indiewire, in collaboration with the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York and The Swiss Film Journalists Association and is supported by the Federal Office of Culture.

LOCARNO CRITICS ACADEMY - Deadline for applications: 27 May 2017

The Locarno Industry Academy (2 – 9 August 2017), is an initiative organized by the Industry Office of the Festival del film Locarno. The Locarno Industry Academy was first held in 2015, since then designed and organized by the Project Manager Marion Klotz. This workshop aims at helping young industry professionals in international sales, marketing, distribution, exhibition and programming, to understand the challenges of the movie industry and giving them the opportunity to broaden their networks of contacts, while building bridges between different markets. Following its successful launch last year, and thank to the support of major international partners, the event now includes an initial pilot phase of the Locarno Industry Academy International, which to date has featured three events, held in Mexico in October 2015 during the Morelia Festival, in Brazil in collaboration with Cinema do Brasil in December 2015 and in March 2016 in New York in collaboration with the Film Society of Lincoln Center, during the New Directors/New Films Festival.

LOCARNO INDUSTRY ACADEMY - Deadline for applications: 27 May 2017

The 17th edition of the Documentary Summer School, is organized 7-11 August 2017 by the Università della Svizzera italiana and the Locarno Festival in collaboration with the Semaine de la Critique, and involves twenty-five university students from film, television and communications departments all over the world. It covers topical issues in documentary film, from both an academic and practical production perspective. A particular attention is dedicated to ethnical issues.

DOCUMENTARY SUMMER SCHOOL - Deadline: 23 June 2017

The Academy was born from a desire to build on Locarno’s attributes as a site of productive encounters, exchange of views and reflection on film, taking full advantage of the Festival’s infrastructure and its numerous guests.

A hundred promising young talents from all over the world are selected and invited to participate in one of the Locarno Summer Academy’s five initiatives: Filmmakers Academy, Critics Academy, Industry Academy, Documentary Summer School and Cinema&Gioventù. The program offers a range of training options, spanning from general film education, training in film criticism for young journalists, to workshops for the upcoming generation of industry professionals and emerging directors working on their first film.