Locarno Film Festival, Mubi Team on New Award for Promising First Feature

The Locarno Film Festival is partnering with film producer, distributor and streaming service Mub i on a new award, the Mubi Award – Debut Feature, which will be given to a first-time director showing their film as a world or international premiere in the 77th edition of the fest’s official selection.

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The partners unveiled the new honor on Tuesday.

Mubi was founded in 2007 by Efe Çakarel who will speak about the company’s history at the Swiss fest this August.

“With a shared interest in fostering the great filmmakers of tomorrow, the Locarno Film Festival is pleased to team up with Mubi,” the partners said. The award comes with 10,000 Swiss francs ($11,285) “to be shared equally between the director and the producer” and will celebrate “boldly distinctive visions for storytelling and the aesthetic possibilities of the medium, spotlighting the new films that will shape the future of cinema.”

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Said Çakarel: “Elevating great cinema and the filmmakers that create it really is why Mubi exists. We can’t wait to see their future masterpieces.”

Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro said the new honor would support “emerging cinema even more incisively and convincingly,” adding that it would be “capable of opening unprecedented avenues and potentialities for young and auteur cinema.”

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