Mubi and Locarno Film Festival Partner to Award Cash Prize to First-Time Filmmakers

Art house distributor and streamer Mubi and the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland are partnering to offer a new prize at the film festival given to first-time filmmakers .

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The Mubi Award — Debut Feature will be awarded to an outstanding debut feature playing in Locarno’s official program, and the award intends to celebrate “boldly distinctive visions for storytelling and the aesthetic possibilities of the medium, spotlighting the new films that will shape the future of cinema,” according to a statement from the festival.

The Locarno Film Festival is now in its 77th year and this year runs between August 7-17. The festival’s First Feature jury will award the prize, and this year the jury includes Moroccan director-producer Khalil Benkirane (Doha Film Institute), Finnish actor Alma Pöysti, who starred in Aki Kaurismäki’s film “ Fallen Leaves ” that Mubi released last year, and make-up designer Esmé Sciaroni, who worked on Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera.”

The winning directors and producers of the film will share a cash prize of 10,000 Swiss francs, or approximately $11,000. The award will be presented to the winning filmmakers at Locarno’s closing awards ceremony on Aug. 17 at the GranRex, and will be live streamed on Locarno’s website.

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Mubi recently has released some debut features such as Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Molly Manning Walker’s “How to Have Sex,” Christopher Andrews’ “Bring Them Down,” the upcoming “My First Film” by Zia Anger, and Thomas Hardiman’s “ Medusa Deluxe, ” which premiered at Locarno in 2022.

“Elevating great cinema, and the filmmakers that create it, really is why MUBI exists,” Efe Çakarel, Founder and CEO of Mubi, said in a statement. “We truly hope that this prize helps a new generation of storytellers bring their visions and voices to life. We can’t wait to see their future-masterpieces, and to share them with the world on Mubi.”

“A new and prestigious collaboration to support emerging cinema even more incisively and convincingly than before,” Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, said in a statement. “We’re very glad to be collaborating with MUBI on a new award capable of opening unprecedented avenues and potentialities for young and auteur cinema, thus defending artistic freedom and creativity. This is a new partnership but a longstanding mission: an award for the cinema today that sets the foundations for the cinema of tomorrow.”