Locarno Festival Shines Spotlight on 'Yazz,' 'Spring Story,' and 'The Surubí' with Major Awards!

The Locarno Film Festival celebrated both emerging talent and cinematic heritage across its industry programs. Uruguayan films "Spring Story" and "The Surubí" won top honors at First Look, while Florian Hoffmann’s “Yazz” was a major recipient at the Alliance 4 Development awards. The festival also announced the restoration of Anne-Marie Miéville’s 1997 film, "Nous sommes tous encore ici," underscoring its commitment to film preservation.

Precious Eseaye • Movies • 2 hours ago • 5 minute read •

Key Points

• Florian Hoffmann The most important key points include: Firstly, the Locarno Film Festival concluded its industry awards, including the First Look Focus and Locarno Pro Awards. Secondly, at First Look,

• and

• both based in Uruguay, secured five major prizes. Lastly, Anne-Marie Miéville's 1997 film

• won the Heritage Restoration Contest and will undergo complete restoration.

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• Florian Hoffmann’s “Yazz” won multiple significant awards at the Locarno Pro Awards for the Alliance 4 Development platform.

• Uruguayan projects

• Spring Story

• and

• The Surubí

• secured five major prizes at the First Look focus on Uruguay.

• Anne-Marie Miéville’s 1997 film

• Nous sommes tous encore ici

• won the Heritage Restoration Contest and will be fully restored.

Locarno Festival Shines Spotlight on 'Yazz,' 'Spring Story,' and 'The Surubí' with Major Awards!

The Locarno Film Festival, a significant event in the international cinema calendar, recently concluded its industry awards, highlighting burgeoning talent and preserving cinematic heritage across several key programs. The festival's 2026 pix-in-post First Look focus on Uruguay, along with the Locarno Pro Awards for the Alliance 4 Development platform and the Heritage Restoration Contest, celebrated a diverse range of projects and films.

At the First Look focus on Uruguay, two projects emerged as top winners, sharing five major prizes. The cross-ocean love story "Spring Story," directed and produced by Gabriela Guillermo and Irina Raffo of L’Avventura Cine, secured the Bright Side of the Moon prize for complete colour grading and the Le Film Français Award for advertising work (€5,600). This marks the fourth successful installment in a series of films, each set in a different season, co-produced by Germán Ormaechea’s Animista Cine. The false miracle comedy "The Surubí," directed by Lorenzo Tocco and produced by Monteloni with co-production from Brazil’s Kocria and Multiverso, also garnered significant recognition. This extensive title, still in its rough cut of over two hours, won La Mayor Cine Award for total sound post-production, a Music Library & SFX/Acorde Award for music supervision services (€45,000 / $51,750), and the Jannuzzi Smith Award for international poster design (€10,000 / $11,500). "The Surubí" tells the story of the post-industrial town of El Surubí, grappling with terminal decline until an enigmatic biker's arrival leads to what is hailed as a miracle – an extraordinary number of eggs laid by local chickens. The film, Tocco's feature debut, explores a hopeless community clinging to illusory hope, as producer Pancho Magnou Arnabal noted.

Other compelling Uruguayan productions showcased at First Look included "Animal Budget" ("Maltrato animal"), an 81-minute fiction film directed and produced by José Dell’Acqua Postiglione. Shot over four years, this slow-burning thriller with a quirky edge is set against Uruguay’s dramatic economic crunch of 2022, following a debt-ridden animal vet, Javier, who resorts to peddling drugs and animals. Postiglione emphasized blurring the lines between fiction and reality and celebrating new generations of Uruguayan filmmakers. "The Other Side of the Net," an 80-minute documentary directed by Maximiliano Martínez and produced by Clara Charlo and Maria Zanocchi (Los Besos Contenidos), explores emotional inheritance and transformation as a son attempts to reconnect with his estranged father through tennis. Martínez’s debut doc feature aims to build more conscious, honest, and horizontal relationships. Guillermo Casanova’s "Our Little Band of Justice" ("La pequeña Banda de la Justicia"), an 85-minute fiction film produced by Natacha López Kneit (Lavorágine Films), is a kids and family adventure set in Montevideo, 1983, during Uruguay's dictatorship. It follows Lucía, who forms a 'Little Band for Justice' to find her disappeared friend and joins the broader call for truth. Finally, "Perkal," a 75-minute documentary by Paola Perkal and produced by Valentina Baracco Peña (Monarca Films), is a deeply personal film presented as a long-postponed letter to the director's immigrant, war-survivor grandmother, Boke, and her father Isaac, exploring family history, tradition, expectations, and the many ways people continue to exist beyond their presence.

The Locarno Pro Awards for the Alliance 4 Development platform, which supports co-development projects from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, saw Florian Hoffmann’s “Yazz” emerge as a significant winner. This Swiss-German-French co-production from Tellfilm, NiKo Film, and Eaux Vives Productions, focusing on a teenager in a UN compound in the Central African Republic, secured both the Nebel Studios Award (CHF 30,500 for studio use and camera equipment) and the Studio13/Valais Film Commission Award (approximately $14,825 for studio use). The jury praised "Yazz" for its unique perspective and advanced development stage. The Masé Studios Post-Production Award, valued at nearly $31,000, was shared by two coming-of-age tales: Tamer Ruggli’s queer and feminist musical "Cuore Matto" (produced by Tipimages Productions) and Wendy Pillonel’s "Les Orages Magnétiques" ("Magnetic Storms," produced by Close Up Films), which also received the Midpoint Consulting Award for online script consultancy. Antonio Donato’s "Sparare alle Angurie" ("Shooting Watermelons"), produced by Italy’s Cinedora, received a Masé Studios Award cash voucher worth over $3,706 for its story on themes of power, masculinity, and patriarchy within a family. Jessica Puppo’s "Le Règne des Silures" ("Reign of Silures"), produced by Alexis Perrin (Rumble Fish Productions, France), won the Ticino Film Commission Residence Award, including a two-day location scout and potential financial support. Lastly, Bruce LaBruce’s "Third Take," produced by Nicolas Brevière (Local Films, France), was honored with the Alphapanda Market Breakout Award for consultancy services.

In addition to fostering new projects, the Locarno Film Festival's Heritage Restoration Contest, now in its fourth edition in collaboration with Cinegrell film lab, is dedicated to reviving cinematic heritage. This year, the prize was awarded to Anne-Marie Miéville’s 1997 film "Nous sommes tous encore ici" ("We’re All Still Here"). This three-part meditation on philosophy and everyday life, notably featuring Jean-Luc Godard in an on-screen role, was selected by an international jury. As part of the award, the film will undergo a complete restoration at Cinegrell and will premiere at the festival's 2027 edition. The jury highlighted "Nous sommes tous encore ici" as an essential work of Swiss cinema by a leading female director, emphasizing that the restoration offers a long-overdue opportunity to rediscover the film and the filmmaker's significant contribution, especially as Locarno approaches its 80th edition. Previous honorees of the contest include "Letter From My Village" (1976) by Safi Faye, "The Cannibals" (1969) by Liliana Cavani, and "Mulher de Verdade" (1954) by Alberto Cavalcanti.

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