Rithy Panh, the Cambodian filmmaker and “chronicler of his country’s traumas and gradual social recovery,” will serve as jury president of the Locarno Film Festival‘s main competition jury, the Concorso Internazionale, overseeing the process that will decide the winner of the Pardo d’Oro, or Golden Leopard, at the 78th edition of the Swiss festival this summer.
“Acclaimed around the world for his investigations into Cambodian history both during and after the years of the Khmer Rouge dictatorship, Rithy Panh is one of contemporary cinema’s most courageous and consistent defenders of artistic freedom and an indefatigable champion of the power of historical truth,” the fest said. “Since 1994, his feature films have been acclaimed around the world, giving voice to those whose lives were destroyed through horrifying state violence.”
His most recent film, Meeting With Pol Pot (2024), starring Irène Jacob and Grégoire Colin, debuted last year at the Cannes Film Festival.
“Cinema offers the opportunity to discover new perspectives, cultures, and stories,” said Panh. “If we have patience, cinema rewards us with its grace. Cinema can also preserve history, influence mindsets, and provide a space for reflection and escape. I am convinced that the diversity of viewpoints and narrative experiences enriches our understanding of the world. As the president of the jury, I wish to highlight films that celebrate this diversity and offer unique perspectives.”
Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno festival, lauded Panh as “a key figure in 20th-century cinema,” highlighting: “His gaze has reinvented the forms of contemporary filmmaking, creating a historiography in images that has exerted an incalculable influence on countless film directors. As an authoritative witness of our time, his passionate search for truth, his anti-dogmatic approach, and his genuine commitment, as well as his capacity to move freely between the numerous forms of present-day film-making were the crucial elements that prompted us, spontaneously and enthusiastically, to offer him the task of president of the jury of the Concorso Internazionale at the 78th Locarno Film Festival.”
Concluded Nazzaro: “His artistic freedom and prolific, inexhaustible creativity make Mr. Rithy Panh the ideal figure to whom we can entrust those films, thus preparing them for the encounter with audiences from all over the world.”
The 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will take place Aug. 6-16.