Darren Aronofsky to Be Honored by Locarno Film Festival
Plus Icon
Nick Vivarelli
International Correspondent
@NickVivarelli See All
The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate Darren Aronofsky with its Honorary Leopard Award.
The prominent Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema will celebrate the American auteur on Aug. 14 during a ceremony on its 8,000-seat Piazza Grande. Aronofsky will also present his films “The Fountain” (2006) and “Mother!” (2017) and take part in an onstage public conversation.
“With era-defining films like “Pi”(1998), “Requiem for a Dream” (2000), the Venice film festival award-winner “The Wrestler” (2008), “Black Swan” (2010), “Noah” (2014), and “The Whale” (2022) – for which Brendan Fraser was deservedly awarded Best Actor at the Academy Awards – Darren Aronofsky has carved out a space in contemporary cinema that defies tidy categorisation,” the fest said in a statement.
“By turns provocative, spiritual, and formally daring, his films have for more than a quarter century probed the outer limits of faith, desire, and obsession,” it added.
Popular on Variety
Aronofsky’s most recent feature film is the black comedy “Caught Stealing” starring Austin Butler. He also produced “On This Day… 1776,” an animated series that premiered earlier this year which re-creates moments from America’s founding year and used artificial intelligence to travel back in time 250 years ago, but used real-life human actors to provide the voices.
Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro lavished further praise on Aronofsky calling him “an auteur who has made the sheer force of creativity, invention, and audacity his trademark.”
“As a filmmaker, he has succeeded in creating an unmistakable body of work, so much so that the adjective ‘Aronofskian’ is now used to characterise a deeply personal and unconventional style that nonetheless moves freely between different genres and approaches,” he added.
Nazzaro continued: “In his specific case anchored in those themes and obsessions that he has tirelessly explored: faith, motherhood, the conflicts with authoritarian father figures, and the challenges inherent in the creation of societies.”
Previous recipients of the Locarno award include Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Kelly Reichardt, John Waters, Marco Bellocchio, Agnès Varda, Harmony Korine, Jane Campion, and Alexander Payne.
The 79th edition of Locarno will run Aug. 5-15.
Jump to Comments-
George Clooney Defends Jimmy Kimmel After Trump’s ‘Heated’ Call for His Firing: ‘Jokes Are Jokes’
-
Judge Dismisses Trump’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal Over Epstein ‘Birthday Book’ Report
-
Donald Trump Slams ‘Nut Jobs’ Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Alex Jones for Opposing Iran War: ‘They’re Stupid People’
-
John Oliver Selling Stickers to Hide Donald Trump’s Face on National Park Passes: Don’t ‘Look at the Guy Who’s Actively Trying to Ruin Them’
-
Disney Stands Its Ground in the Face of Trump’s Jimmy Kimmel Temper Tantrum and FCC Harassment
-
Melania Trump Urges ABC to ‘Take a Stand’ Against ‘Coward’ Jimmy Kimmel: ‘His Hateful and Violent Rhetoric Is Intended to Divide Our Country’
Схожі новини
"Втомлені", "Мортал Комбат II" і "Вівці-детективи": головні кінопрем'єри цього тижня
У Брюсселі пройшов вечір бандурної музики
У МЗС України відкрився виставковий проєкт "Повернення пам'яті Херсона"
