What Films Are Being Screened at Locarno Film Festival 2026?

The 79th Locarno Film Festival, running from 5–15 August 2026, is screening a sprawling selection of international cinema across its competition and non-competition sections. This year’s festival brings together 233 films from 69 countries, including 103 world premieres.

But if you are trying to answer the simple question — what films are being screened at Locarno 2026? — the official programme is only the beginning.

For filmmakers, distributors, sales agents and serious film audiences, the more interesting question is: which films are actually worth watching?

That is where The Studio Group comes in.

Our Locarno 79 sales intelligence analysis examined 52 films across four major sections — Concorso Internazionale, Cineasti del Presente, Piazza Grande and Fuori Concorso — looking beyond festival prestige at cast recognition, director track record, genre legibility, section placement and international sales potential.

And the result is revealing: of the 52 films assessed, just 10 emerged as priority titles, while 18 were considered selective or territory-dependent and 24 were judged primarily as festival, broadcaster or single-territory plays.

Here are the films we think deserve your attention.

The 10 films to watch at Locarno 2026

1. Frank & Louis

Director: Petra Volpe

Countries: Switzerland, United Kingdom

Section: Piazza Grande

Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rob Morgan

One of the strongest commercial propositions at Locarno this year, Frank & Louis arrives with an advantage most festival premieres simply do not have: Sundance has already tested the film.

Petra Volpe’s English-language debut stars Kingsley Ben-Adir and Rob Morgan, with the film carrying strong reviews and an awards-season positioning that recalls the trajectory of films such as Sing Sing. Volpe also arrives with a genuine commercial track record through Late Shift.

The film is represented by TrustNordisk, making it one of the most straightforward sales conversations in the Locarno lineup.

The Studio take: One of the lowest-risk acquisition plays in the festival.

2. All About Corinne

Director: Marc Fitoussi

Countries: France, Belgium

Section: Piazza Grande

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Diane Kruger, Sandrine Kiberlain

Three internationally recognised French actresses. A mainstream comedy. A Piazza Grande premiere.

All About Corinne — Ni vue, ni connue — arguably has the cleanest combination of cast recognition and accessible genre at Locarno 2026.

Isabelle Huppert brings a global arthouse identity, while Diane Kruger and Sandrine Kiberlain broaden the film's commercial profile. Unlike many of the festival's heavier dramas, comedy gives this film a potentially wider audience pathway.

For international distributors, that makes the title particularly interesting across France, Francophone Europe and specialty markets in North America and the UK.

3. Sundown

Director: Rebekah McKendry

Country: Canada

Section: Fuori Concorso

Genre: Horror

Executive Producer: Slash

Locarno isn't usually the first festival that comes to mind when you think of commercial horror.

That is exactly why Sundown stands out.

The vampire-revenge horror film is executive produced by Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, with effects work from Steven Kostanski and genre-sales powerhouse Raven Banner behind the film.

The premise is immediately legible, the genre travels internationally and the economics of horror give the film a clear path through theatrical, VOD and home-entertainment windows.

In a cautious 2026 independent film market, that matters.

The Studio take: One of the clearest genre-sales opportunities at Locarno.

4. Ketticè

Director: Giovanni Tortorici

Country: Italy

Section: Concorso Internazionale

Cast: Monica Bellucci

Producer: Luca Guadagnino

A Palermo-set coming-of-age film would ordinarily be a relatively niche proposition.

Then you add Luca Guadagnino as producer and Monica Bellucci to the cast.

Ketticè immediately becomes one of the more intriguing specialty titles in the Locarno lineup. Its Italian theatrical release is already scheduled, giving international buyers the opportunity to watch the domestic market response before making their own bets.

For European distributors, Guadagnino's name provides significant positioning power. Bellucci adds an internationally recognisable face.

The Studio take: A strong example of how talent packaging can transform the commercial potential of an otherwise modest film.

5. Armony

Director: Dario Albertini

Country: Italy

Section: Piazza Grande

Cast: Valerio Mastandrea, Asia Argento, Ornella Muti

Armony combines a broad family-drama premise with three recognisable names from Italian cinema.

The timing is particularly interesting: Asia Argento is also receiving Locarno's Life Achievement Award, giving the film an additional wave of festival publicity around its premiere.

For international buyers, the combination of recognisable Italian talent and a relatively accessible genre makes Armony more exportable than many of the festival's purely auteur-driven competition titles.

The Studio take: An Italy-first opportunity with selective international upside, particularly across Southern Europe and Latin America.

6. The Green Eyes

Directors: Fanny Liatard & Jérémy Trouilh Countries: France, Belgium, Sweden

Section: Piazza Grande

Status: Opening Film

Opening a major international film festival is itself a form of marketing.

The Green Eyes gets exactly that advantage as Locarno 79's Opening Film.

The film reunites the directing team behind Gagarine, giving it an existing festival pedigree, while its themes around deportation and migration give European broadcasters and socially engaged distributors a clear positioning angle.

There is no major star cast to sell the film. Instead, its biggest asset is festival visibility plus director pedigree.

The Studio take: A classic example of how section placement can become a commercial asset.

7. I Is Another

Director: Felix Randau

Countries: Germany, Austria

Section: Piazza Grande

Cast: Claes Bang, Valerie Pachner

Felix Randau's previous film, Iceman, demonstrated something increasingly valuable in international distribution: visual storytelling that travels across language barriers.

I Is Another pairs Randau with Claes Bang and Valerie Pachner, two actors with established international recognition.

The combination of survival-thriller DNA, internationally recognisable talent and a Piazza Grande slot makes this one of the more commercially legible European films in the programme.

The Studio take: A film whose visual language could make it considerably more exportable than its German-Austrian origins suggest.

8. Down the Arm of God

Director: Peter Brunner

Countries: France, United States

Section: Piazza Grande

Cast: Caleb Landry Jones, Mena Suvari

Peter Brunner's psychological-horror sensibility meets two recognisable genre-friendly actors in Down the Arm of God.

Caleb Landry Jones and Mena Suvari give the film a recognisable international face, while Brunner's previous work provides a genre pedigree that makes the film particularly interesting to specialty distributors and streaming platforms.

This is less a four-quadrant theatrical proposition and more the kind of title that can potentially bridge festival cinema, genre audiences and VOD.

The Studio take: A strong niche-theatrical and streaming crossover candidate.

9. Bloody Tennis

Director: Nikias Chryssos

Country: Germany

Section: Fuori Concorso

Genre: High-concept thriller

The easiest film at Locarno to pitch in one sentence may also be one of the most commercially interesting.

Bloody Tennis centres on an elite academy where athletic competition turns into literal survival.

That's the pitch.

It is immediate, visual and inherently marketable — exactly the sort of high-concept premise that can travel through trailers, social media and genre marketing without requiring an audience to understand an elaborate auteur framework.

Chryssos previously directed the cult film Der Bunker, giving the film a festival-to-genre crossover pedigree.

The Studio take: If the trailer delivers, this could be one of Locarno's most commercially interesting discoveries.

10. Rehmat

Director: Gurvinder Singh

Countries: India, France

Section: Concorso Internazionale

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah

For Indian cinema, Rehmat may be the most important title in the Locarno programme.

Gurvinder Singh's film marks India's return to Locarno's main competition after a four-year gap, while featuring Naseeruddin Shah in his first Punjabi-language performance.

The film is a 157-minute, three-story slow-cinema work — which makes it a difficult proposition for mainstream theatrical distribution.

But commercially broad does not mean commercially irrelevant.

For the UK, Canada and Australia, the Punjabi diaspora creates a very specific audience pathway. For festivals and awards programmers, the film's Locarno competition placement gives it substantial positioning value.

The Studio take: Not a mass-market Indian theatrical play. Potentially a very interesting international festival, diaspora and premium-streaming title.

What else is screening at Locarno 2026?

The 10 films above are the titles our analysis identifies as the highest-priority commercial opportunities, but they are only part of the wider programme.

Among the other notable films being screened are:

• Love Lessons — Martin Provost, starring Chiara Mastroianni

• Paper Tiger — James Gray, starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller

• The Invite — Olivia Wilde, starring Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton and Wilde

• Brave New Love — Maria Bäck

• Donkey Princess — Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña

• Hearing — Lê Bảo

• Manhunt — Wayne Wapeemukwa

• Nobody's Violence — Denis Côté

• Nowhere to Lay My Eyes — Hong Sang-soo

• Objet a — Ann Oren, starring Louis Hofmann

• Bruton — Vincent Grashaw

• Roma Elastica — Bertrand Mandico, starring Ornella Muti

• Sixteen Moments of My Life — Albert Serra

• Demons — Natalka Vorozhbyt

• Destroy All Girls — Erin Vassilopoulos

• Revolutionaries Never Die — Mohanad Yaqubi

• Tear Gas — Uta Beria

• The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer — Alessandra Sanguinetti

These titles sit across the festival's competition and discovery sections and represent a much broader spectrum of international arthouse, documentary, experimental and genre cinema.

Which Locarno section should you actually be watching?

Locarno's programme is easier to understand if you stop treating every section equally.

Piazza Grande: the commercial shopfront

Piazza Grande is Locarno's enormous outdoor screening space and the section most deliberately designed to bring together cinephiles, genre audiences and the general public.

This year's lineup includes Frank & Louis, All About Corinne, Armony, The Green Eyes, I Is Another and Down the Arm of God.

It is also where the festival's strongest concentration of recognisable actors sits. Of the 52 titles assessed in our intelligence brief, only 13 had notable cast names at all — and eight of those came from Piazza Grande.

Concorso Internazionale: prestige and discovery

The main competition is where films compete for the Golden Leopard.

But from a sales perspective, competition placement should not automatically be confused with commercial potential.

Ketticè and Rehmat are two good examples of films where competition prestige intersects with a specific commercial opportunity. Other titles may be considerably more valuable for festival positioning, critical discovery and future filmmaker relationships than immediate sales.

Fuori Concorso: where genre gets interesting

If you are looking for the films most aligned with the current international appetite for high-concept, elevated genre and horror, pay attention here.

Sundown and Bloody Tennis are the two clearest examples.

The current independent market is increasingly rewarding films that can be explained quickly and marketed clearly. That makes Fuori Concorso one of the most interesting areas of Locarno for buyers looking beyond traditional arthouse positioning.

Cineasti del Presente: watch the filmmakers, not just the films

Cineasti del Presente focuses on first and second features.

That makes it less immediately interesting if your objective is to acquire a film today — but potentially much more interesting if you're thinking about what comes next.

This is where future festival names can emerge before their commercial value becomes obvious.

For a company interested in tracking the evolution of international filmmakers, this is precisely the kind of section worth monitoring.

Two big films at Locarno that aren't really acquisitions

There are two obvious names that need a caveat.

James Gray's Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, is screening in Piazza Grande. But the film has already premiered in Cannes and is distributed in the US by Neon.

Similarly, Olivia Wilde's The Invite, starring Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, is already distributed by A24.

So while both are among the highest-profile films screening at Locarno, they should primarily be viewed as festival programming, market comps and relationship opportunities, unless specific international territories remain open.

What does the Locarno 2026 lineup tell us about the film market?

This is where the programme becomes more interesting than a list of titles.

The 2026 market is increasingly star-dependent and genre-conscious.

Traditional arthouse positioning alone is becoming harder to sell internationally. Buyers are looking for recognisable talent, strong concepts and genres that provide an obvious audience pathway.

Locarno reflects that shift.

Look at the strongest commercial titles in the lineup:

Kingsley Ben-Adir + Rob Morgan + awards positioning.

Huppert + Kruger + Kiberlain + comedy.

Slash + horror.

Guadagnino + Monica Bellucci.

Claes Bang + survival-thriller DNA.

A literal bloody tennis academy.

The common denominator isn't simply "good films."

It is films that can be understood, positioned and sold.

That distinction is increasingly important.

At The Studio Group, this is exactly the kind of cultural and market intelligence we track across the global entertainment ecosystem — not simply what films are premiering, but why certain films have a stronger chance of travelling, finding audiences and creating commercial value.

Explore more of our work at The Studio Group.

The five Locarno films we'd watch first

If you only have time for five films at Locarno 79, our shortlist is:

1. Frank & Louis — the strongest combination of reviews, cast and awards potential.

2. All About Corinne — arguably the most bankable cast-to-genre combination.

3. Sundown — the clearest international genre proposition.

4. Ketticè — Guadagnino and Bellucci create a strong specialty-distribution hook.

5. Bloody Tennis — potentially the most marketable original concept in the lineup.

And if you're coming from India, add Rehmat to that list.

Not because it is necessarily the biggest commercial film at Locarno — it isn't — but because it represents something much more interesting: an Indian film entering one of Europe's most important auteur competitions with a major Indian actor, a Punjabi-language identity and a very specific international diaspora opportunity.

That is precisely the kind of signal worth tracking.

For more film-market intelligence, festival analysis and data-backed thinking about where cinema is going next, visit The Studio Group.