Written and directed by Sho Miyake, the 2025 Japanese drama film is based on Yoshiharu Tsuge’s work ‘Mr. Ben and His Iglu, A View of the Seaside’, following the story of two people meeting by the seaside.
Sho Miyake becomes the fourth Japanese winner of the festival’s most prestigious award in its history, held annually in Locarno, Italian Switzerland.
This edition also honored ‘White Snail’, by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, with the special jury prize, while Abbas Fahdel received the award for best direction for ‘Tales of the Wounded Land’.
The two best acting awards went to Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselcic for ‘Bog nece pomoci’ (God Will Not Help), by Hana Jusic, and to Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov, stars of ‘White Snail’.
The golden leopard for emerging filmmakers was awarded to ‘Cabelo, Papel, Água…’, by Nicolas Graux and Truong Minh Quý.
Portugal was represented in the festival with the film ‘As estações’, by French director Maureen Fazendeiro, residing in Lisbon, a feature filmed in Alentejo.
The work competed not only for the top prize but also for the green leopard, an award recognizing productions focused on ecosystems.
The 11-day festival was once again highlighted by “packed cinemas, memorable moments, and lasting encounters,” noted the organization in a statement highlighting the presence of notable figures such as British actress and writer Emma Thompson, Jackie Chan, Willem Dafoe, French-Iranian Golshifteh Farahani, Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Alexander Payne, costume designer Milena Canonero, and Asian-American star Lucy Liu, among others.
Featuring 224 films, 101 world premieres, and over 300 screenings, the festival turned Locarno’s cinemas into a showcase of the best of world cinema, revealing “the vitality and formal diversity of Swiss and international film production, bringing an extraordinary range of works into dialogue,” according to the organization.
The 79th edition of the festival is scheduled to take place from August 5 to 15, 2026.
