Locarno 2025 Awards: Japanese Drama TABI TO HIBI Wins Top Honors at 78th Locarno Film Festival
The 78th Locarno Film Festival concluded its vibrant eleven-day celebration of global cinema with a triumphant win for Sho Miyake’s Two Seasons, Two Strangers (Tabi to Hibi), which claimed the prestigious Pardo d’Oro – Grand Prize of the Festival and the City of Locarno. The Japanese drama marked a historic fourth win for Japan at Locarno, joining the ranks of Gate of Hell, This Transient Life, and The Rebirth.
Miyake’s meditative and quietly poetic film stood out in a competition that embraced the entire spectrum of contemporary cinema, from experimental visions to classically crafted narratives. Two Seasons, Two Strangers was praised for its restrained storytelling and its evocation of intimacy across cultural and emotional distances.
The Special Jury Prize – Cities of Ascona and Losone – was awarded to White Snail by Austrian-German directing duo Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter. A hauntingly lyrical tale of human fragility and ecological anxiety, White Snail was one of the festival’s critical favorites, also earning the Best Performance Award for leads Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov.
Another major accolade went to Lebanese-Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel, who received the Pardo for Best Direction for Tales of the Wounded Land. A sweeping cinematic meditation on resilience and generational trauma, Fahdel’s latest solidifies his status as one of the Middle East’s essential auteurs.
In a rare move, the Pardo for Best Performance was awarded to two separate duos. Alongside Imbro and Senkov for White Snail, the jury also honored Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić for their emotionally raw and nuanced performances in God Will Not Help (Bog neće pomoći) by Hana Jušić. The Croatian-Italian-Romanian-Greek co-production offered a stark portrayal of psychological repression and social disintegration in post-transition Europe.
Among the standouts in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente, the section dedicated to emerging directors, the top prize – Pardo d’Oro – went to Hair, Paper, Water…(Tóc, giấy và nước… ) by Belgian-Vietnamese duo Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý. This sensorially rich film, set in the semi-urban peripheries of Vietnam, blurs memory, longing, and the lingering residues of colonialism in a dreamy visual language.
The Best Emerging Director Award went to Cecilia Kang for Hijo Mayor, an Argentine-French hybrid docudrama exploring gendered memory and generational tension through the eyes of a Korean-Argentine family. Meanwhile, the Special Jury Prize CINÉ+ went to Margherita Spampinato for Sweetheart (Gioia Mia), a tender, bittersweet coming-of-age tale that also earned veteran Italian actress Aurora Quattrocchi a Best Performance award.
Rising Georgian star Levan Gelbakhiani was also honored with a Pardo for Best Performance for his role in Jacqueline Zünd’s Don’t Let the Sun, a reflective Swiss-Italian co-production.
On the short film front, Neo Sora’s A Very Straight Neck took home the Pardino d’Oro for Best Auteur Short Film, while the International Short Film award went to Hyena by Altay Ulan Yang (USA). Among Swiss short films, Rio Remains Beautiful by Felipe Casanova stood out, earning both the national Pardino d’Oro and the European Film Awards nomination.
In the first feature categories, Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker Sophy Romvari won the Swatch First Feature Award for Blue Heron, a delicate study of grief and creative rebirth. British auteur Ben Rivers earned the Pardo Verde for Mare’s Nest, a cinematic fable at the intersection of environmental collapse and mythic storytelling.
The Prix du Public UBS, the festival’s audience award, went to Rosemead, a moving Asian-American family drama directed by Eric Lin and starring Locarno78 Career Achievement Award recipient Lucy Liu. Set in suburban California, the film resonated with Piazza Grande audiences for its quiet emotional honesty and Liu’s magnetic performance.
With 224 films, 101 world premieres, and over 300 screenings, Locarno78 proved itself once again as a global hub of discovery, experimentation, and cinephile communion. The festival’s atmosphere was elevated by star-studded appearances from Emma Thompson, Jackie Chan, Willem Dafoe, Golshifteh Farahani, and Alexander Payne, all of whom brought their charisma to Locarno’s beloved Piazza Grande.
Concorso Internazionale
Pardo d’Oro – Grand Prize of the Festival and City of Locarno
Two Seasons, Two Strangers by Sho Miyake (Japan)
Special Jury Prize – Cities of Ascona and Losone
White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter (Austria/Germany)
Best Direction
Abbas Fahdel for Tales of the Wounded Land (Lebanon)
Best Performance
Manuela Martelli & Ana Marija Veselčić in God Will Not Help (Croatia/Italy/Romania/Greece/France/Slovenia)
Marya Imbro & Mikhail Senkov in White Snail (Austria/Germany)
Special Mention
Dry Leaf by Alexandre Koberidze (Germany/Georgia)
Concorso Cineasti del Presente
Pardo d’Oro
Hair, Paper, Water… by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý (Belgium/France/Vietnam)
Best Emerging Director
Cecilia Kang for Hijo Mayor (Argentina/France)
Special Jury Prize CINÉ+
Sweetheart by Margherita Spampinato (Italy)
Best Performance
Aurora Quattrocchi in Sweetheart (Italy)
Levan Gelbakhiani in Don’t Let the Sun (Switzerland/Italy)
Prix du Public UBS – Piazza Grande
Rosemead by Eric Lin (USA)
First Feature
Swatch First Feature Award
Blue Heron by Sophy Romvari (Canada/Hungary)
Pardo Verde – Environmental Sustainability
Mare’s Nest by Ben Rivers (UK/France/Canada)
Short Films (Pardi di Domani)
A Very Straight Neck by Neo Sora – Best Auteur Short Film
Hyena by Altay Ulan Yang – Best International Short Film
O Rio de Janeiro Continua Lindo by Felipe Casanova – Best Swiss Short Film & European Film Awards candidate
The 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will take place from 5-15 August 2026.
Cover image courtesy of Locarno Film Festival.
