49th Locarno Film Festival

The 49th Locarno Film Festival was held from 8 to 18 August 1996 in Locarno, Switzerland. There were seventeen films in competition and a retrospective of Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. This year the festival made a big change: the competition was no longer limited to first and second feature films from new directors.
Festival chief, Marco Mueller wished to attract bigger-name established directors to the festival and get films from returning directors who made their mark at Locarno. Therefore the festival competition was open to films from all directors, not just new filmmakers. For example, this year saw the return of filmmaker Clara Law, who won a Golden Leopard in 1992, with a new film Floating Life in competition. The festival also saw films in competition from established directors like Claire Denis and Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Additionally, some films in competition were screened on the Piazza Grande, rather the normal practice of showing all films in competition on the same screens.
The Golden Leopard, the festival's top prize, was awarded to Nénette and Boni directed by Claire Denis.

Jury

Rakshan Bani-Etemad, Iranian director
Catherine Breillat, French director and writer
Bernard Comment, Swiss Novelist and screenwriter
Giovanni Grazzini, Italian critic and film historian
Yousry Nasrallah, Egyptian film director
Marisa Paredos, Spanish actress
Christine Vachon, American film producer
Barbara Kruger, American artist

Official Sections 1996

The following films were screened in these sections:

''Piazza Grande''

International Competition

'''International Competition '''

Filmmakers of the Present (''Cineasti del Presente'')

'Filmmakers of the Present - Out of Competition'''''

Leopards of Tomorrow

Independent Sections

Critics Week

The Semaine de la Critique is an independent section, created in 1990 by the Swiss Association of Film Journalists in partnership with the Locarno Film Festival.

Official Awards

Official Jury

Golden Leopard: Nénette and Boni directed by Claire Denis
Silver Leopard: Floating Life directed by Clara Law, Marian directed by Petr Vaclav
Bronze Leopard: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Grégoire Colin in Nénette and Boni directed by Claire Denis
Special Jury Prize: AFARIT EL-ASPHALT directed by Oussama Fawzi
Special Mention, Official Jury: A Moment of Innocence directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Oecumenical Jury

Price: Miel Et Cendres directed by Nadia Farès
Special Mention: Nénette and Boni directed by Claire Denis

CICAE Jury

Prize: Choisis-Toi Un AMI... directed by Mama Keit

FIPRESCI Jury

International critics prize: Marian directed by Petr Vaclav
Special Mention: Tabu directed by Yves De Peretti

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