Toxic (Akiplėša), the debut feature by Lithuanian director Saulė Bliuvaitė, has claimed the 2024 Golden Leopard, the highest accolade at the Locarno F
Toxic (Akiplėša), the debut feature by Lithuanian director Saulė Bliuvaitė, has claimed the 2024 Golden Leopard, the highest accolade at the Locarno Film Festival.
The film follows the lives of two teenage girls from a desolate industrial town as they navigate the harsh environment of an unconventional local modeling school. Featuring a cast of non-professional actors, Toxic was previously showcased in the Les Arcs work-in-progress program in 2023 and won an award at Meeting Point Vilnius earlier this year.
Handled by Bendita Film Sales, Toxic also secured Locarno’s Swatch First Feature Award. The prestigious Golden Leopard award comes with a cash prize of CHF 75,000 ($86,650), shared between Bliuvaitė and the film’s producer.
Other notable winners include Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon, which received the Special Jury Prize. The film stars Austrian choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger as an ex-professional kickboxer who becomes a personal trainer for a wealthy Middle Eastern family.
Laurynas Bareiša took home the Leopard for Best Director with Drowning Dry, a film exploring the repercussions of a near-tragic accident during a family weekend. The film also won one of the two gender-neutral Best Performance Awards, shared by cast members Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela, and Paulius Markevičius. The other acting award went to Kim Minhee for her role in Hong Sangsoo’s By The Stream.
The jury, led by Jessica Hausner and featuring Payal Kapadia, Tim Blake Nelson, Diana Elbaum, and Luca Marinelli, recognized outstanding achievements across various categories.
SOURCE: LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL ‘TOXIC’
Additional Honors in Filmmakers of the Present Competition
In the Filmmakers of the Present competition, the Golden Leopard for Best Film, accompanied by a prize of CHF 35,000 ($40,400), was awarded to Tato Kotetishvili’s Holy Electricity. Denise Fernandes won the Best Emerging Director Award for Hanami, while the Special Jury Prize Ciné+ went to Maxime Jean-Baptiste for Listen To The Voices.
The Best Performance Awards in this category were given to Callie Hernandez for Invention by Courtney Stephens and Anna Mészöly for Bálint Szimler’s Lesson Learned.
The inaugural cross-section Mubi Award for a debut feature, worth CHF 10,000 ($11,500), was presented to Sylvie Ballyot’s Green Line, a documentary that uses miniature sets and animated figures to depict a woman’s confrontation with former militiamen who once terrorized her West Beirut neighborhood.
Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro emphasized that the major awards won by Bliuvaitė, Ayub, and Ballyot underscore the festival’s commitment to highlighting women’s voices in contemporary cinema.
The next edition of the Locarno Film Festival is scheduled for August 6-16, 2025.
LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL – Sari Albeder
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