Locarno Film Festival

Locarno Film Festival is one of the few European festivals that still feels genuinely useful as a discovery engine rather than a prestige afterglow machine. Held in Switzerland and run with a strong arthouse identity, it keeps rewarding filmmakers and performers whose work can cut through noise without needing blockbuster scale to do it.

That role matters in Korean cinema. Locarno has repeatedly recognized Hong Sang-soo, from earlier prizes for Our Sunhi and Right Now, Wrong Then to the 2026 best-direction win for Nowhere to Lay My Eyes. It also became a key stage for Kim Min-hee, who won best performance there in both 2024 and 2026, while 2026 co-winner Monica Bellucci reinforced the festival's international range.

For HITKULTR, Locarno matters because it keeps proving Korean screen authority can travel through more than one lane. The festival is not just an event brand. It is part of the institutional map that gives artists, filmmakers, and production outfits such as Jeonwonsa Film durable global cultural weight.