Alexander Payne to Be Honored at Locarno Film Festival

The Locarno Film Festival will present its Honorary Leopard Award, Pardo d’Onore, to American filmmaker Alexander Payne on Aug. 15 during its 78th edition.

Payne will also present his films “The Descendants” (2011) and “Nebraska” (2013) and take part in a public discussion with the festival audience.

“The distinctive voice behind a slate of dryly funny modern classics, writer-director Alexander Payne has secured his place on the short list of filmmakers whose work can be said to define American cinema in the 21st century,” the festival said.

Payne’s films have won three Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, and eight Golden Globes in various categories, and “exemplify the pleasures of mid-budget filmmaking for grown-ups – a besieged artform ever in need of defense.” His films include “Election” (1999), “About Schmidt” (2002), “Sideways” (2004), “Nebraska” (2013), and “The Holdovers” (2023).

Giona A. Nazzaro, Locarno’s artistic director, said: “Alexander Payne is an erudite auteur with an encyclopedic cinephile knowledge. Gifted with an unerring sense for the bittersweet facets of human comedy, he is a filmmaker with sensibilities at once exquisitely classical and modern. An impeccable director of actors who has worked with such names as Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Matt Damon, Bruce Dern and Paul Giamatti, in Payne we find a knowledge of the savoir-faire of Hollywood cinema, its poetry, and its uniqueness. Author of a unique filmography in which he has always addressed the complexities of the human condition with a smile in a constant dialogue with audiences worldwide.”

Payne will preside over the main jury of this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will take place from Aug. 6-16.