Overview
Piazza Grande is the open-air screening section of the Locarno Film Festival, one of the three oldest A-list festivals in the world alongside Cannes and Venice. Each evening during Locarno's 11-day run in August, up to 8,000 spectators fill the town's central square to watch films on a 26-by-14-meter outdoor screen - one of the largest in Europe. The 79th edition runs August 5-15, 2026, with 14 films programmed in Piazza Grande, including multiple world premieres.
Piazza Grande is not a competition section. It is a curated program of films that combine artistic quality with broad audience appeal. The programming team selects titles that can hold the attention of an 8,000-person outdoor crowd - a very different proposition from a 200-seat indoor theater. Films that work in Piazza Grande tend to have strong emotional hooks, visual scale, or narrative momentum. The section also includes "second screenings" of restored classics: the 2026 edition screened Wild at Heart (1990), Dances with Wolves (1990), and Taxi Driver (1976) as companion pieces to new premieres.
The audience award for Piazza Grande is the Prix du Public UBS, voted by festival attendees. Films eligible for the prize are those screened in the Piazza Grande section during the festival.
History
The Locarno Film Festival was founded in 1946, the same year as Cannes. Piazza Grande screenings have been part of the festival since its early years, but the large-scale outdoor screen format was established in the 1970s. The current 26-by-14-meter screen specification has evolved with projection technology, moving from 35mm projection to digital cinema projection.
The Piazza Grande section has hosted world premieres of films by directors who went on to major international careers. The section's identity as a bridge between art cinema and audience cinema was solidified under the artistic directorship of Carlo Chatrian (2012-2018) and has continued under Giona A. Nazzaro (from 2021). The programming philosophy is distinct from the main competition: where the International Competition favors formal innovation and artistic risk, Piazza Grande favors films that can connect with a mass audience while maintaining festival-level quality.
Submission Details
Piazza Grande does not accept open submissions. The Locarno programming team selects films through curatorial relationships with distributors, sales agents, and producers. There is no FilmFreeway portal for Piazza Grande. If your film is being handled by a sales agent or international distributor, they should contact the Locarno programming office directly.
For Locarno's competition sections (International Competition, Filmmakers of the Present, Pardi di Domani), submissions are accepted via the Locarno Film Festival official website. The 79th edition (2026) received a record 7,759 submissions, up nearly 22% from 2025. The full festival program includes 223 films with 103 world premieres across all sections, originating from up to 69 countries of production and co-production.
Key Sections
- Piazza Grande Premieres - new international and world premieres selected for the open-air screen. The 2026 lineup included world premieres of Les Yeux Verts (The Green Eyes) by Fanny Liatard and Jeremy Trouilh, Armony by Dario Albertini, Ich Ist ein Anderer (I Is Another) by Felix Randau, Down the Arm of God by Peter Brunner, Il Cileno (The Chilean) by Sergio Castro-San Martin, and Demain Je Tombe Amoureux (Love Lessons) by Martin Provost.
- Second Screenings - restored classics paired with new premieres. The 2026 edition featured Wild at Heart, Dances with Wolves, and Taxi Driver.
- Pardo alla Carriera - the career achievement tribute, presented in the Piazza Grande setting.
Past Winners
Recent Prix du Public UBS winners (the top audience prize for Piazza Grande, worth 30,000 CHF):
- 2025: Rosemead by Eric Lin - The Lucy Liu-starring psychological drama won the audience award at Locarno78. Vertical acquired North American rights and released it theatrically in December 2025. Liu also received a career achievement award at the same edition.
- 2024: Reinas by Klaudia Reynicke - The Swiss-Peruvian family drama set in 1992 Lima won the audience prize at Locarno77. The film was selected as Switzerland's entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards. International sales handled by The Yellow Affair.
- 2023: The Old Oak by Ken Loach - The social drama about a declining mining town and Syrian refugees won the audience award at Locarno76. Distributed by StudioCanal in the UK and Zeitgeist Films/Kino Lorber in the US. The film premiered in competition at Cannes 2023 before its Piazza Grande screening.
- 2018: BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee - The Prix du Public UBS winner went on to win the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 91st Oscars. Distributed by Focus Features, the film grossed over $93 million worldwide.
Notable Alumni Films and Where They Ended Up
Piazza Grande has a track record of identifying films that connect with large audiences and go on to commercial and awards success:
- BlacKkKlansman (2018) - Won Prix du Public UBS, then won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Focus Features distributed it to $93 million worldwide.
- I, Daniel Blake (2016) - Won Prix du Public UBS after winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes. IFC Films distributed it in the US; eOne handled UK release. It won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film.
- The Big Sick (2017) - Won Prix du Public UBS, then received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Amazon Studios and Lionsgate distributed it to $56 million worldwide on a $5 million budget.
- Bend It Like Beckham (2002) - Won Prix du Public UBS, then became a breakout hit for Fox Searchlight, grossing over $76 million worldwide.
- The Lives of Others (2006) - Won Prix du Public UBS, then won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
Submission Tips Specific to This Festival
Piazza Grande does not accept open submissions, so "submission tips" here are about positioning. The programming team looks for films that combine artistic quality with broad audience appeal. Films that work in Piazza Grande have strong emotional hooks, visual scale, or narrative momentum. Slow-paced, dialogue-heavy films in unsubtitled languages can lose an 8,000-person outdoor crowd quickly.
If your film is represented by a sales agent or international distributor, they should contact the Locarno programming office directly. The festival's Industry Days bring buyers from A24, Bleecker Street, Kino Lorber, Mubi, Netflix, and European distributors including Pyramide, Le Pacte, Memento, and Wild Bunch. Under artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro (from 2021), the section has also opened to genre fare, so crossover horror and thriller titles with festival-level production values are now viable candidates.
For independent filmmakers without representation, the path is through Locarno's competition sections (International Competition or Filmmakers of the Present), which do accept submissions via the Locarno Film Festival official website.
Industry Reputation Notes
Locarno sits just below the Big Five (Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto) but has been realigning and surging as a global festival. Stuart Ford of AGC International noted that "Locarno offers prestige, elegance and plenty of press attention at what is a much less crowded selection than most festivals in the awards season corridor." The festival also functions as "a litmus test for international critical response that fuels discussions with upscale distributors."
In 2024, Locarno's industry arm hit a record 1,884 delegates, with 16 sales deals announced by Variety alone during the festival. The industry side is known for talent discovery rather than high-volume acquisitions. Compared to San Sebastian and Karlovy Vary, its closest peer festivals among European A-list events, Locarno is stronger for discovery and networking than for large-scale acquisitions. San Sebastian has more direct acquisition activity due to its September timing and larger industry presence, while Karlovy Vary is more regionally focused on Central and Eastern European cinema.
Awards / Accreditation
- Prix du Public UBS - 30,000 CHF cash prize, the only official audience award at the Locarno Film Festival, voted by Piazza Grande attendees since 2000
- Letterboxd Piazza Grande Award - introduced in 2024, voted by the Letterboxd community
- Pardo alla Carriera - career achievement tribute presented in the Piazza Grande setting
- FIAPF Competitive Festival - Locarno is one of only 15 FIAPF-competitive festivals worldwide
Note: The Pardo d'Oro (Golden Leopard) and main competition awards are presented in the International Competition and Filmmakers of the Present sections, not in Piazza Grande. See the Locarno Film Festival entry for the full awards breakdown.
What Filmmakers Should Know
A Piazza Grande slot gives a film one of the most spectacular screening platforms on the festival circuit. The 8,000-person audience generates immediate social media coverage and press attention. Films that play well in Piazza Grande can attract distribution interest from buyers attending Locarno's Industry Days, particularly for European territories. However, the outdoor environment is unforgiving: films that are slow-paced, dialogue-heavy in unsubtitled languages, or visually dark can lose an outdoor crowd quickly. The programming team knows this and selects accordingly.
The festival received a record 7,759 submissions for its 79th edition in 2026, up nearly 22% from 2025. The full festival program includes 223 films with 103 world premieres across all sections. Locarno78 (2025) drew 154,233 total attendees, with 63,085 in Piazza Grande alone. Professional accreditations totaled 5,002, including 1,940 industry professionals and 894 journalists.
Watch
Trailers for recent Prix du Public UBS winners:
See Also
For the full Locarno Film Festival including competition sections and Open Doors, see Locarno Film Festival. For festival circuit planning and submission strategy, see Film Festival Strategy. For international co-production opportunities, see International Film Markets. Use the Festival ROI Calculator to evaluate the cost-benefit of targeting A-list festivals like Locarno.
