The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the Italian actress, filmmaker, and musician Asia Argento with its Life Achievement Award during its 79th edition this August.
Argento will receive the award in Piazza Grande on the evening of Aug. 13 and also present, on another day, Jorge Thielen Armand’s La Muerte No Tiene Dueño (Death Has No Master), which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes this year and which stars her.
“Since making her onscreen debut as a child in Lamberto Bava’s cult sequel Demons 2 (1986) and starring in Palombella rossa (1989) by Nanni Moretti, Asia Argento, one of the most distinctive European performers of her generation, has built a singular body of work that encompasses passionately beloved genre films, auteur cinema, and intimate self-portraiture,” Locarno said. “Argento emerged as one of the most daring presences in cinema, winning two David di Donatello awards for best actress for Perdiamoci di vista (1994) by Carlo Verdone and Traveling Companion (1996) by Peter Del Monte. With her father, Dario Argento, she starred in a slew of dazzling films – starting with Trauma (1993) – that would reshape the legendary Italian auteur’s canon, most famously with The Stendhal Syndrome (1996).”
As a performer, she has collaborated with such big-name directors as Patrice Chéreau (Queen Margot, 1994), Abel Ferrara (New Rose Hotel, 1998 and Go Go Tales, 2007), Gus Van Sant (Last Days, 2005), George A. Romero (Land of the Dead, 2005), Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette, 2006), Olivier Assayas (Boarding Gate, 2007), Catherine Breillat (The Last Mistress, 2007), Bertrand Bonello (On War, 2008), and Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel (Vera, 2022).
Locarno lauded Argento for “moving with ease between Italian productions and international ensembles and bringing a powerfully distinctive cinephile sensibility to each collaboration.” She has also starred in such blockbusters as xXx (2002), directed by Rob Cohen, and cult thrillers like The Red Siren (2002), directed by Olivier Megaton.
“Parallel to her career as an actress, Argento has directed a remarkable string of her own films, from her memorable feature debut Scarlet Diva (2000) to The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) and the daring Misunderstood (2014), tracing a restless creative path in search of new forms of expression and self-exploration,” Locarno highlighted.
Giona A. Nazzaro, Locarno’s artistic director, called her “an artist who has always managed to reimagine what it means to make films, constantly challenging herself and taking personal risks.” He said: “Driven by a radical creative calling, through which she has probed the limits and explored the possibilities of cinema, both as an actress and as a director, Asia Argento embodies a vitality, generosity, and restlessness that stands as among the most vivid representations of all that cinema still has to offer.”
The 79th Locarno Film Festival will run Aug. 5-15. Darren Aronofsky will receive Locarno’s Honorary Leopard this year.
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