Lithuanian teen drama ‘Toxic’ wins big at Locarno Film Festival

Lithuanian cinema, usually not well represented on the international film festival circuit, was the big story at this year’s Locarno Film Festival awards ceremony, with two films from the Baltic country winning a number of top prizes together.

“Toxic,” a promising debut from writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė, not only won the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the festival’s main international competition – from a jury chaired by Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner – but also, in an unusual double, the top prize in the separately judged First Feature Competition. Bliuvaitė’s compatriot Laurynas Bareiša, meanwhile, won Best Director in the international competition for his second feature, “Drowning Dry,” while the film’s ensemble also collectively took home one of the jury’s gender-neutral acting awards.

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“Toxic” was a poignant study of alliances and rivalries among teenage girls enrolled in a modeling school in a small Lithuanian town. The film stood out in the competition for its youth and precision of gaze, as it addressed issues of financial and sexual exploitation, as well as the damaging effects of body image. VarietyThe positive review described the film as “sobering, but not without glimpses of tenderness and humor, as female friendship takes root in a hopeless place”, adding that the “alternation between cold calm and kinetic movement roughly corresponds to (the protagonist’s) wavering sense of self-worth”.

Before presenting the award to Bareiša, Hausner praised the film for its “artistic visual style, its very powerful actresses and actors, and its really original and unusual story structure, (which leads to) an understanding of the hardship and beauty of being different – you could even say, of being a freak.” Accepting the award, the young filmmaker mentioned her “humble beginnings” and continued: “I want to use this platform to recognize this privilege that we have now, that we can celebrate cinema and make films… in many parts of the world people don’t have this privilege to feel safe, they have to fight just to exist.”

In addition to the Golden Leopard and the First Feature Award – where the film beat out the other international competition entry, “Green Line,” by French director Sylvie Ballyot, to come in second – “Toxic” also won the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

“Drowning Dry,” a structurally complex, narratively fractured portrait of two sisters whose families are torn apart by tragedy, marked a confident step forward for Lithuanian cinematographer and director Bareiša, whose debut feature “Pilgrims” triumphed in Venice’s Horizons competition in 2021. Apparently, the jury – which also included actors Tim Blake Nelson and Luca Marinelli, producer Diana Elbaum and recently Cannes-winning filmmaker Payal Kapadia – had a hard time choosing just one candidate for Best Actor: not only did they jointly award the prize to the four stellar leads of “Drowning Dry” – Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevičius – but the quartet also shared the prize with South Korean star Kim Minhee for her funny, delicate turn as a reclusive art teacher in prolific director Hong Sangsoo’s latest comedy “By the Stream.”

The Special Jury Prize — effectively the runner-up to the Golden Leopard — went to Iraqi-born, Austria-based director Kurdwin Ayub for her sophomore feature, “Moon,” a puzzling thriller about a martial artist hired to train three Jordanian sisters under veiled conditions. Ayub, whose debut, “Sonne,” won her the Best First Feature Award at the 2022 Berlinale, thanked her producer, veteran Austrian auteur Ulrich Seidl, before pointing to the cat-shaped trophy: “My cats are going to love this award!” Among the independent jury prizes, Ayub also won the Europe Cinemas Label Prize, as well as a special mention from the Ecumenical Jury.

Special mentions from the jury went to Spanish director Mar Coll for her haunting psychodrama “Salve Maria,” and to Chinese documentary filmmaker Wang Bing for his nearly four-hour “Youth (Hard Times),” the second installment in his epic nonfiction trilogy chronicling the lives and struggles of textile workers in Huzhou City. (The third installment, “Youth (Homecoming),” will premiere in competition in Venice next month.)

In the festival’s second Filmmakers of the Present competition, Georgian director Tato Kotetishvili took home the top prize for his debut feature “Holy Electricity,” a vividly idiosyncratic tale of two Tbilisi cousins who attempt to con gullible locals with fake neon crucifixes, while filmmakers Maha Haj (for “Upshot”), Mickey Lai (for “Washhh”) and Samuel Patthey (for “Sans Voix”) each triumphed in separate segments of the festival’s extensive Pardi di Domani short film competition. The festival’s Audience Award, the UBS Prix du Public, will be presented separately tonight at Locarno’s central outdoor Piazza Grande before the screening of the closing film, actor-director Laetitia Dosch’s unconventional Cannes-premiered legal farce “Dog on Trial.”

In his statement on the awards, Locarno Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro described them as emblematic of the festival’s reputation for nurturing and crowning new talent: “Creativity and hope for a better future were the elements that ran through all the sections. Cinema is a driving force and Locarno is a flagship for it. We are truly proud of this edition and grateful for the great team effort behind its success. The victory of newcomer Saulė Bliuvaitė confirms the Locarno Film Festival’s ability to identify the most innovative talents in the industry.”

Nazzaro went on to point to the many victories for female filmmakers at today’s ceremony, including Bliuvaitė, Mond, Ballyot and Swiss-Cape Verdean director Denise Fernandes, who won Best Emerging Director in the Filmmakers of the Present section for her debut “Hanami.” “Locarno77 has further confirmed the centrality of women’s voices in contemporary cinema,” he concluded.

Below is the full list of winners:

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Golden Leopard for Best Film: ‘Poisonous’, Saulė Bliuvaitė
Special Jury Prize: “Moon,” Kurdwin Ayub
Best Director: Laurynas Bareiša, ‘Drowning Dry’
Best performance: (ex aequo) Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevičius, “Drowning Dry”; Kim Minhee, ‘On the Current’
Special mentions: “Youth (Hard Times),” Wang Bing; “Salve Maria,” Mar Coll

CINEASTI DEL PRESENT (FILMMAKERS OF THE PRESENT) COMPETITION

Best film: ‘Holy Electricity’, Tato Kotetishvili
Best Emerging Director: Denise Fernandes, “Hanami”
Special Jury Prize: “Listen to the voices,” Maxime Jean-Baptiste
Best performance: (equal) Callie Hernandez, “Invention”; Anna Mészöly, “Lesson Learned”
Special mentions: “Lesson Learned,” Bálint Szimler; “When the Phone Ringed,” Iva Radivojević

FIRST TOY COMPETITION

Swatch Award for First Feature Film: ‘Poisonous’, Saulė Bliuvaitė
MUBI Award for Debut Film: “Green Line,” Sylvie Ballyotr
Special mentions: “Hanami,” Denise Fernandes; “Listen to the Voices,” Maxime Jean-Baptiste

PARDI DI DOMANI SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Author Short Competition
Best Short Film by an Author: “Proceeds,” Maha Haj
Special mention: “The Masked Monster,” Syeyoung Park
Short film nominee at the Locarno Film Festival – European Film Awards: “The Exploding Girl,” Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel

International competition
Best International Short Film: “Washhhh,” Mickey Lai
Pardino of Silver: “Hymn of the Plague,” Ataka51
Best Director: “Que te Vaya Bonito, Rico,” Joel Alfonso Vargas
Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award: “The Shape”, Melika Pazouki
Special mention: “Freak”, Claire Barnett

National competition
Best Swiss Short Film: ‘Without Voice’, Samuel Patthey
Pardino of Silver: “Better not kill the groove,” Jonathan Leggett
Award for Best Swiss Newcomer: Gabriel Grosclaude, “Lux Carne”
Special mention: “Progress Mining”, Gabriel Böhmer

PARDO VERDE CONTEST

Green grass: “Agora,” Ala Eddine Slim
Special mentions: “Der Fleck”, Willy Hans; “Round Rounds”, Johann Lurf and Christina Jauernik

PRIZES FROM AN INDEPENDENT JURY

Ecumenical Jury Prize: ‘Poisonous’, Saulė Bliuvaitė
Special mention: “Moon,” Kurdwin Ayub
FIPRESCI Prize: “Youth (Hard Times),” Wang Bing
Europa Cinemas label: “Moon,” Kurdwin Ayub

JUNIOR JURY PRIZES

International competition
First prize: “Green Line,” Sylvie Ballyot
Second Prize: ‘Poisonous’, Saulė Bliuvaitė
Third Prize: “Salve Maria,” Mar Coll
Environment is Quality of Life Price: “Youth (Hard Times),” Wang Bing

Filmmakers of the Present Contest
First prize: ‘Holy Electricity’, Tato Kotetishvili
Special mention: “Olivia & Las Nubes,” Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat

Short film competition
International competition prize: ‘Razeh-Del’, Maryam Tafakory
Special mention: ‘Punter’, Jason Adam Maselle
National Competition Prize: ‘Without Voice’, Samuel Patthey
Special mention: “Lux Carne”, Gabriel Grosclaude
Author Short Award: “Proceeds,” Maha Haj
Environment is Quality of Life Price: “Three Leaves”, Eléonore Coyette and Sephora Monteau

CRITICS WEEK AWARDS

Grand Prix: ‘We Aren’, Simon Baumann
Marco Zucchi Prize (for the most aesthetically and formally innovative documentary): “La Déposition,” Claudia Marschal

Residency Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur @ Villa Sträuli: Maryam Tafakory

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