The Locarno Film Festival will honor Belgian actress Virginie Efira and celebrate her with the Cheetah Club Award at its 79th session next August.
Efira will receive the award in the Swiss city’s Piazza Grande on Friday evening, August 7. In the festival program, the works of Ryosuke Hamaguchi will also be presented. suddenly (Sudan) for which she won the Palme Award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and for which she partly learned acting in Japanese.
“Over the past decade, Virginie Ivera has become a distinguished presence in French-speaking cinema,” Locarno said Thursday. “In 2023, she received the César Award for Best Actress for Alice Winokur Memories of Paris (Return of Paris) and has repeatedly ventured into bold, formally adventurous work with some of the most distinguished contemporary filmmakers.
Also at Cannes 2026, Efira starred in Asghar Farhadi’s film Parallel stories (Parallel histories), another competition title, where she appeared opposite Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel.
“Along with popular successes, Evera’s career was marked by memorable turns with Dutch author Paul Verhoeven and… Anatomy of a fall “(2023) directed by Justine Tritt,” Locarno said. “In Verhoeven deer (2016), especially in Benedetta (2021), Ivera has demonstrated a willingness to inhabit provocative and demanding characters whose thorny complexities resist easy categorization. Her exceptional performance in Triet’s Victoria (2016) and Divination (2019) also confirmed that gift and, along with a few other great films of the period, secured her place as one of the rising stars of modern European cinema.
“Virginie Ifiera brings a unique sensibility to her roles as an actress. Bold yet thoughtful, instinctive yet sarcastic, she offers contemporary cinema a new perspective that constantly reinvents itself. From working with Verhoeven to Hamaguchi and beyond, she has continually explored her artistic potential, revealing a talent that develops with freedom and vitality. Ifiera embodies the beauty of what it means to be,” said Giona Nazzaro, Locarno Artistic Director. Be an actress in today’s cinema.”
The Leopard Club, the official supporting association of the Locarno Festival, presents the Leopard Club Award each year to “an individual whose work in the film industry has left its mark on the collective imagination.” Stars receiving the honor include Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow, Andy Garcia, Stefania Sandrelli, Adrien Brody, Meg Ryan, Hilary Swank, Kasia Smutniak, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Erin Jacob and Emma Thompson.
The 79th edition of Locarno will take place from August 5 to 15.
