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Locarno Film Festival to Honor Virginie Efira With Leopard Club Award
The Belgian-born actress will receive the award on Aug. 7 in Piazza Grande and present a film for which she won best actress at Cannes. The 79th edition runs Aug. 5-15, 2026.
The Hollywood ReporterAudio version
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The Locarno Film Festival will honor Virginie Efira with the Leopard Club Award at its 79th edition, the festival announced Thursday. Efira will receive the award in Piazza Grande on the evening of Aug. 7 and will present Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden (Soudain) during the program.
Efira won the Palme d’Or for best actress at Cannes for All of a Sudden and learned to act partly in Japanese for the role. The festival said she has become a defining presence in French-language cinema over the past decade and earned the César for best actress in 2023 for Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories (Revoir Paris).
She also starred in Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales (Histoires parallèles) at Cannes 2026 opposite Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel.
Earlier credits include Paul Verhoeven’s Elle and Benedetta as well as three films directed by Justine Triet: Victoria, Sibyl and Anatomy of a Fall. Giona A. Nazzaro, Locarno’s artistic director, said Efira brings a unique sensibility to her roles.
“Bold yet thoughtful, instinctive yet ironic, she offers contemporary cinema a fresh perspective that continually reinvents itself,” Nazzaro said. The Leopard Club Award is presented each year to an individual whose work in the film industry has left its mark on the collective imagination.
Previous recipients include Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow, Andy García, Stefania Sandrelli, Adrien Brody, Meg Ryan, Hilary Swank, Kasia Smutniak, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Irène Jacob and Emma Thompson.
5-15, 2026.
