Asia Argento to Receive Locarno Lifetime Achievement
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- Asia Argento will receive the Locarno Film Festival's lifetime achievement award on Aug. 13 in the Swiss lakeside town's 8,000-seat outdoor Piazza Grande
- Argento will also present her most recent film, Jorge Thielen Armand's "Death Has No Master," at the ceremony
- The actress-director is the daughter of Italian horror maestro Dario Argento and made her onscreen debut as a child in Lamberto Bava's "Demons 2" (1986)
- Argento has built an international career with collaborations spanning Patrice Chéreau's "Queen Margot," Abel Ferrara's "New Rose Hotel," Gus Van Sant's "Last Days," Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette," and Olivier Assayas's "Boarding Gate"
- As a director, she has helmed the semi-autobiographical "Scarlet Diva" (2000), "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things" (2004), and "Misunderstood" (2014) with Charlotte Gainsbourg
- Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro praised her as "an artist who has always managed to reimagine what it means to make films, constantly challenging herself and taking personal risks"
- The 79th edition of the Locarno fest runs Aug. 5-15
Why it matters: The award recognizes a four-decade career that bridges Italian genre cinema and international art-house film, both in front of and behind the camera. Delivered at one of Europe's oldest film festivals — with an 8,000-seat open-air ceremony — it positions Argento among a lineage of creative pioneers celebrated for their restlessness, per artistic director Nazzaro.
