Aronofsky to Receive Pardo d'Onore at Locarno
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- Darren Aronofsky will be awarded the honorary Pardo d'Onore at the 2025 Locarno Film Festival (August 5–15), receiving the honor on August 14 at the Piazza Grande outdoor cinema.
- Aronofsky will present two of his features at the ceremony: The Fountain (2006) and Mother! (2017) — two of his most polarizing titles.
- Locarno Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro called Aronofsky "an auteur who has made the sheer force of creativity, invention, and audacity his trademark," adding that the adjective "Aronofskian" is now used to describe his deeply personal, unconventional style.
- Nazzaro anchored that style in recurring themes Aronofsky has "tirelessly explored": faith, motherhood, conflicts with authoritarian father figures, and the challenges of building societies.
- Past Pardo d'Onore recipients include Jean-Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Campion, Werner Herzog, Agnès Varda, Todd Haynes, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, and Kelly Reichardt, among others.
- Nazzaro framed the tribute as "a tribute to creativity's essential beauty, challenges, and necessity," crediting Aronofsky with embodying "the pleasure of cinema as risk and constant challenge."
Why it matters: The Pardo d'Onore slots Aronofsky into a curated lineage of European-festival-honored auteurs (Godard, Bertolucci, Campion, Herzog) recognized for uncompromising vision rather than commercial appeal. The August 14 Piazza Grande presentation, built around The Fountain and Mother!, gives Locarno a marquee auteur moment ahead of its 2025 edition.
