Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was presented with the First Locarno City of Peace Award, established by the City of Locarno in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival. The recognition, conferred as part of the Festival’s Diplomacy Day, aims to honor figures from the cultural space who have distinguished themselves in promoting peace, diplomacy, and dialogue among peoples.
Presented biennially, the award was created to strengthen Locarno’s role as a symbol of dialogue and peaceful coexistence, and to mark the centenary of the 1925 Locarno Treaties – a crucial milestone in twentieth-century European diplomacy.
The jury for this first edition was composed of:
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Ruth Dreifuss, former President of the Swiss Confederation and member of important commissions for the defense of human rights;
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Laura Sadis, member of the Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), former State Councilor and member of the National Council;
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Marco Solari, Honorary Citizen of the City of Locarno and Ambassador of the Esprit de Locarno, Honorary President of the Locarno Film Festival;
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Raphaël Brunschwig, CEO of the Locarno Film Festival;
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Nicola Pini, Mayor of the City of Locarno.
The jury decided to bestow the prize on Mohammad Rasoulof, a remarkable creator of poetic and political cinema, whose work powerfully and profoundly explores themes of freedom, individual responsibility, and human dignity. With films such as There Is No Evil (Golden Bear at the Berlinale, 2020) and The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Special Jury Prize at Cannes, 2024; Piazza Grande Locarno77), Rasoulof has succeeded in combining formal rigor with civic engagement. In 2024, the director was sentenced in Iran to eight years in prison and public flogging. Shortly before his arrest, he managed to flee his home country.
During the ceremony, Nancy Lunghi, Head of the Department of Culture of the City of Locarno, stated: “With the establishment of the Locarno City of Peace Award, our City wishes to reaffirm, with political conviction and cultural vision, its historic role as a fertile ground for diplomacy, dialogue, and the defense of human rights. This role has been made possible also thanks to the great commitment of the Locarno Film Festival, a key partner in this initiative, which for nearly eighty years has demonstrated how cinema can be much more than an artistic language: it can become a powerful tool of cultural diplomacy, capable of bringing together worlds, stories, and consciences. In an era marked by deep international divisions, culture – and cinema in particular – offers an irreplaceable space to build bridges and restore the centrality of human dignity. Choosing Mohammad Rasoulof therefore means recognizing art as a form of resistance, as the voice of collective conscience, and as civic commitment – values that Locarno intends to continue supporting with strength and coherence, nurturing its spirit of dialogue and peace – the Esprit de Locarno.”
Echoing her words, the Mayor of Locarno, Nicola Pini, said: “The signing of the 1925 treaties also gave rise to the definition of the Esprit de Locarno, symbolizing the desire for freedom, dialogue, exchange, openness, human dignity, and civic engagement, as well as the need to resolve conflicts and the opportunity to overcome the division between winners and losers in order to develop a universal discourse. This esprit finds one of its most sublime expressions in our film festival, an important tool of understanding, empathy, dialogue, and cultural, social, and political exchange. An important instrument of peace, which we truly need and which offers a privileged opportunity to award our prize for the first time.”
This praise was followed by the Festival’s Artistic Director, Giona A. Nazzaro, who declared: “The cinema of Mohammad Rasoulof is one of the highest and most accomplished expressions of a humanism that lucidly takes shape in the form of an exemplary cinematic gesture. Resisiting the temptation to oversimplify the painful contradictions that afflict the relationship between institutions, power, and individuals, Rasoulof has, over the course of his exemplary career, created a body of work that stands as a hymn to human dignity. And it is only from the full respect for human dignity that a renewed spirit of peace can arise.”
The Locarno City of Peace Award marks the first step in a multi-year project aimed at consolidating Locarno’s international profile as a place of reflection and exchange through art and diplomacy, conceived as part of the celebrations for the centenary of the Locarno Treaties.
In 2025, the City of Locarno, in collaboration with numerous regional, national, and international partners, has developed a rich program of events designed to explore and promote the values of peace and dialogue among peoples. The Award is fully part of this journey.
On Tuesday, August 12, at 11:45 am, the public will have the opportunity to meet Mohammad Rasoulof in a conversation moderated by Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro at the Forum @Spazio Cinema.