Locarno Meets

Locarno Film Festival

Welcome to Locarno Meets, an original Locarno Film Festival podcast brought to you by UBS. Established legends of cinema and exciting new talent chat about art, life, movies, and everything in between. Locarno Meets has featured memorable discussions with veritable legends of cinema like Shah Rukh Khan, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuarón, Ken Loach, Harmony Korine, Irène Jacob, and many more.

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20 episodes
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S3 · E19
March 31 · 26 min
Alexander Payne on the Art of Casting and Keeping Budgets Low | Locarno Meets
This week on #LocarnoMeets, we sat down with Alexander Payne, the comedic genius behind some of the best films of the past three decades, including “The Holdovers”, “Election”, and “Sideways”. He joined us to discuss his career, working with George Clooney on “The Descendants”, and his low, low budgets.
S3 · E18
March 24 · 40 min
“We Are the New Voice, We Are the New Dreams”: Iraqi Filmmaker Mohamed Al-Daradji Speaks About ‘Irkalla: Gilgamesh's Dream’
Iraqi filmmaker Mohamed Al-Daradji’s latest film (“Irkalla: Gilgamesh's Dream”), which premiered on the Piazza Grande during Locarno78, was hailed as a major achievement, both in terms of its artistry and the circumstances of its production. He joined us to discuss the myth of Gilgamesh, shooting a movie in Baghdad, and being shot at in Baghdad.
S3 · E17
March 17 · 35 min
A Conversation with Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine on the Resilience of Lebanese Cinema
When, in August 2025, we had the honour of awarding the Raimondo Rezzonico Award to the Lebanese independent company Abbout Productions – founded by Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine – we could never have imagined that, just a few months later, we would find ourselves facing the current dramatic international situation and that war would be raging harsher than ever in Lebanon. At the time, in Locarno, these two outstanding producers joined our podcast to discuss their careers and the future of Lebanese cinema. We spoke about the trauma of the Beirut explosion in 2020, the work of creative producing and the Arab film community, as well as their films “Costa Brava, Lebanon” and “Memory Box”.
S3 · E16
March 10 · 28 min
Rithy Panh on Social Media, Digital Isolation, and Making Movies Cheaply
Serving as head of the Locarno78 jury last year, Rithy Panh is a legend of Cambodian cinema. Over his thirty year career, he has tirelessly interrogated the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge with creativity and originality. He joined us on the latest episode of #LocarnoMeets to talk about movies, TikTok, and the demagogues of the tech world.
S3 · E15
March 3 · 24 min
Vicky Krieps Talks Filming in Japan with Naomi Kawase and “Yakushima's Illusion”
Vicky Krieps is one of the definitive European actors of her generation. But her new film, the astonishing “Yakushima's Illusion”, which world premiered at Locarno78, dropped her deep into an ancient forest on the eponymous Japanese island, the mystical place that once served as, among other things, the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki's “Princess Mononoke”. We talked about preparing for a role as a pediatric heart surgeon, adapting to the sounds of the forest, and the challenge of accommodating the Japanese way of doing things.
S3 · E14
February 24 · 25 min
“She Took Me On a Journey I Couldn’t Make Myself”: Director Brian Kirk on Shooting in Snow and Working with Emma Thompson
Best known for “21 Bridges” and his work on television shows like “Game of Thrones”, director Brian Kirk’s much anticipated new film is the icy thriller “The Dead of Winter” starring Emma Thompson in a bravura role as a steely Minnesotan widow named Barb. As the film premiered to acclaim on the Piazza Grande at Locarno78, we sat down with Kirk to dig into the mechanics of shooting in snow and collaborating with a living legend.
S3 · E13
February 17 · 24 min
“I Loved that Freedom of Creation”: Nadia Tereszkiewicz on Corsets, Horses, and ‘Heads of Tails?’
Nadia Tereszkiewicz is the actor at the heart of “Heads of Tails?” an award-winning new spaghetti western by Italian filmmaking duo Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis. This magnetic actress joined us on the latest episode of LocarnoMeets to talk about “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”, John C. Reilly, corsets, and horses.
S3 · E12
February 10 · 24 min
Director & Cinematographer Fabrice Aragno on Shooting “Le Lac” on Lake Geneva, Godard’s Influence & Every Film as Documentary
The Swiss director, cinematographer, and close collaborator on some of Jean-Luc Godard’s final works Fabrice Aragno made his debut as a feature filmmaker at Locarno78 with the hypnotic “Le Lac”, a near-wordless experimental romantic drama that takes place during a sailing competition on Lake Geneva. Aragno joined us on Locarno Meets to discuss his work to capture the spirit of the lake itself, why every film is a documentary of its own making, what it meant to see “La Notte” as a young man, and the profound personal influence of working so long and so closely with JLG.
S3 · E11
February 3 · 26 min
Colm Meaney on Irish Talent, “Star Trek” & Why Digital Cameras Suck
Colm Meaney is the definitive Irish character actor of his generation, having starred in classics like “The Commitments”, “The Damned United”, and “Layer Cake” over a near 50-year career. Meanwhile, his roles in Hollywood blockbusters like “Die Hard 2”, “Con Air”, and “The Last of the Mohicans”, as well as on TV in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, have cemented his place as one of those character actors we’re always happy to see appear in a movie. Meaney joined us to discuss his new movie – Duwayne Dunham’s “The Legend of the Happy Worker” – and to tell us quite why digital cameras suck.
S3 · E10
January 27 · 40 min
“I said David, I’m more of a Disney guy”: Duwayne Dunham on Lynch & ‘Legend of the Happy Worker’
From ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Blue Velvet’ to Disney Channel originals, nobody has had a career like Duwayne Dunham’s. In the latest episode of Locarno Meets, the singular editor and director reflects on cutting some of the most iconic films of our time, explores longstanding collaborations with George Lucas and David Lynch – from ‘Twin Peaks’ to ‘Wild at Heart’ – and dives into his “Western capitalist fairy tale,” the new feature ‘Legend of the Happy Worker’, which premiered out of competition at Locarno78 and marks the final film to feature Lynch’s name as executive producer.
S3 · E9
January 20 · 40 min
Maysoon Zayid Says Stand-Ups Are the Last Bastions of Free Speech
A comedian from New York who knows what’s wrong with the movie industry, Maysoon Zayid spent Locarno78 haranguing cinema executives about the kind of work being produced, and she joined us on Locarno Meets to do the same. “The idea that diversity only applies to diverse audiences is a supremacist mindset” says the Palestinian-American comic, a disability rights advocate uncompromising in her critiques of how and why movies get made. In Locarno last year to speak at StepIn during Locarno Pro, Zayid’s many insights were a powerful and much-needed provocation on the first day of our industry activities.
S3 · E8
January 13 · 16 min
Anatomy of a Thriller: Lucy Liu & Eric Lin Talk Their Award-Winning Film “Rosemead”
We start the new year off with another episode of our movie podcast Locarno Meets, this time in conversation with the iconic star LucyLiu and Eric Lin, director of her celebrated film “Rosemead”. Winner of the Prix du Public UBS – the audience award – at Locarno78, “Rosemead” tells the heart-wrenching, real-life story of a woman, played by Liu, who discovers her teenage son is obsessed with violent fantasies and plans to act on them. Only her drastic intervention can stop him from destroying everything they’ve built as a family and bringing harm to others. We sat down with Lucy Liu and her director Eric Lin to discuss this extraordinary film and dig into the specifics of Liu’s remarkable performance.
S3 · E7
Dec 23, 2025 · 22 min
“Bugonia” Producer Ed Guiney Talks Indie Movies, Yorgos Lanthimos & the Smarthouse
Ed Guiney is an Irish producer known for his collaborations with filmmakers like Yorgos Lanthimos and Joana Hogg. We invited him to join us on Locarno Meets to give his insights on the state of indie filmmaking in Europe, his artistic partnership with Yorgos Lanthimos, Letterboxd’s influence on arthouse attendance, and his definition of the role of producer.
S3 · E6
Dec 16, 2025 · 39 min
“I Like It When a Director Has a Vision”: Willem Dafoe Talks Acting Process, David Lynch, and ‘The Birthday Party’
Over the course of a more than 45-year career, Willem Dafoe has played everything, from the Green Goblin in “Spider-Man” to Jesus Christ in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ”. But crucially, he has never rested on his laurels, and continues to collaborate on ever more bold and daring projects with a new generation of emerging filmmakers. In Locarno to present Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s caustic “The Birthday Party” on the Piazza Grande, we sat down with Dafoe on Locarno Meets to talk about how you should find your own role when on set, working with David Lynch on “Wild at Heart”, juggling the demands of Hollywood and the arthouse, and getting fired from the set of “Heaven’s Gate” for laughing at a dirty joke.
S3 · E5
Dec 9, 2025 · 26 min
From Sundance to the Piazza Grande: Bill Condon Talks J-Lo Indie Musical “Kiss of the Spider Woman”
Our guest this week on Locarno Meets is Bill Condon, the man behind some of the biggest movie musicals of the modern age, from “Chicago” to “Dreamgirls” to “Beauty and the Beast”. He joined us to talk timeliness, down and dirty prison dramas, working with Jennifer Lopez’s tight schedule, and how it all combined in his latest film “Kiss of the Spider Woman”, which was the closing film of Locarno78.
S3 · E4
Dec 2, 2025 · 22 min
Pink Paint & the Pleasures of Horror Cinema: Julie Pacino Talks “I Live Here Now”
An eye-popping, heart-pounding genre film that premiered at Locarno78, “I Live Here Now” is a very funny, very scary, and very weird debut movie from Julie Pacino. This week on LocarnoMeets, the director joins us to talk about pink paint, David Lynch, and being traumatized on the set of “The Devil’s Advocate”.
S3 · E3
Nov 25, 2025 · 28 min
Golshifteh Farahani: Exile from Iran, Necessity of Art & Full Body Action Cinema
This week on Locarno Meets we're joined by the Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who – in a remarkable and emotional in-depth discussion – talks about leaving Iran, the retribution she faced for debuting in Hollywood with “Body of Lies”, the Women, Life, Freedom (Zan, Zendegī, Āzādī) movement, making the extraordinary and disturbing “Alpha” with Julia Ducournau, and finally the joy – and physical toll – of making high-octane action movies.
S3 · E2
Nov 18, 2025 · 25 min
“Sentimental Value” Screenwriter Eskil Vogt on Joachim Trier and Writing Nuance
Joining us this week on Locarno Meets is Eskil Vogt, the Norwegian screenwriter and filmmaker best known for his collaborations with Joachim Trier that include the celebrated “Oslo, August 31st”, “The Worst Person in the World”, and this year’s “Sentimental Value”. We chatted with Vogt about that ongoing creative partnership, the difficulties and revelations of working in middle age, and working with children on his own film “The Innocents”, which premiered in Cannes in 2021.
S3 · E1
Nov 11, 2025 · 26 min
Emma Thompson: “We Cried a Lot Making this Film”
Our video podcast Locarno Meets is back for its third season, and for the first episode we sat down with Emma Thompson to talk about her new thriller “Dead of Winter”, which is now released in the UK following its world premiere at Locarno78, as well as her theory of adapting Jane Austen, her origins in sketch comedy, and bundling her Best Screenplay Oscar through airport security. Locarno Meets: a Locarno Film Festival original podcast – brought to you by UBS – where established legends of cinema and exciting new talents chat about art, life, movies, and everything in between.
S2 · E20
Mar 12, 2025 · 25 min
Caroline Goodall: from Steven Spielberg to Lars von Trier to “The Princess Diaries”
For our final episode for season two of Locarno Meets, we were delighted to be joined by actress Caroline Goodall, whose illustrious career has seen her turn in remarkable performances in now-classic films by many of the greatest names in contemporary cinema. Goodall was in Locarno to promote her latest film, the Piazza Grande-playing “Sew Torn”, directed by the prodigious young director Freddy MacDonald. We spoke with the marvellous actress about working, in this case, with a gifted filmmaker in his early twenties, as well as reminiscing about some of her major films, like “Schindler’s List”, “Hook”, “The Princess Diaries”, and Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac”.

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