Filipino filmmaker is head of Locarno film fest jury

LAV DIAZ (right) at work on “Norte.”

The 66th Locarno International Film Festival has appointed award-winning Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz as the president of the jury of Concorso Internazionale (international competition).

Diaz’s films will be featured at the fest, which is set in Switzerland from Aug. 7 to 17: “Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” and “Batang West Side” in the Juries and History and Memory sections, respectively.

To be screened in the same festival are five movies by Raya Martin, another award-winning Pinoy: “How to Disappear Completely” (Fuori Concorso section), “The Great Cinema Party” (Fuori Concorso), “A Short Film about the Indio Nacional” (Concorsi Cineasti), “Boxing in the Philippine Islands” (Pardi di Domani) and “Buenos Noches, España” (Fuori Concorso).

“Norte” and three other Filipino films will be also be shown at the ongoing 12th T-Mobile New Horizons fest in Wroclaw, Poland, which runs until July 28.

These are Shireen Seno’s “Big Boy,” Sherad Anthony Sanchez’s “Jungle Fever” and John Torres’ “Lukas Niño.” Seno and Sanchez are vying for honors in the New Horizons International Competition; Diaz and Torres are featured in the Panorama section.

Its website says the festival “presents uncompromising, innovative and original cinema from all over the world that explores new horizons in film language, expression and storytelling.” Bayani San Diego Jr.