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The Future of Survival

August 13-15, 2024

The Future of Survival is a new initiative to explore at Locarno Film Festival the future of cinema. Made possible by the partnership between Locarno Film Festival and Università della Svizzera italiana – with the support of Swiss National Science Foundation, Swisscom, Mercator, Swissnex, and Harun Farocki Institute –, the project connects audiovisual innovation to social and environmental responsibility.
As part of its larger mission to discover and support new directions for cinema, the Festival offers an exciting environment to convene the world’s prominent voices in film and media, serving as a platform to define the future of the field.

The initiative is held during the days of Locarno77 in parallel with The 2024 Cinema Audiovisual Futures Conference. Focused on the main theme of Cinematic Survival – elaborated through three modes of survival: Digital Survival, Social Survival, and Environmental Survival –, for three days from August 13 to 16 the Conference will host approximately 50 scholars, students, filmmakers, and artists, providing a place for the intersection of theory and practice. 
The Conference is the result of the ongoing collaboration between the Festival and USI, with the support of SNSF and Swisscom.

Read the curator statement on NECSUS – European Journal of Media Studies

Read more on the Locarno Film Festival website