The Locarno Film Festival will honor Italian actress and director Asia Argento with its Lifetime Achievement Award, dedicated to creative pioneers.
She will be presented with the award on August 13 at the 8,000-seat outdoor Piazza Grande venue in the Swiss lakeside town, where her latest film, Jorge Thielen Armando’s Death Has No Master, will also be screened.
The daughter of Italian horror master Dario Argento, Argento made her screen debut as a child actress in Lamberto Bava’s Demons 2 (1986) and went on to star in Nanni Moretti’s Palombetta. La Rossa’ (1989), the hit comic Carlo Verdone’s ‘Perdiamochi di Vista’ (1994), and Italy-based director Peter Del Monte’s ‘Traveling’. Argento began working with her father in “Trauma” (1993), followed by co-starring with him in “Stendhal Syndrome” (1996).
On the international stage, Argento’s extensive body of work as an actress includes collaboration with Patrice Chéreau in Queen Margo (1994). Abel Ferrara in “The New Rose Hotel” (1998) and “Go Go Tales” (2007). Gus Van Sant in “The Last Days” (2005). George A. Romero in “Land of the Dead” (2005). Sofia Coppola in “Marie Antoinette” (2006). Olivier Assayas in “Boarding Gate” (2007). and Catherine Bleier in “The Last Mistress” (2007). She has appeared in blockbusters such as Rob Cohen’s “xXx” (2002) and thrillers such as Olivier Megaton’s “Red Siren” (2002). Alongside her acting career, Argento has directed several films, including her semi-autobiographical debut Scarlet Diva (2000), The Heart Is Deceptive (2004), and Misunderstood (2014), in which she co-starred with Charlotte Gainsbourg.
In a statement, Locarno’s artistic director, Jonah A. Nazzaro, praised her as “an artist who constantly challenges herself and takes personal risks, always managing to reimagine the meaning of filmmaking.”
Nazzaro added: “As both an actress and a director, Asia Argento has been driven by a radical creative mission to probe the limits of cinema and explore its possibilities. As an actress and a director, she embodies the vitality, generosity and restlessness that is the most vivid expression of all that cinema still has to offer.”
The 79th Locarno Fest will be held from August 5th to 15th.
