The Locarno Film Festival will hand American producer Stacey Sher its Raimondo Rezzonico Award at this year’s edition, which runs August 7 – 17.
Sher will receive the award at the Swiss festival’s famous Piazza Grande on August 8. The tribute will include screenings of two titles from her career, including Erin Brockovich by Steven Soderbergh and Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino. On August 9, she will chair a panel conversation at the Forum @ Spazio Cinema.
The festival has said the award is handed out to honor “outstanding personalities who have played a major role in international production.”
Sher is one of the enduring names of American independent cinema. Her credits include 90s classics such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1995), Matilda (1996), Gattaca (1997), and Out of Sight (1998). She has also produced series like Reno 911! and the Emmy award-winning Mrs. America (2020). And in 2021, she produced the 93rd Academy Award ceremony with Steven Soderbergh.
Discussing Sher’s honor, Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, said the producer “profoundly reshaped our collective notions of independent cinema.”
“The 1990s were marked indelibly by her producer’s acumen and vision and thus gave rise, through her stewardship, to some of the most iconic films in the canon of American filmmaking,” he said. “Her long association with filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh is proof of her vision and devotion to the craft. Whether in films like Man on the Moon (1999) by Miloš Forman or Gattaca (1997) by Andrew Niccol, her desire to challenge what is still possible in filmmaking is in abundant evidence. Celebrating Stacey Sher’s significant achievements at the Locarno Film Festival and awarding her with the coveted Raimondo Rezzonico Award is an honor and joy for us as well as a gift for film lovers all over the world.”
