Pardi di Domani is the Locarno Film Festival’s section devoted to short films. Its name points to a close link with the main feature film competition, of which the section is, in spirit, a breeding ground. At the 79th edition last August, it filled nine consecutive days of programming, the largest space given to the short form among FIAPF A-List festivals, alongside the feature film competitions and out-of-competition sections. It is made up of three competitions: the International and the Swiss, for filmmakers who have never directed a feature, and Corti d’Autore (Authors’ Shorts), for those who have. The maximum running time is 59 minutes, wide enough to hold both the briefest, most incisive short and works with the breadth of a medium-length film.
The selection is the result of seven months of viewing by the committee, which in 2026 examined about 4,500 submissions from all over the world. Only a small fraction of these films made it to the final selection, which was then grouped into nine programmes, each very different from the others. The logic behind them is emotional rather than thematic: genres, styles, aesthetics and origins alternate and answer one another, with the aim of never letting the audience settle into a comfortable position. In roughly 80 minutes, viewers move from laughter to tension, from emotion to disorientation, in a journey conceived as a single cinema experience.
The programme presented in Zagreb follows the same principle. Five films, 82 minutes in total, ranging from a seven-minute animation to a twenty-three-minute documentary, by way of fiction and experimental work. They offer perspectives that explore the human condition from different viewpoints and themes such as motherhood, war, self-discovery, pleasure, anger and identity. This year’s titles are: Las Damas by Camille Zéhenne (France, 20 min, Fiction), Gherking by Claudius Gentinetta (Switzerland, 7 min, Animation), Together by NEOZOON (Germany, 13 min, Experimental), Premier Feu by Blanca Camell Galí (France, Spain, 19 min, Fiction) and Quelque part dans un pays libre by Antonin Peretjatko (France, 23 min, Documentary).
It is not a complete picture of Locarno, but a taste of what the section looks for every year: the best and most surprising expressions of contemporary short filmmaking, short forms that can still surprise.
Enrico Vannucci – Member of the selection committee of Pardi di Domani, Locarno Film Festival
