Lithuanian Teen Drama Toxic Wins Big at Locarno Film Festival

April 2024 · 9 minute read

Newcomer Saulė Bliuvaitė's edgy examination of young female friendship and body image takes top honors from both the International Competition and First Feature juries at the Swiss festival.

Lithuanian cinema, not typically that well represented on the international film festival circuit, was the big story of this year’s Locarno Film Festival awards ceremony, with two films from the Baltic nation taking a number of top prizes between them.

“Toxic,” an auspicious debut from writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė, won not only the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the fest’s premier International Competition — from a jury chaired by Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner — but also, in an unusual double, the top prize in the separately juried First Feature Competition. Bliuvaitė’s compatriot Laurynas Bareiša, meanwhile, won Best Director in the International Competition for his sophomore feature “Drowning Dry,” while the same film’s ensemble also collectively took one of the jury’s gender-neutral acting prizes.

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A hard-hitting study of alliances and rivalries between teenage girls enrolled at a modeling school in small-town Lithuania, “Toxic” stood out in the Competition for the youthfulness and rigor of its gaze — as it tackled matters of financial and sexual exploitation, as well as damaging body image. Variety‘s positive review described the film as “sobering but not without glimmers of tenderness and humor as female friendship takes root in a hopeless place,” adding that its “alternation between chilly composure and kinetic movement roughly corresponds with [the protagonist’s] wavering sense of self.”

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Before presenting the prize to Bareiša, Hausner praised the film for its “artistic visual style, its very powerful actresses and actors, and its really original and unusual story structure, [leading to] an understanding of the hardship and beauty of being different — one can even say, of being a freak.” Accepting the award, the young filmmaker cited her “humble beginnings,” continuing, “I want to use this platform to acknowledge this privilege that we have now, that we can celebrate cinema and make films … in a lot of parts of the world, people don’t have this privilege to feel safe, they have to fight just to exist.”

In addition to the Golden Leopard and the First Feature Award — where it beat fellow International Competition entry “Green Line,” by French director Sylvie Ballyot, into second place — “Toxic” also won the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

“Drowning Dry,” a structurally complex, narratively splintered portrait of two sisters whose families are riven by tragedy, marked a confident step forward for Lithuanian cinematographer turned director Bareiša, whose debut “Pilgrims” triumphed in Venice’s Horizons competition in 2021. Evidently the jury — which also included actors Tim Blake Nelson and Luca Marinelli, producer Diana Elbaum and recently Cannes-laureled filmmaker Payal Kapadia — had trouble settling on a single candidate for the performance prize: Not only did they present it jointly to “Drowning Dry’s” four fine leads Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevičius, but the quartet further shared the award with South Korean star Kim Minhee for her droll, delicate turn as a withdrawn art teacher in prolific director Hong Sangsoo’s latest comedy “By the Stream.”

The Special Jury Prize — effectively the runner-up to the Golden Leopard — went to Iraq-born, Austrian-based director Kurdwin Ayub for her second feature “Moon,” an enigmatic thriller following a martial artist hired to train three Jordanian sisters under veiled circumstances. Ayub, whose debut “Sonne” won her the Best First Feature award at the 2022 Berlinale, thanked her producer, veteran Austrian auteur Ulrich Seidl, before gesturing to the feline-shaped trophy: “My cats will love this award!” Among the independent jury awards, Ayub also took the Europe Cinemas Label prize, as well as a special mention from the Ecumenical jury.

Special mentions from the jury went to Spanish director Mar Coll for her haunting psychodrama “Salve Maria,” and to Chinese docmaker Wang Bing for his near four-hour “Youth (Hard Times),” the second part in his epic nonfiction trilogy depicting the lives and struggles of textile workers in Huzhou City. (The third, “Youth (Homecoming),” will premiere in competition at Venice next month.)

In the festival’s secondary Filmmakers of the Present competition, Georgian director Tato Kotetishvili won the top prize for his debut feature “Holy Electricity,” a vibrantly quirky tale of two Tbilisi cousins attempting to con gullible locals with ersatz neon crucifixes, while filmmakers Maha Haj (for “Upshot”), Mickey Lai (for “Washhh”) and Samuel Patthey (for “Sans Voix”) each triumphed in separate strands of the festival’s sizable Pardi di Domani shorts competition. The festival’s audience award, the UBS Prix du Public, will be separately presented tonight at Locarno’s central outdoor venue the Piazza Grande, prior to the screening of the closing film, actor-director Laetitia Dosch’s offbeat, Cannes-premiered legal farce “Dog on Trial.”

In his statement on the awards, Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro described them as emblematic of the festival’s reputation for nurturing and crowning new talent: “Creativity and hope for a better tomorrow were the elements that ran through all the sections. Cinema is a driving force and Locarno is a flagship for it. We are truly proud of this edition and grateful for the tremendous team effort behind its success. The victory of newcomer Saulė Bliuvaitė confirms the Locarno Film Festival’s ability to identify the most innovative talents in the business.”

Nazzaro further pointed out the multiple wins for female filmmakers at today’s ceremony, including Bliuvaitė, Mond, Ballyot and Swiss-Cape Verdean director Denise Fernandes, who took the Best Emerging Director award in the Filmmakers of the Present section for her debut “Hanami.” “Locarno77 has affirmed even more strongly the centrality of women’s voices in contemporary cinema,” he concluded. 

Complete list of winners below:

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Golden Leopard for Best Film: “Toxic,” Saulė Bliuvaitė
Special Jury Prize: “Moon,” Kurdwin Ayub
Best Director: Laurynas Bareiša, “Drowning Dry”
Best Performance: (ex aequo) Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevičius, “Drowning Dry”; Kim Minhee, “By the Stream”
Special Mentions: “Youth (Hard Times),” Wang Bing; “Salve Maria,” Mar Coll

CINEASTI DEL PRESENTE (FILMMAKERS OF THE PRESENT) COMPETITION

Best Film: “Holy Electricity,” Tato Kotetishvili
Best Emerging Director: Denise Fernandes, “Hanami”
Special Jury Prize: “Listen to the Voices,” Maxime Jean-Baptiste
Best Performance: (ex aequo) Callie Hernandez, “Invention”; Anna Mészöly, “Lesson Learned”
Special Mentions: “Lesson Learned,” Bálint Szimler; “When the Phone Rang,” Iva Radivojević

FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION

Swatch First Feature Award: “Toxic,” Saulė Bliuvaitė
MUBI Award for Debut Feature: “Green Line,” Sylvie Ballyotr
Special Mentions: “Hanami,” Denise Fernandes; “Listen to the Voices,” Maxime Jean-Baptiste

PARDI DI DOMANI SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Auteur Short Competition
Best Auteur Short Film: “Upshot,” Maha Haj
Special Mention: “The Masked Monster,” Syeyoung Park
Locarno Film Festival Short Film Candidate – European Film Awards: “The Exploding Girl,” Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel

International Competition
Best International Short Film: “Washhh,” Mickey Lai
Pardino d’Argento: “Hymn of the Plague,” Ataka51
Best Director: “Que te Vaya Bonito, Rico,” Joel Alfonso Vargas
Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award: “The Form,” Melika Pazouki
Special Mention: “Freak,” Claire Barnett

National Competition
Best Swiss Short Film: “Sans Voix,” Samuel Patthey
Pardino d’Argento: “Better Not Kill the Groove,” Jonathan Leggett
Best Swiss Newcomer Award: Gabriel Grosclaude, “Lux Carne”
Special Mention: “Progress Mining,” Gabriel Böhmer

PARDO VERDE COMPETITION

Pardo Verde: “Agora,” Ala Eddine Slim
Special Mentions: “Der Fleck,” Willy Hans; “Revolving Rounds,” Johann Lurf and Christina Jauernik

INDEPENDENT JURY AWARDS

Ecumenical Jury Award: “Toxic,” Saulė Bliuvaitė
Special Mention: “Moon,” Kurdwin Ayub
FIPRESCI Prize: “Youth (Hard Times),” Wang Bing
Europa Cinemas Label: “Moon,” Kurdwin Ayub

JUNIOR JURY AWARDS

International Competition
First Prize: “Green Line,” Sylvie Ballyot
Second Prize: “Toxic,” Saulė Bliuvaitė
Third Prize: “Salve Maria,” Mar Coll
Environment is Quality of Life Prize: “Youth (Hard Times),” Wang Bing

Cineasti del Presente Competition
First Prize: “Holy Electricity,” Tato Kotetishvili
Special Mention: “Olivia & Las Nubes,” Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat

Short Film Competition
International Competition Award: “Razeh-Del,” Maryam Tafakory
Special Mention: “Punter,” Jason Adam Maselle
National Competition Award: “Sans Voix,” Samuel Patthey
Special Mention: “Lux Carne,” Gabriel Grosclaude
Auteur Short Award: “Upshot,” Maha Haj
Environment is Quality of Life Prize: “Three Leaves,” Eléonore Coyette and Sephora Monteau

CRITICS’ WEEK AWARDS

Grand Prix: “Wir Erben,” Simon Baumann
Marco Zucchi Award (for most aesthetically and formally innovative documentary): “La Déposition,” Claudia Marschal

Residency Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur @ Villa Sträuli: Maryam Tafakory

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