Asia Argento to Be Honored at Locarno Film Festival

The Locarno Film Festival will celebrate Italian actress and director Asia Argento with its lifetime achievement award dedicated to creative pioneers.

She will receive the award on Aug. 13 in the Swiss lakeside town’s 8,000 seat outdoor Piazza Grande venue, where she will also present her most recent film, Jorge Thielen Armand’s “Death Has No Master.”

Argento, who is Italian horror maestro Dario Argento’s daughter, made her onscreen debut as a child in Lamberto Bava’s “Demons 2″ (1986) and subsequently appeared in Nanni Moretti’s” Palombella rossa” (1989); hit comic Carlo Verdone’s “Perdiamoci di vista” (1994); and Italy-based Peter Del Monte’s “Traveling Companion” (1996). Argento started working with her father in “Trauma” (1993) followed by her turn in “The Stendhal Syndrome” (1996).

In the international arena, Argento’s vast body of work as an actress comprises collaborations with Patrice Chéreau in “Queen Margot” (1994); Abel Ferrara in “New Rose Hotel” (1998) and “Go Go Tales” 2007); Gus Van Sant in “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 Breillat in “The Last Mistress” (2007). She has starred in blockbusters such as “xXx” (2002), directed by Rob Cohen, and thrillers like Olivier Megaton’s “The Red Siren” (2002). In tandem with her acting career, Argento has directed several films, starting with her semi-autobiographical debut “Scarlet Diva” (2000) followed by “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” (2004) and “Misunderstood” with Charlotte Gainsbourg (2014).

In a statement, Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro praised her as “an artist who has always managed to reimagine what it means to make films, constantly challenging herself and taking personal risks.”

Nazzaro added: “Driven by a radical creative calling, through which she has probed the limits and explored the possibilities of cinema, both as an actress and as a director, Asia Argento embodies a vitality, generosity, and restlessness that stands as among the most vivid representations of all that cinema still has to offer.”

The 79th edition of the Locarno fest will run Aug. 5-15.