Throughout its 78-year history, the Locarno Film Festival has occupied a unique position in the landscape of major film festivals. Every August, for eleven days the Swiss-Italian town of Locarno, right in the heart of Europe, becomes the world capital of auteur cinema. Thousands of film fans and industry professionals meet here every summer to share their thirst for new discoveries and a passion for cinema in all its diversity. In Locarno they find a quality program, rich, eclectic, surprising, and where emerging talent rubs shoulders with prestigious guests. The audience is the soul of the festival, as exemplified in the famous evenings on the Piazza Grande, whose magical setting can accommodate up to 8,000 filmgoers every night.