Director, producer and screenwriter Alexander Payne will be conferred with the Honorary Leopard Award 바카라“ the Pardo d바카라™Onore, at the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, the organisers announced on Thursday, June 12.
Payne will receive the award on August 15, 2025, according to the festival's post on social media.
The festival, on its official Instagram page wrote, "A new name for #Locarno78! Our honorary leopard 바카라“ the Pardo d바카라™Onore, presented by Manor 바카라“ will be given to the internationally recognized and celebrated American filmmaker #AlexanderPayne on August 15, 2025."
"The distinctive voice behind a slate of dryly funny modern classics, this writer-director has secured his place on the short list of filmmakers whose work can be said to define American cinema in the 21ˢᵗ century," it stated.
The post further stated, "His films have collectively won three Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, and eight Golden Globes in various categories, including for their memorable performances, and exemplify the pleasures of mid-budget filmmaking for grown-ups 바카라“ a besieged artform ever in need of defense."
As per a report in PTI, Giona A Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, called Payne an "erudite auteur with an encyclopedic cinephile knowledge".
"Gifted with an unerring sense for the bittersweet facets of human comedy, he is a filmmaker with sensibilities at once exquisitely classical and modern. An impeccable director of actors who has worked with such names as Jack Nicholson, George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Matt Damon, Bruce Dern, and Paul Giamatti, in Payne we find a knowledge of the savoir-faire of Hollywood cinema, its poetry, and its uniqueness.
"Author of a unique filmography in which he has always addressed the complexities of the human condition with a smile in a constant dialogue with audiences worldwide," he added.
For the unversed, the Pardo d바카라™Onore, introduced in 2017, honours personalities from the world of cinema.
The Locarno Film festival is scheduled to take place between August 6 and August 16, 2025.
