Locarno Film Festival opens

Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival opens tomorrow with Shah Rukh Khan, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuaron and Irene Jacob set to be honored with special awards.

Founded in 1946, Locarno is one of the world's longest-running annual film festivals and focuses on auteur cinema.

Held on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland, films are screened in Locarno's central square, a feature of Swiss national life depicted on the country's 20-franc banknotes.

The open-air Piazza Grande holds up to 8,000 moviegoers, and films are shown on one of the largest screens in the world.

Bollywood superstar Khan, 58, will on Aug. 10 be given the Pardo alla Carriera award for people whose artistic contributions have redefined cinema.

The 77th festival, which runs until Aug. 17, features 225 films, including 104 world premieres and 15 debut movies.

Locarno's top prize is the Golden Leopard. Previous winning directors include Roberto Rossellini, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Milos Forman, Mike Leigh and Jim Jarmusch.

Seventeen films — all world or international premieres — are vying for the award, including movies from Lithuania, France, Austria, Italy and South Korea.

The Golden Leopard comes with a prize fund of 75,000 Swiss francs ($87,400), shared between the director and the producer.

Switzerland's largest film event will feature a retrospective dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures.

New Zealand's Campion will be recognized with the Leopard of Honor, given to outstanding personalities of world cinema.

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