Prominent Paris-based producer Marianne Slot, who has been instrumental to bringing works by auteurs such as Lars Von Trier, Lucrecia Martel, and Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso to the big screen, is being honored by the Locarno Film Festival.
Slot will receive the Swiss festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico prize for a producer who epitomizes the indie ethos. She will be bestowed with the award on Aug. 5 with a tribute that will include a screening of Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s environmental-themed black comedy“Woman At War,” followed by an on-stage conversation on Aug. 6.
Born in Denmark, Slot set up the Paris-based production company Slot Machine in 1993. She has been Von Trier’s French producer since 1995, starting with “Breaking the Waves.” Over the years Slot has shepherded works by a slew of indie auteurs at various stages of their careers. Besides Martel and Erlingsson these include Bent Hamer, Małgorzata Szumowska, Paz Encina, Emma Dante, Marian Crişan, Juliette Garcia, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Sergei Loznitsa, and Naomi Kawase.
“Marianne Slot’s approach to film production has left a deep and lasting mark on contemporary cinema, rewriting the rules of the game for collaboration and ideation between filmmakers and producers,” said Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro in a statement. “At a time when cinema risks flatlining into an endless repetition of existing models, Marianne Slot leads by example, demonstrating the beauty of both freedom and risk,” he added.
Slot will soon be in Cannes with Alonso’s Viggo Mortensen-starrer “Eureka,” which is world-premiering in the Cannes Premiere section.
Previous recipients of the Rezzonico Prize include David Linde Jeremy Thomas, Christine Vachon, Paulo Branco, Menahem Golan, Ted Hope and Jason Blum.
The 76th edition of Locarno will run Aug. 2-12.
