Leopard Club Award for Virginie Efira, who also brings «Soudain» to Locarno

French-Belgian actress Virginie Efira received the Leopard Club Award on Friday evening at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. The award goes to a figure whose work in cinema has left a mark on the collective imagination.

Efira, 49, has established herself in recent years as one of the leading figures of francophone cinema. She won the César in 2023 for her role in «Revoir Paris» by Alice Winocour and has acted, among others, under the direction of Paul Verhoeven in «Benedetta» and «Elle», and of Justine Triet in «Victoria» and «Sibyl».

At Locarno the actress is also presenting «Soudain», the new film by Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, for which she won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It is the Japanese filmmaker’s first French-language feature.

In the statement announcing the prize, the festival’s artistic director Giona Nazzaro notes that Efira gives her roles a unique sensibility. «Audace ma riflessiva, istintiva ma ironica, offre al cinema contemporaneo uno sguardo nuovo» (bold yet reflective, instinctive yet ironic, she offers contemporary cinema a new gaze), he writes, a gaze that keeps reinventing itself.