The main prize at the Locarno Film Festival goes to the Lithuanian drama “Toxic”, the feature film debut of Saule Bliuvaite

Akiplėša (Toxic), the feature film debut by Lithuanian writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė, which deals with the human body and mysterious modeling agencies, is the winner of the 2024 Locarno Film Festival's international competition, winning the Pardo d'Oro, or Golden Leopard, in the Swiss city on Saturday. Locarno77 organizers called the film “a haunting portrayal of teenage girls and the crushing expectations placed on them.”

The jury's special prize went to Iraqi-born Austrian auteur Kurdwin Ayub for her second feature film Mond. The film is about former martial artist Sarah, who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy Jordanian family. “It's about sisters, no matter where they come from, and about cages, no matter where they are,” says Ayub.

Lithuania has a population of about three million people, but was represented in this year's Locarno International Competition with two films, …