Riz Ahmed to receive award at Locarno Film Festival

Actor Riz Ahmed will be honoured with a career achievement award at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival.

The 40-year-old actor, known for his performances in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Nightcrawler, Sound of Metal, and HBO miniseries The Night Of, will be feted with the Excellence Award Davide Campari on the opening night of the festival on August 2, the organisers said in a statement.

The 76th edition of the festival, which will run till August 12 at Switzerland's resort city of Locarno, will also be premiering Ahmed’s new short film Dammi, directed by Yann Mounir Demange.

The short film, which explores the themes of immigration and identity, will be showcased at the festival's prestigious screening venue Piazza Grande on the opening night. It also features French star Isabelle Adjani, Souheila Yacoub, Sandor Funtek, and Suzy Bemba.

Ahmed's previous short film "The Long Goodbye", which he co-wrote, produced, and starred in, had earned him an Oscar for best live-action short film in 2022. He had shared the award with the film's director Aneil Karia.

In the statement, festival director Giona A Nazzaro praised Ahmed, calling him a "brilliant and versatile talent in cinema today".

"Already with one Academy Award under his belt, not to mention a pile of other prizes, he is the embodiment of a kind of cinema that is becoming better, more receptive, and finally able to listen to new voices. Riz Ahmed is the face of a future finally becoming possible," Nazzaro added.

On the movie front, Ahmed will be next seen in sci-fi romance drama Fingernails, co-starring Jesse Buckley, and David Mackenzie's Relay with actors Lily James and Sam Worthington.