Locarno's Golden Leopard goes to Sho Miyake's "Tabi to Hibi," with a special mention for the Bertani brothers.

The Golden Leopard for Best Film in International Competition at the 78th Locarno Film Festival went to Sho Miyake's "Tabi to Hibi." The feature film, structured like a matryoshka doll, combines two works by manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge—"A View of the Seaside" and "Mister Ben of the Igloo"—both of which share the same aim: to explore the difficulties and anxieties of ordinary people in relating to others.

The Special Jury Prize – Municipalities of Ascona and Losone for this category went to "White Snail" by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, which also took home the Leopard for Best Performance by its two leading ladies, Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov. Actresses Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić also received recognition for their performance in "God Will Not Help" by Hana Jušić.

The Leopard for Best Director from the City and Region of Locarno went to Abbas Fahdel for "Tales of the Wounded Land." A Special Mention went to Alexandre Koberidze's "Dry Leaf."

Margherita Spampinato's first feature film, "Gioia Mia," won the Jury Prize in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition, which earned it a promotional campaign worth 25,000 Swiss francs on the Cinè+ channels when the film was released in French theaters. Furthermore, Aurora Quattrocchi, the film's co-star, won the Leopard for Best Actress. Georgian actor Levan Gelbakhiani also received an award for his work in "Don't Let the Sun," an Italian-Swiss production shot almost entirely in Milan.

Among the Italians, Valentina and Nicole Bertani with "Le bambine" (The Little Girls)—which competed in the International Competition—received a Special Mention from the Youth Jury. The Marco Zucchi Award from the Critics' Week—2,000 francs for the most aesthetically and formally innovative documentary—went to "Nella colonia penale" (In the Penal Colony) by Gaetano Crivaro, Silvia Perra, Ferruccio Goia, and Alberto Diana, which recounts Europe's last penal colonies, located in Sardinia, where inmates work the land, tend animals, and maintain the facility.