The Locarno Film Festival will honor American filmmaker James Gray with its Pardo alla Carriera, or Career Leopard, at its 79th edition this year. James Gray will receive the award on the festival’s Piazza Grande on August 9, followed by a screening of his latest film, ‘Paper Tiger’.
The Career Leopard is presented with the support of Ascona-Locarno Tourism and is considered one of the festival’s highest honors. Past recipients include Jackie Chan, Shah Rukh Khan, Costa-Gavras, Jane Birkin, Harry Belafonte, and Claudia Cardinale, placing Gray among a long list of respected names in world cinema.
James Gray was born on April 14, 1969, in New York City and raised in the Flushing area of Queens, in a Russian-Jewish immigrant family. As a child, he initially wanted to become a painter before turning his focus to filmmaking. He studied at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where his 1991 student film ‘Cowboys’ and ‘Angels’ caught the attention of producer Paul Webster, who encouraged him to write his first feature script. Gray has since been nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival five times, an unusually high number for an American filmmaker.
‘Paper Tiger’ stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Miles Teller, and follows two brothers whose search for a better life pulls them into the orbit of the Russian mafia, marking Gray’s return to the New York setting of his earlier films. The film premiered in competition at Cannes earlier this year and is set to open the 2026 New York Film Festival in September.
James Gray first broke onto the international festival scene in 1994 at just 25 years old, when his debut feature, ‘Little Odessa’, won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Inspired by his own upbringing in New York’s Russian-Jewish community, the film set the tone for much of his later work. He went on to direct “The Yards, We Own the Night, Two Lovers, and The Immigrant”, all rooted in similar territory exploring immigrant life and crime in New York. Over the past decade, Gray has also branched into other genres, directing The Lost City of Z with Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson, Ad Astra with Brad Pitt, and Armageddon Time with Anthony Hopkins.
Locarno’s artistic director, Giona A. Nazzaro, called Gray the last great novelist of American cinema, describing his body of work as one that echoes the Jewish diaspora, film noir, and both Russian and North American literature. Nazzaro added that Gray has experimented with genres like science fiction and adventure while staying true to his own artistic voice, and said honoring him at the festival is a tribute to a filmmaker who understands cinema and knows how to pass that understanding on to future generations.
Along with the award ceremony, two of Gray’s earlier films, ‘We Own the Night’ and ‘Two Lovers’, will also screen as part of this year’s festival lineup, giving audiences a chance to revisit some of his most acclaimed work.
This marks James Gray’s first time attending the Locarno Film Festival. His honor comes as part of a wider 2026 edition that festival director Giona A. Nazzaro has described as reflecting “curated diversity,” with this year’s program showing a 21.75 percent rise in submissions compared to last year. The festival’s lineup also includes a retrospective selection featuring classics like “Taxi Driver and Dances with Wolves”, alongside its opening film, “The Green Eyes”, by Fanny Liatard and Jeremy Trouilh.
The 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival will run from August 5 to August 15, 2026, with Gray’s award ceremony and the Paper Tiger screening set to take place on August 9 in front of Locarno’s landmark 8000 capacity Piazza Grande.
Read More:
