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Locarno, Switzerland — Unspooling in sweltering humidity, Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival, Europe’s biggest mid-Summer movie event, sometimes dazzled, led by an ebullient Emma Thompson.

More than anything else, in industry terms, it underscored how major festivals in the world just below the Big Five of Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto, are now realigning and surging as part of a global movie economy. That is as true of Locarno, best known as a bastion of high-art auteurs – as in different ways of San Sebastián, Karlovy Vary and Tallinn to name the smaller “A” list festivals in Europe.

Following, 10 takeaways from Locarno – with more to come – including what Thompson, Jackie Chan, Alexander Payne and Lucy Liu said at the Swiss fest, Locarno’s global distribution dynamics, buzz titles and multifarious Locarno dealing.

The Stars

Emma Thompson dazzled and showed how stars can conquer an audience whether delivering her acceptance speech...

Vincent Grashaw’s Keep Quiet pulls no punches. There’s one powerful monologue given by Lou Diamond Phillips’ Teddy Sharpe to his partner, Sandra Scala (Dana Namerode), that embodies the theme of this movie. In the police car, an emotional Teddy unloads about how society, including himself, have failed the youth of the Thunderstone community. He talks about how broken boys become broken men, while violence begets violence. It’s a never-ending cycle, claiming generation after generation of victims. What’s particularly sad is how Teddy sees no end in sight; instead, it becomes about survival until the next sunrise. Right from the first scene, Keep Quiet presents itself as a different type of crime drama. This story, written by Zach Montague, chooses to not split its characters into traditional hero and villain archetypes; it’s far more complex than that. This is a tale about a society sitting on...

Tribal warfare is in the air in Vincent Grashaw’s crime drama Keep Quiet. Lou Diamond Phillips stars as Teddy, a weathered tribal cop who, with his new trainee, Sandra (Dana Namerode), must find ruthless fugitive Richie, played by Elisha Pratt (Killers of the Flower Moon, True Detective). After all, Richie’s return to their rural Indigenous reservation “has exposed its darkest secrets and could ignite a violent gang war.”

That is the menacing set-up for Keep Quiet, which world premieres in an out-of-competition spot at the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Friday, a year after the director debuted boxing drama Bang Bang at the Swiss fest.

Nick Stahl, Irene Bedard, Lane Factor and Kimberly Guerrero round out the ensemble cast of the film, which is based on a screenplay by Zach Montague. Visit Films is handling international sales on the project.

Filmed on the Cheyenne and...

Locarno, Switzerland — Visit Films, the prestigious New York-based sales agent, has come on board of “Keep Quiet,”directed by Vincent Grashaw (“Bang Bang”) and starring Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Lou Diamond Phillips (“La Bamba”).

Visit Films will launch sales around the Aug. 14 world premiere of “Keep Quiet” at the Locarno Film Festival where it weighs in as one of the Festival’s weightier commercial propositions.

Penned by Zach Montague, “Keep Quiet” follows a weathered tribal cop and his new trainee as they must find a ruthless fugitive, whose return to his rural Indigenous reservation has exposed its darkest secrets and could ignite a violent gang war.

The thriller also stars Nick Stahl, Dana Namerode (“The A-Frame”), Pawnee Nation member Elisha Pratt (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Emmy-winner and Golden Globe nominee Irene Bedard (“Pochahontas”) and Lane Factor (“Reservation Dogs”).

Visit Films began working with Grashaw on “Bellflower,” his break out as a producer,...

In 2011, Vincent Grashaw scored. With his friends in the Coatwolf filmmaking collective, he produced the ultra-low-budget “Bellflower.” It was a breakout hit in Sundance’s Next section and Oscilloscope Laboratories snapped up the gritty, handmade portrait of toxic love and self-destruction less than a week after its premiere.

“That was when [Oscilloscope co-founder] Adam Yauch was still alive and [A24 co-founder] David Fenkel was still there,” Grashaw said. “The year we were at Sundance, I want to say 30 films sold. It was crazy.”

Being a festival breakout kicked off his career, providing access to a network of agents, managers, and general meetings.

It didn’t do a damn thing to get a movie made.

He laughed. “I don’t think I ever had somebody say yes to a pitch. I feel like in a weird way, I’m outside of the business compared to what I was back then.”

However,...

Days of Our Lives (Dool) spoilers for Thursday, January 30, indicate some interesting plot twists in the land of Salem.

Someone pokes the bear, while a character begs another to keep quiet, and someone is pumping the brakes on a romance. What’s set to unravel during Thursday’s show? Time to find out!

Days Of Our Lives Spoilers – Ej Dimera Taunts Rafe Hernandez

Days spoilers for Thursday, January 30, imply that Ej Dimera (Dan Feuerriegel) will take the opportunity to taunt Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering).

Read More: Days Of Our Lives Spoilers: Fake Rafe Cheat After Bachelor Party, Javi Rats Him Out

It sounds like Ej will poke fun at the fact that Rafe is stuck in the Dimera tunnels, as his fiancé, Jada Hunter (Elia Cantu) is gearing up to marry his doppelganger, Arnold Feniger (Galen Gering)

Still, will Rafe end up having the last laugh? It looks like there...