James Gray Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at 2026 Locarno Film Festival

American filmmaker James Gray will receive the Pardo alla Carriera (Career Achievement Award) at the 79th Locarno Film Festival on August 9, 2026. The award ceremony will be part of the Swiss festival’s tribute, which will also showcase Gray’s latest feature, “Paper Tiger,” on the iconic Piazza Grande. The film, starring Miles Teller and Adam Driver, is set in 1986 and follows two brothers entangled with the Russian mob after a failed scheme to clean up the Gowanus Canal.

After its Locarno screening, “Paper Tiger” is scheduled for its North American premiere as the opening night film of the 64th New York Film Festival on September 25. In addition, Locarno will screen two of Gray’s earlier works, “We Own the Night” (2007) and “Two Lovers” (2008), highlighting a career that began with a Silver Lion at Venice for “Little Odessa” (1994) and has been praised for its distinctive voice rooted in Gray’s New York Russian‑Jewish heritage.