The 79th Locarno Film Festival, running from August 5 to August 15, 2026, will feature a major retrospective examining the Hollywood Blacklist of the Cold War era.
The programme, titled ‘Red & Black – Hollywood Left and the Blacklist’, has been curated by film scholar Ehsan Khoshbakht.
The retrospective will present a wide selection of fiction films, documentaries, newsreels and shorts from the US, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Mexico and Argentina.
Among the major industry figures represented are John Garfield, Joseph Losey, Dalton Trumbo, Dorothy Parker, Richard Wright and Charles Chaplin.
In addition to the screenings, the festival will publish a comprehensive book with contributions from international film scholars and critics. A podcast written by Khoshbakht will also accompany the programme, providing further context and discussion.
The Hollywood Blacklist, one of the darkest chapters in American film history, began in 1947 and involved studios barring individuals suspected of Communist affiliations. The era had profound consequences for artists and filmmakers, many of whom were forced out of the industry.
Khoshbakht said the retrospective highlights both the political engagement of filmmakers and the personal costs of the McCarthy-era witch-hunts. He described the programme as “the timeliest one I have worked on in my life,” noting that it shows how politically conscious artists incorporated their beliefs into cinema while facing severe repercussions.
The retrospective aims to shed new light on the intersection of politics and artistry in classic Hollywood and will offer audiences a deeper understanding of this turbulent period in film history.
