35th Locarno Film Festival

The 35th Locarno Film Festival was held from 6 to 15 August 1982 in Locarno, Switzerland. This was David Strieff's first year as director following the departure of Jean-Pierre Brossard. A retrospective of Powell and Pressburger films was screened, which coincided with the burgeoning recognition of their work as "auteurs" in film circles. Michael Powell attended the festival and gave a talk about auteurism with Swiss director Markus Imhoof, and Gaumont studio head Daniel Toscan du Plantir.

Douglas Sirk attended the screening of documentary Rainer Werner Fassbinder dreht "Querelle" (Rainer Werner Fassbinder Shoots "Querelle"), and sung its praises telling the director Dieter Schidor, a long-time Fassbinder collaborator, that it was "...a real film, much more than a documentary." This was despite the omission of a 14-minute interview Rainer Werner Fassbinder gave hours before his death that had to be cut due to a German court injunction. Fassbinder's mother got the injunction as she did not want people to see footage of him sick.

No Golden Leopard or any other festival prizes were awarded this year, despite this year being considered a good one at Locarno, because the jury claimed the best films could not be ranked over each other and four films were given Special Mentions. It was revealed that the Jury felt that the mix of art-house films against expensive prestige and commercial productions was unfair. Festival organizers quickly assembled an ad-hoc jury to award a Special Locarno Prize and 10,000 Francs to Das Letzte Loch (The Last Hole) directed by Herbert Achternbusch.