The Hollywood Reporter has rounded up some of the more unusual and offbeat films screening at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, which runs from 5 to 15 August 2026 in Switzerland. While Locarno is known for world premieres from established and emerging auteurs, the piece highlights titles from the festival's stranger, more eccentric fringes, spanning genres from fairy tale to horror to psychological drama.

Among the films featured are "Wandering Trees" (Alberi erranti), directed by Salvatore Mereu, a dreamlike Sardinian tale following a boy's search for his missing father after animals in their care are killed; and "Objet A", directed by Berlin-based artist Ann Oren, a stylised drama about two hand surgeons—one compelled to steal objects, the other longing to become one—whose relationship is upended by a mysterious newcomer. Both films screen in Locarno's international competition section, alongside further quirky titles referenced in the headline, including a Tunisian horror film and one titled "Bloody Tennis".