The PalaCinema Locarno SA ecosystem hosts five resident institutions: CISA; the Locarno Film Festival; RSI's Locarno antenna; SUPSI laboratories and the Ticino Film Commission.
Click on the respective names in the list above for more information on the resident institutions, their activities and their mission in the cultural, education and research sectors, and on the commercial partner Enjoy Arena SA at the PalaCinema Locarno.

CISA, Conservatorio Internazionale di Scienze Audiovisive, is a Higher Specialized School: a center of film, television and multimedia education and culture geared toward the development of talent, professional skills and artistic practices. Founded in 1992 by director and producer Pio Bordoni, the Academy is today, among the six Swiss film schools, the one that stands out for its ability to place students in creative contexts, in which teamwork is emphasized, with a teaching orientation that covers all the practical and theoretical aspects of moving image production. Higher Specialized Schools (SSS) impart to students the skills necessary to assume specialized or managerial autonomous functions in their field; they are close to the labor market and promote a methodical and global mode of thinking. The CISA is a two-year SSS that awards a propaedeutic diploma of Designer in Visual Design (Film), followed by a one-year post-diploma specialization (SPD) that allows students to obtain the recognized qualification of Film and Television Filmmaker. The Academy is also an open laboratory for experimenting with new forms of expression. The school is also equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, including last-generation sound mixing and color correction tools.
CISA is a major player in the Canton Ticino’s film and television industry, thanks in part to its lively and enterprising presence in the context of the PalaCinema. In Locarno, the school regularly offers a range of presentations and Masterclasses, with international personalities, open to the public. CISA students’ productions are regularly represented in the selections of major film festivals. Since 2022, the Conservatory is directed by Marco Poloni, a visual artist, filmmaker and photographer.

In 1946, at the height of the cultural fervor of reconstruction, the home of quality cinema was built in Locarno, Switzerland. Thanks to its summer program, aimed at the general public and cinephiles alike, and to settings such as the democratic space of Piazza Grande – the world’s largest open-air cinema with 8,000 seats – the Locarno Film Festival offers a unique stage to discover the best of national and international filmmaking: from fiction to documentaries, from feature films to shorts, from new cinematic frontiers to the rediscovery of treasures from the past: Locarno ist the world capital of auteur cinema.
Here, between the lake’s magical mirror and the peaks of Canton Ticino, meet the new talents of the moving image, members of the audiovisual industry, the masters of the seventh art, and those who want to enjoy, understand and discover cinema. A community that is growing and to whom numerous further activities are dedicated throughout the year.
With 11 sections, 3 competitions and 20 awards, quality and variety are key. This is the framework of a Festival that explores cinema from every perspective, to discover in the present the filmmakers and films of the future.

RSI produces broadcasts in Italian for all television genres and for audiences regardless of age, gender, origin or affiliation.
RSI’s public service is provided by several vectors: two television channels (LA 1 and LA 2), three radio networks (Rete Uno, Rete Due and Rete Tre) and an extensive multimedia offering (the RSI.ch website, Teletext, mobile services, podcasts, streaming and more), plus Swiss Satellite Radio (Swiss Pop, Swiss Jazz, Swiss Classic) and HBBTV via the red button.
Deeply rooted in Italian-speaking Switzerland, RSI maintains a close relationship with its audience and the region through major events with a high identity value.
RSI is present with a new-generation radio studio at the PalaCinema Locarno and is an integral part of the audiovisual chain represented by the resident institutions and their synergies. The radio studio is joined during the Locarno Film Festival by the open-air studio on Piazza Remo Rossi for interviews and debates with the festival guests.

SUPSI Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana is present with a laboratory of the Department of Formation and Learning / University of Teacher Education within the ecosystem of the PalaCinema Locarno: the Laboratory Media and MINT (MEM) explores aspects related to educational robotics devices and also aspects related to the didactics and cultural mediation of moving images, carrying out the latter activity mainly in cooperation with the Locarno Film Festival.
The research and development activities of the Formation and Learning Department / Alta scuola pedagogica focus on the reality of educational and training systems, didactics and situational learning, through multiple theoretical and methodological approaches. In dialogue and collaboration with the actors of the school system and the national and international scientific community, the University of Teacher Education supports the development and production of knowledge and its dissemination in schools and society.