Overview
- The Locarno Film Festival, which opened Wednesday, staged the world premiere of Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s The Green Eyes on Piazza Grande before about 8,000 spectators.
- Isabella Rossellini received Locarno’s Excellence Award on the opening night and will take part in onstage events and a short-film showcase during the run.
- Artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro said he aims to free the festival from algorithmic predictability by programming a mix of crowd-friendly Piazza Grande titles and discovery-focused selections in Cineastes of the Present.
- The Green Eyes centers on a refugee family and a child’s so-called resignation syndrome and gains added resonance from recent wildfires in the French Landes where the film was shot.
- Locarno’s lineup pairs premieres with film preservation projects, including a Cinegrell-restored 4K Dances With Wolves that adds roughly 30 minutes of unseen footage and a 'Red & Black – Hollywood Left and the Blacklist' retrospective.