Overview
- The 79th Locarno Film Festival opened on Wednesday with the world premiere of Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s The Green Eyes on the Piazza Grande before about 8,000 people.
- Isabella Rossellini received Locarno’s Excellence Award on opening night and will give a career conversation and screen a selection of her short films during the run.
- The Green Eyes centers on an 11-year-old refugee girl whose brother falls into a deep, unexplained sleep known as resignation syndrome and was filmed in France’s Landes region where recent wildfires add topical resonance.
- Nazzaro has positioned this edition to favor curated discovery over predictable programming, combining crowd-pleasing Piazza Grande titles from name directors with edgy sidebar premieres and restored classics.
- Highlights to watch through Aug. 15 include the 'Red & Black – Hollywood Left and the Blacklist' retrospective, a new 4K Dances With Wolves restoration with roughly 30 minutes of unseen footage, and competition programs that spotlight emerging filmmakers.