Hoffmann claims for Locarno the courage to discover first

The 79th Locarno Film Festival opened on Wednesday evening. The official inauguration took place in the cloister of the Magistrale, with federal councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider in attendance.

The culture minister described the festival as a place that lets art breathe and that resists the logic of the easy option. She called Locarno a showcase of Swiss cinema in which the cinema of the world is reflected.

Baume-Schneider spoke in French, Italian and German. She linked that choice to the country's multilingual character, observing that Ticino is a reminder of how much command of the national languages contributes to cohesion.

The president's line

Maja Hoffmann is the first woman to hold the festival's presidency. In her remarks she set out the institution's aim: to be the place where cinema becomes visible before it becomes visible anywhere else.

She insisted on preserving what she called the event's historic quality, namely the courage to discover ahead of others. The phrase describes well the risk taken on by a festival that bets above all on directors not yet established.

During the evening Isabella Rossellini received the Excellence Award. The actress spoke of her emotion, recalling that her father had won the same prize in 1948 and that her brother, a producer, received it in 2022.

The opening film was "Les Yeux Verts", a French, Belgian and Swedish co-production directed by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh.

Three Italian films are competing in the main selection: "Alberi erranti" by Salvatore Mereu, "Ketticè" by Giovanni Tortorici and "Armony" by Dario Albertini.

The other honorary awards will go to Darren Aronofsky, who receives the Pardo d'onore, to Virginie Efira with the Leopard Club Award, to James Gray with the Pardo alla carriera and to Asia Argento with the Life Achievement Award.

The festival runs until 15 August.