{"id":584533,"date":"2026-08-06T01:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T01:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/584533\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T01:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T01:56:10","slug":"isabella-rossellini-and-smiley-newcomer-open-locarno-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/584533\/","title":{"rendered":"Isabella Rossellini and Smiley Newcomer Open Locarno 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tItalian-American actress, model, filmmaker and all-around icon\u00a0Isabella Rossellini<\/a>\u00a0helped kick off the 79th edition<\/a> of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday with star power, a family tribute and plenty of emotion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ahead of its 2026 opening film, The Green Eyes<\/a> (Les Yeux Verts) from Fanny Liatard and J\u00e9r\u00e9my Trouilh, the festival honored Rossellini with its Excellence Award on the central square, the Piazza Grande, of\u00a0the picturesque lakeside town in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Film and fame run in her blood, of course \u2014 she\u2019s the daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis award fills me with pride,\u201d she told the adoring audience in the big square. \u201cThe Locarno Festival is one of the most prestigious in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then recalled how her father won what was called the Great Prize at the third edition of the Locarno festival in 1948 for his film Germania Anno Zero, along with a shared \u201cbest scenario\u201d award. \u201cSome years ago, my brother Renzo, who was a great producer of the likes of Federico Fellini and Ettore Scola, was also honored,\u201d she continued. He received the Locarno Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.<\/p>\n

Rossellini finished visibly moved, sharing: \u201cSo to be on par with my father and my brother fills me with great emotion.\u201d She then posed for a photo with the crowd behind her, and as she left the stage, the audience sent her off with a big ovation.<\/p>\n

\n\tLocarno Film Festival<\/a> president Maja Hoffmann had earlier in the evening welcomed the crowd and declared the 79th edition of the festival open, calling the presence of Rossellini \u201csuch a good omen for this edition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIsabella Rossellini<\/a> with the Locarno Excellence Award, courtesy of Locarno Film Festival<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Locarno Film Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on opening night, the directors and key cast of The Green Eyes took the stage. Starring young Douae Butarbuch M\u2019Zaouki alongside Sayyid El Alami (Messiah, A Gentleman in Moscow) and others, the film follows 11-year-old Chaya and her family, refugees in the Landes region of France. When the family faces deportation, Chaya\u2019s older brother Nour falls into a deep, mysterious sleep \u2014 and she\u2019ll do everything she can to wake him.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-writer and co-director Liatard mentioned that the recent wildfires in the Landes region as an example of how people can lose everything overnight, no matter where in the world they are. \u201cWe wanted to try to put faces to stories that are sometimes a bit dehumanized, or just numbers,\u201d she explained. \u201cThis is a single story that we filmed last year in the Landes region, where there were some major forest fires not long ago, which you\u2019ll see on screen. Many people had to evacuate their homes, losing everything overnight. It was very close to home for us \u2014 we were there in the Landes at the time. It made us realize that you can lose everything overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYoung newcomer Butarbuch M\u2019Zaouki won many a heart in the audience with her big smile and an excited wave to the audience. As she received the microphone, she expressed thanks to her directors and co-stars for helping her with her role. And to much applause, she added: \u201cThank you all for coming.\u201d
While at the Swiss fest, Rossellini will on Thursday discuss her career during an \u201cIn Conversation\u201d event and will also present her web series\u00a0Green Porno\u00a0(2008-2009), in which she acted out animal mating rituals in costume.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Locarno Film Festival runs through Aug. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian-American actress, model, filmmaker and all-around icon\u00a0Isabella Rossellini\u00a0helped kick off the 79th edition of the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival\u00a0on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,1042,60,108151,232172,3428],"class_list":["post-584533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-isabella-rossellini","tag-locarno-2026","tag-locarno-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}