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Isabella Rosselllini with her Excellence Award in Locarno
Photo: Courtesy Locarno Film Festival/Ti-Press/EdoardoNerboni
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Isabella Rossellini was honoured with the Excellence Award at the opening of Locarno Film Festival last night.
The Italian American actor and filmmaker said she was "filled with great emotion" to receive the lifetime achievement award after both her father Robert and brother Renzo.
The award was presented to a packed crowd on the Swiss lakeshore town's Piazza Grande before the festival opened with Jérémy Trouilh and Fanny Liatard's The Green Eyes, a magic realist-inflected tale which follows a little refugee girl who follows her brother into 'his dreams' after he suffers from resignation syndrome.
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jérémy Trouilh and Fanny liatard in Locarno to present The Green Eyes on opening night
Photo: Courtesy of Locarno Film Festiva/Ti-Press/EdoardoNerboni
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Describing the festival as "one of the most presitigious in the world", Rossellini, 74, said it filled her with pride to receive the award. Her father Robert won what was then known as the Great Prize in 1948 for Germany Year Zero, also sharing the Best Screenplay gong. His director/producer son Renzo won the lifetime achievement award three years ago.
Presenting The Green Eyes, along with her co-director and key members of the cast, Liatard said: “We wanted to try to put faces to stories that are sometimes a bit dehumanized, or just numbers.” The directing pair also noted that the devastating recent French wildfires had hit the area of Landes where they filmed. "It made us realize that you can lose everything overnight," she added.
Rossellini will take part in an In Conversation later in the festival, which runs until August 15.
