Belgian-born actress Virginie Efira (All of a Sudden, Parallel Tales, Benedetta, Paris Memories) took the stage in the central Piazza Grande square at the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Friday evening to receive this year’s Leopard Club Award.
“It is truly a joy, a privilege and an immense honor for me to be here with you to receive this award,” she said in French in front of a huge crowd in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, before adding: “I sincerely apologize for only speaking French. Do most people understand?” The crowd’s answer was a loud “yes.”
She continued with praise for the Locarno festival. “I also want to say, and I feel this very strongly when I see you all here in this square, … that Locarno is perhaps the festival with the greatest faith in the audience,” Efira offered. “The idea [is] that we, as viewers — and I share this belief, like you — are all hungry for films that resonate with us, that move us, that innovate, that offer us something greater, and that we are not finite entities with predictable desires, that we want to be surprised. And Locarno truly has that trust in the audience, and that warms my heart.”
She continued: “The Locarno Film Festival is truly avant-garde. It discovers artists, it looks at a cinema that is being invented, and that is extremely important.”
