Maja Hoffmann appointed next president of Locarno Film Festival
Maja Hoffmann takes over the presidency of the Locarno Film Festival from Marco Solari, who has held the position for 23 years.
Keystone / Samuel Golay
Billionaire art collector and patron Maja Hoffmann has been elected as the next president of the Locarno Film Festival. She has been appointed to replace Marco Solari, who has held the position for 23 years.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
An extraordinary general meeting of the film festival elected Maja Hoffmann as the new president on Wednesday.
A well-known figure in the visual arts world, Hoffmann, 67, founder of the LUMA Foundation in Arles, France, will be the first woman to take on the role. Outgoing president Marco Solari will accompany her during a transition phase in the coming months.
Solari presented his successor with a white rose to symbolises transparency and courage.
As the new president, Hoffmann said she was ready to take risks and support the Locarno Film Festival in its next development phase.
Following her designation in July, critical voices became louder, particularly from Ticino, questioning how often the versatile Hoffmann, who lives in Basel, Zurich and Arles, would be in Locarno.
Hoffmann, vice president of the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation in Basel, said after her election that she was a cosmopolitan and a “person of the south” and wouldn’t just be able to be in Locarno.
She is well connected in the art world and began collecting art in the 1980s. She studied film in New York and has co-directed documentaries, for example about Marina Abramovic or Peggy Guggenheim.
In 2004 she founded the LUMA Foundation, which supports artistic and interdisciplinary work in the fields of visual arts, education and the environment. The branch in Arles was added in 2013.
The extraordinary general meeting of the Locarno Film Festival also decided to reduce the size of the Board of Directors from 27 to 7 members. It also introduced two new advisory bodies: the policy advisory board, designed to provide support at cultural, economic and institutional levels, and the industry advisory board, which will bring together the various competencies of the film industry.
Young undocumented migrants gain easier access to vocational training
This content was published on
Rejected asylum-seekers and young undocumented migrants in Switzerland will have easier access to basic vocational training from June 1.
Migration: Swiss government wants to shorten reunification period for families
This content was published on
Family members of people temporarily admitted to Switzerland should in future be able to join them after two years instead of three.
This content was published on
2023 was a record year for the Rhaetian Railway in several respects. Never before has the narrow-gauge railway in Graubünden, eastern Switzerland, transported so many passengers and cars.
Swiss CFOs much more optimistic despite global uncertainty
This content was published on
The main concerns of business leaders in Switzerland are geopolitical uncertainty and the important trading partners Germany and China.
Record organ donation in Switzerland despite high rejection rates
This content was published on
More organ donations were recorded in Switzerland in 2023 than ever before. This was despite a high rejection rate of 58% by surviving relatives.
This content was published on
Seven years after the death of record-breaking Swiss mountain climber Ueli Steck, his estate is going to the Alpine Museum of Switzerland in Bern.
Iranian film takes top prize at Locarno Film Festival
This content was published on
Mantagheye bohrani (Critical Zone) by Iranian filmmaker Ali Ahmadzadeh won the Pardo d’oro (Golden Leopard) at the 76th Locarno Film Festival.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.