On Thursday evening, the 7th annual Luxembourg City Film Festival got off to a flying start with the Official Opening, the screening of "Denial" and an Opening Reception.
Gladys Lazareff, head of operations at the film festival, got proceedings underway, with contributions also from Collette Flesch (chair of the festival committee), Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Xavier Bettel, the Mayor of Luxembourg city, Lydie Polfer, and also Alexis Juncosa, responsible for the artistic programme of the festival.
In his address, Minister Bettel referred to the multinational and multicultural make-up of the residents of the Grand Duchy and, in a direct reference to the theme of the opening film, Denial, was proud that Luxembourg has never had a nationalistic party in power in this country.
The members of the International Jury, the Press Jury and the Youth Jury were all introduced to the attendees, which also included Guy Arendt, Secretary of State for Culture, Guy Daleiden, director of Film Fund Luxembourg, and many professionals from Luxembourg's film production industry.
Arguably the biggest cheer of the evening was the spontaneous applause for "the green man", a.k.a. Damian Bushe, who had featured in the festival's trailer - a version which was played on a loop in the background during the opening speeches - who made an appearance during the introductions.
The Luxembourg City Film Festival continues until 12 March 2017. For full details, see www.luxfilmfest.lu
