LOCARNO, Switzerland The 54th Locarno International Film Festival opens in this capital of Italian-speaking Switzerland Thursday with an array of offerings from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

For the first time the festival will be headed by a woman, Irene Bignardi, a prominent film critic from Rome and a former Venice film festival organizer, AFP reported.

She says Locarno will try to promote "innovative, young and sometimes 'risque'" cinema in the official competition.

Fifty-four-year-old Bignardi was named festival president in October, succeeding Marco Muller who had headed the festival since 1992. He resigned last year.

Unlike its predecessors, the festival will this year not be limited to just directors' first and second films, but will still feature 15 world premieres among the 19 films on offer.

Apart from Bignardi, there will also be a strong female presence in the festival, with 19 of the films in competition directed by women. Seven of the nine festival judges are also women, including the American and Italian actresses Debra Winger and Laura Morante.

Films in the official competition come from 13 countries, including four from France, and the rest from Germany, Italy, Brazil, Iran, South Korea, China (Hong Kong), India, Switzerland and the United States, with black Director John Singleton's latest film, *** "Baby Boy." ***

The French offerings will include world premieres of Anne Fontaine's *** Comment J'Ai Tue Mon Pere *** *** (How I Killed My Father) *** and Dominique Cabrera's *** Le Lait de la Tendresse Humaine *** (Milk of Human Kindness).***

In a break with previous practice, no competition films will be shown on the city's main square, the Piazza Grande, which can take up to 7,500 spectators on the shores of the Lago Maggiore.

Organisers say that thus they hope to give equal chances to the films competing for the main prize, the golden leopard.

Instead shpwongs of some new blockbusters such as Tim Burton's remake of *** Planet of the Apes, *** and other mainstream films will be shown in the square.

On August 3, the leopard of honour awarded will be given to Chinese Director Chen Kaige whose credits include *** Yellow Earth *** and *** Farewell My Concubine. ***

A restrospective will also honour the contributions to the cinema industry of Asian actors and directors, ranging from Cecil B. de Mille's *** The Cheat *** in 1915, with Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa, to the latest film by Wayne Wang.

In addition to the competition, the festival includes a section devoted to the "Leopards of Tomorrow," honouring the makers of short and half-length films, with a particular homage this year to Belgium.