But it is not, says Müller, a market. “We don’t want a market, we don’t need a market,” he insists. “It would be pointless to compete with the bigger festivals. We should really stay unique and, at the same time, professionals should use Locarno so that they can meet with other professionals - not just to mingle, but to discuss how they could open the same film in different countries and discuss a common platform.” This year, the industry presence will be boosted by a group of so-called ‘Millennium Distributors’ meeting to discuss the problems of those new distribution companies which have launched over the past year or so, and who are clearly unimpressed by the theory that you can’t make a living distributing independent films in Europe. A joint venture between the Festival, European Film Promotion and the Swiss Film Center, the ‘Millennium Distributors’ meeting is the sort of event which, one feels, could only happen in Locarno.

Müller, meanwhile, continues to commute between niche distribution companies, established arthouse directors - on a trip to China some 20 years ago, he was one of the first Western cinéphiles to meet Chen Kaige and he is also guardian to John Woo’s daughter - and the majors.

“Last year,” he recalls by way of example, “UIP came to us and said, ‘We have this crazy little film called Bowfinger and we’d like to show it’. We are very excited about working with the majors on a common ground, which means creating extra visibility for unusual films, for films with an edge, films with a difference which would otherwise simply end up being midnight films at some other Festival.

“The first time that this happened was with The Full Monty. When we invited the film, Fox had totally different release plans. This was before Edinburgh, where the film also proved to be a success, so I’m not saying that we were the only festival that created the conditions for Fox completely to revise their strategies. But the film had an immense audience success in Locarno, and it also went on to win the audience award. So, two weeks after the Festival, Fox had already decided to double or triple the number of prints in most major European territories...”