Film year 2020: a roller coaster ride for Swiss filmmaking

At the beginning of the year, Swiss directors and producers were personally in the spotlight at the two major festivals in Sundance and the Berlinale: at the Sundance Film Festival Susanne Regina Meures celebrated the world premiere of her documentary film SAUDI RUNAWAY (Christian Frei Filmproduktion). It was nominated as European Documentary and just received the European University Film Award at the European Film Awards EFA.

Swiss producers Joëlle Bertossa and Flavia Zanon (EFP Producer on the Move 2020) at Close Up Films coproduced the fiction film YALDA, A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS. The film also celebrated its premiere in Park City and won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. Both films were subsequently screened at the Berlinale.

Switzerland’s female power in Berlin

With three films in competition and several productions screened in other sections, Swiss female directors and producers made high-profile appearances at the Berlinale.

MY LITTLE SISTER by director duo Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond celebrated the film’s world premiere in the Berlinale Competition. The production by Ruth Waldburger’s Vega Film is the official Swiss entry in the race for the 93^rd Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category. The film’s lead actress Nina Hoss was nominated for European Actress at the EFA. The Italian-Swiss film BAD TALES, coproduced by Amka Films, was also screened in competition and won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. The Italian directing and writing duo Fabio and Damiano D'Innocenzo received a nomination for European Screenwriter at the European Film Awards.

Director Andrea Staka (Okofilm Productions) presented her feature film MARE in the Panorama. The Swiss-Croatian production was honoured with two awards at the Sarajevo Film Festival in August. The experimental anidoc ALETSCH NEGATIVE by Laurence Bonvin was screened in the competition Berlinale Shorts and the animation film LITTLE BIRD AND THE BEES by Lena von Döhren in the Generation Kplus Competition. Furthermore, the Swiss actress Ella Rumpf was honoured at the Berlinale as one of the ten European Shooting Stars by European Film Promotion EFP.

Virtual festivals and markets

In the course of the spring, festivals and film markets worldwide had to shift to the digital realm due to Corona. According to estimates by SWISS FILMS, approximately 75 percent of the festivals were held online or in a hybrid form in 2020, 15 percent could be held with protective measures, often in a reduced form, and 10 percent of the festivals were cancelled.

Among the first festivals to rely entirely on an online edition was Visions du Réel Nyon. Correspondingly, SWISS FILMS’ market presence and promotional activities also shifted. The annual pitching platforms “SWISS FILMS Previews” in Nyon and at the Kurzfilmtage Winterthur was thus held online with international guests. SWISS FILMS was represented at the film market in Cannes and the animation film market in Annecy with a virtual stand. In partnership with the Locarno Film Festival and the TorinoFilmLab, SWISS FILM organized live digital events. For further market presence, such as at the Shanghai Film Market, at TIFF and at the American Film Market, SWISS FILMS was able to affiliate with the virtual umbrella stands of European Film Promotion.

Highlights among the fiction films

In addition to the films that launched their festival careers at the Berlinale, Swiss fiction films were present at other renowned festivals in 2020: Bettina Oberli’s MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zodiac Pictures) was screened in competition at the Tribeca Festival and subsequently opened the Zurich Film Festival in autumn; SPAGAT, the debut film by Christian Johannes Koch (CognitoFilms), celebrated its world premiere in the New Directors section in San Sebastian. Screened at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn were CAGED BIRDS by Oliver Rihs (Contrast Film Zurich) and NEEDLE PARK BABY by Pierre Monnard (C-FILMS).

The Locarno Film Festival cancelled its regular programme and instead offered ten Swiss film projects whose production had to be suspended due to Corona a platform with the newly created section “The Films After Tomorrow”. Director Marí Alessandrini was honoured with the Pardo 2020 by the jury for her film project ZAHORÍ (Le Laboratoire Central).

Documentary films as strong as ever

Whether online or in the cinema: Swiss documentary films maintained an impressive presence at high-profile festivals in 2020. Particularly noteworthy was the lineup at the Venice Film Festival – one of the few major festivals that was held on location – as well as online at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November. A total of eleven Swiss documentary films were screened at the IDFA, including the Swiss-Paraguayan coproduction NOTHING BUT THE SUN by Arami Ullón (Cineworx Filmproduktion) as the opening film. RADIOGRAPH OF A FAMILY (coproduced by Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion) was honoured with the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary.

The Italian-Swiss coproduction WAR AND PEACE (Lomotion AG Filmproduktion) and THE NEW GOSPEL by theatre director and author Milo Rau (coproduction: Langfilm) celebrated their world premieres in Venice and were also screened in the IDFA Competition. Similarly, NEMESIS (Okofilms Productions) by Thomas Imbach, which premiered at Visions du Réel in Nyon and won the IDFA Award for Best Cinematography. After celebrating its world premiere in Nyon, IL MIO CORPO by ECAL graduate Michele Pennetta (Close Up Films) was selected for the ACID Cannes and screened in the IDFA Best of Fests section. WAKE UP ON MARS by Dea Gjinovci (Alva Film Production) was screened in Nyon and at the Tribeca Festival in New York. This year‘s German Camera Award for Documentary Film went to Benny Jaberg for NOT ME – A JOURNEY WITH NOT VITAL by Pascal Hofmann (RECK Filmproduktion), which premiered at ZFF.

Swiss short films as festival hits

Swiss short film productions shone worldwide in 2020 with an impressive presence at festivals, most of which were held online. STILL WORKING by Julietta Korbel (Thera Production, ECAL) was screened at international short film festivals in Clermont-Ferrand, Melbourne, Sao Paolo and Bristol, among others, and was honoured with an award for Best Student International Short at the Palm Springs ShortFest. RED ANTS BITE by Elene Naveriani (Alva Film Production) celebrated its international premiere at the IFF Rotterdam and won awards in Brest and Bristol. THE BIRD’S SONG by Sarah Imsand (HEAD – Genève) was part of the Cinéfondation Sélection Cannes 2020. Roman Hodel’s THE GAME (Ensemble Film) was able to celebrate its premiere on location in Venice and was subsequently screened at TIFF and IDFA, among others.

The following animation films were extremely successful around the world: WHY SLUGS HAVE NO LEGS by Aline Höchli (Cinéma Copain Ltd); AVERAGE HAPPINESS by Maya Gehrig (Langfilm - Bernard Lang AG); LITTLE MISS FATE by Joder von Rotz (YK Animation Studio); and THE LAST DAY OF AUTUMN by Marjolaine Perreten (Nadasdy Film), among many others.

Prestigious international awards went to by CRU by David Oesch (Tribeca Student Visionary Award, German Camera Award for Newcomer in Editing); the dance film OUT OF ORDINARY by Luca Signoretti, Tobias Buchmann, and Alicja Pahl (ZHdK) was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards (Alternative/Experimental category). Swiss director Pascal Schelbli was honoured with the Student Academy Award in the Animation category (International Film Schools) for his film THE BEAUTY, produced at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The film ALL CATS ARE GREY IN THE DARK by Lasse Linder, produced at HSLU, was screened at more than 30 international festivals in 2020. In addition to numerous festival awards, the short documentary film has just been honoured with European Short Film 2020 at the European Film Awards.

Cinema market hit particularly hard by Corona

While festivals were able to react relatively adroitly to lockdowns with hybrid editions, the pandemic hit the cinema market particularly hard worldwide. Successful theatrical releases – such as the Swiss coproduction with minority participation WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT with roughly 700,000 admissions in Germany – were abruptly halted from one day to the next in March. With country-specific protective regulations like upper limits on audience numbers, cinemas restarted their operations. By the end of September, however, box-office sales in France and Germany, the most important export markets for Swiss films, had already plummeted by over 60 percent compared to the previous year. The European cinema market in 2020 was unable to recover from the shock of the first wave: at the end of October, cinemas were closed again in most European countries, thus also suspending the promising theatrical releases of such Swiss films as MY LITTLE SISTER. With the closing of cinemas, the rights holders’ source of income also vanishes. For cinema operators, but also distributors and the film industry, the market environment has become particularly difficult, unclear and therefore also unpredictable. As far as the international theatrical releases of Swiss film productions is concerned, there is no sign of improvement in the near future. The Federal Office of Culture and SWISS FILMS are therefore working on new measures to strengthen the international distribution of Swiss films, particularly with digital promotion and new theatrical release platforms.

Change in the SWISS FILMS Foundation Board

Josefa Haas, the long-standing president of the SWISS FILMS Board of Trustees, is leaving SWISS FILMS at the end of the year. The Board of Trustees and the staff at SWISS FILMS would like to thank her most sincerely for her extraordinary commitment. During Josefa Haas’s tenure, the digital transformation of the organisation was significantly advanced. As of January 1, 2021, the media manager and entrepreneur Catherine Mühlemann will take over the presidium of the SWISS FILMS Board of Trustees.

On behalf of the Federal Office of Culture, the promotion agency SWISS FILMS implements measures which bolster the visibility and market opportunities of Swiss film productions abroad.

SWISS FILMS, December 16, 2020