Major Swiss retrospective at Tampere Film Festival (Finland)
03.03.2009
Switzerland will be featured as the guest country at the 39th Tampere Film Festival (March 4-8, 2009), the most important festival for short films in Scandinavia. With the title of “Whatta Helvetia?”, the national film promotion agency SWISS FILMS has organised four short film programmes and a special screening together with the festival. Two Swiss short films are in the running for awards: the film “Beheading Of A Smiling Dog” by Georg Lendorff will participate in the international competition (winners of the UIP Award qualify for the European Film Awards) and “Monsieur Sélavy” by Peter Volkart in the LAB10 competition. A total of 34 Swiss film productions will be screened in Tampere.
Four short film programmes, amounting to a total of 30 short films, will be showcased in “Whatta Helvetia? – States of Mind from the Land of the Alps”. One of the programmes is entitled “Prize winning films” and will feature such films as “René” (2007) by Tobias Nölle, “Twist” (2006) by Alexia Walther or the Oscar nominee “Auf der Strecke” (2007) by Reto Caffi. Another programme entitled “The Dark Side of Switzerland” will present films such as “Einspruch III” (2002) by Rolando Colla and “Nouvel ordre” (2006) by Grégory Bindschedler, Ausonio Tavares de Sousa and Jean-Daniel Schneider. A further programme entitled “Swiss Guys” will feature films such as “Hunde” (2005) by Matthias Huser and “Icebergs” (2007) by Germinal Roaux, among others. And the programme entitled “This is Switzerland ?” will include “La délogeuse” (2008) by Julien Rouyet and “Frohe Ostern” (2005) by Ulrich Schaffner, among others. The experimental short film “Nice Time” (1957) by Alain Tanner and Claude Goretta and the long-playing documentary film “La forteresse” by Fernand Melgar will both be featured in a special screening in Tampere.
A Swiss reception has been organised together with the Swiss Embassy on March 7. The Swiss delegation in Tampere is comprised of filmmaker Peter Volkart, Georg Lendorff, Jonas Meier and Alexia Walther. In addition, Simon Koenig from SWISS FILMS will be a panelist at a seminar that addresses the current state of the Finnish short film industry on March 6 to report on the situation in Switzerland.
The film festival in Tampere was founded in 1969 and is the oldest of ist kind and the most important event for short films in Scandinavia. Along with Clermont-Ferrand and Oberhausen, it is one of the three most outstanding festivals for the short film genre in Europe. It is acknowledged by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIPAF) and presents more than 600 films from all genres in 120 screenings every year, attracting approximately 30,000 visitors. Moreover, the festival hosts a film market comprising almost 4,000 film titles, as well as a video festival for children and youth.
Zurich/Geneva, March 3, 2009
A Swiss reception has been organised together with the Swiss Embassy on March 7. The Swiss delegation in Tampere is comprised of filmmaker Peter Volkart, Georg Lendorff, Jonas Meier and Alexia Walther. In addition, Simon Koenig from SWISS FILMS will be a panelist at a seminar that addresses the current state of the Finnish short film industry on March 6 to report on the situation in Switzerland.
The film festival in Tampere was founded in 1969 and is the oldest of ist kind and the most important event for short films in Scandinavia. Along with Clermont-Ferrand and Oberhausen, it is one of the three most outstanding festivals for the short film genre in Europe. It is acknowledged by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIPAF) and presents more than 600 films from all genres in 120 screenings every year, attracting approximately 30,000 visitors. Moreover, the festival hosts a film market comprising almost 4,000 film titles, as well as a video festival for children and youth.
Zurich/Geneva, March 3, 2009