Montreal: Switzerland as guest country with Ursula Meier in Focus
Switzerland will be featured as the guest country at the Cinemania Film Festival in Montreal (November 1-11), with a selection of its newer French-speaking festival hits. A Focus programme and a retrospective will be dedicated to filmmaker Ursula Meier.
26.10.2018
Cinemania will present Ursula Meier’s latest film SHOCK WAVES – DIARY OF MY MIND, featuring Kacey Mottet Klein and Fanny Ardant in the leading roles. The film is part of the four-part SHOCK WAVES series based on crimes that happened in Switzerland and was produced by Bande à part Films and RTS. Lionel Baier’s SHOCK WAVES – FIRST NAME: MATHIEU will also be screened in Montreal. The two films celebrated their premieres in the Berlinale Panorama at the beginning of this year. The Variety magazine proclaimed DIARY OF MY MIND one of the ten best films at Berlinale 2018.
Germinal Roaux’s FORTUNA (Vega Production), which also premiered at the Berlinale and won the Grand Prix of the International Jury (Generation 14plus) and the Crystal Bear for Best Film, will celebrate its North American premiere at Cinemania. This is also the case for Bettina Oberli’s WITH THE WIND (Rita Productions), an eco-drama starring Mélanie Thierry which celebrated its international premiere on the Piazza Grande at the Locarno Film Festival and won the Variety Piazza Grande Award.
The Swiss-Belgian coproduction THOSE WHO WORK by Antoine Russbach (Box Productions) will be screened in the film programme dedicated to Belgian actor Olivier Gourmet, who has been invited as the festival’s guest of honour.
Retrospective for Ursula Meier
The Cinémathèque québécoise will dedicate a retrospective to Swiss-French director Ursula Meier in conjunction with the festival. The internationally acclaimed filmmaker was honoured with the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for SISTER in 2012 and was president of the Caméra d'Or jury in Cannes in 2018.
Ursula Meier will present her three award-winning feature films – STRONG SHOULDERS (2002), HOME (2008) and SISTER (2012) – in the Cinémathèque québécoise. Screened in the short film programme are: DES HEURES SANS SOMMEIL (1998), TOUS À TABLE (2001), TIŠINA MUJO (2014) and KACEY MOTTET KLEIN, BIRTH OF AN ACTOR (2015).
The film director will also participate in the event by “Réalisatrices Équitables”, a Canadian women’s organisation in the film industry.
The Cinemania film festival was established in 1995 and ranks as one of the most important for Francophone cinema in North America. The Swiss Focus programme was organised in collaboration with the Swiss General Consulate in Montreal and SWISS FILMS.