“My Life As A Zucchini”, “La femme et le TGV” and “I Am Not Your Negro” nominated for the Oscars

Following an extremely successful festival career with numerous awards and extraordinary box-office success in France and Switzerland, “My Life As A Zucchini” (“Ma vie de Courgette”) by Claude Barras (Rita Productions, Geneva) has been nominated for an Oscar in the category Animated Feature Film.

“My Life As A Zucchini” (“Ma vie de Courgette”) celebrated its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the Festival de Cannes and has since garnered tremendous success around the globe. Last December the stop-motion animation film was honoured with the European Film Award for Best Animation Film and was also the first film by a Swiss director to be nominated for a Golden Globe. “My Life As a Zucchini” recently celebrated its US-Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where the English synchronisation of the film was presented for the first time. The film will be released in cinemas in the US on February 24 and in Canada in March (distributor: GKIDS). “My Life As a Zucchini” has already been sold in over 50 countries.

Michel Merkt, coproducer of “My Life As a Zucchini”, has been nominated for an Oscar in the category of Foreign Language film for the German production “Toni Erdmann”.

Nominated Short Film
Timo von Gunten has received a nomination in the category of Live Action Short Film for his short film “La femme et le TGV” (arbel gmbh): it is one of the five nominees in this category. The modern-day fairytale featuring Jane Birkin in the leading role is based on a true story and has already won several international awards. Timo von Gunten’s fiction film “Le voyageur” is currently being screened in competition at the Film Festival Max Ophüls Prize in Saarbrücken. The film was produced by Giacun Caduff.

The film “I Am Not Your Negro” by Haitian director Raoul Peck has been nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Documentary Feature. The film celebrated its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and was coproduced by Joëlle Bertossa (Close Up Films, Geneva).

Switzerland’s previous Oscar successes
In 2015 the Swiss short film “Parvaneh” by Talkhon Hamzavi and in 2009 the German-Swiss coproduction “Auf der Strecke” (On The Line) by Reto Caffi were nominated for an Oscar in the category Live Action Short Film. In 2002 Christian Frei’s documentary film “War Photographer” received a nomination for Best Documentary Film. The last film to win an Oscar for Switzerland was Xavier Koller’s “Journey Of Hope” in the category of Best Foreign Language Film in 1991.

The Oscars will be awarded in Los Angeles on February 26.

www.oscars.org

SWISS FILMS, January 24, 2017