Prologue to the Swiss Film Prize 2003: the Nominations

(The entire dossier of information concerning nominations can be downloaded as a pdf. You will find it at the end of this text. Images for download you will find in the «film prize»-section / main navigation)

The films submitted for the category of «Best Fiction Film», for which a sum of CHF 50,000 has been allocated, are: «Beyond the Border» by Rolando Colla, «Burning in the Wind» by Silvio Soldini, «Ernstfall in Havanna» by Sabine Boss, «A Little Color» by Patricia Plattner, and «On dirait le sud» by Vincent Pluss. The following films have been nominated for the category «Best Documentary Film», for which another sum of CHF 50,000 has been allocated: «B comme Béjart» by Marcel Schüpbach, «Epoca» by Andreas Hoessli and Isabella Huser, «Forget Baghdad» by Samir, «Gambling, Gods and LSD» by Peter Mettler and «Shepherds' Journey into the Third Millenium» by Erich Langjahr. Nominated for the category of «Best Short Film», for which a sum of CHF 20,000 has been allocated, are: «Le combat» by Fernand Melgar, «Exit» by Benjamin Kempf, «Joshua» by Andreas Müller, «Nosfératu Tango» by Zoltán Horváth and «Swapped» by Pierre Monnard. Up for nomination were films which were screened in the course of the past year at important film festivals in Switzerland and abroad or in the cinema.

Nominated in the «Best Actress» and «Best Actor» categories, each of which has been allocated with a sum of CHF 15,000 from Swissperform, are: Sarah Bühlmann for her role as Mo in «Dilemma» (director: Tobias Ineichen), Mona Fueter as Tina Müller in «Füür oder Flamme» (director: Markus Fischer), and Eva Scheurer for her role as police warden Susanna Winter, also in «Dilemma». The actors nominated are: Mathias Gnädinger as Walter Oberholzer in «Big Deal» (director: Markus Fischer), Manfred Liechti as Reto Lauenstein in «White Fear» (director: Stefan Jäger), and Mike Müller as security officer Bruno Ruegg in «Ernstfall in Havanna» (director: Sabine Boss).

The panel of experts for the nomination of best actor and actress (casting engineer Corinna Glaus, actor Patrice Gilly, and producer Jean-Luc Wey) has emphasised the fact that there is a vast amount of acting talent in Switzerland worthy of a prize. The leading roles in Swiss feature films for cinema are, however, most often cast with foreign actors and actresses. This is especially the case for the limited number of leading female roles and French-speaking roles. For this reason, there are exceptional acting achievements to be seen in particular in German-speaking films for television this year.

The nominations for the Swiss Film Prize, which was initiated in 1998, are made by the six sponsoring organisations, which are: the Federal Office for Culture, Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR idée suisse), the Locarno International Film Festival, the International Film Festival «Visions du Réel» in Nyon, the Solothurn Film Festival, and the Swiss Film Center, in collaboration with the Swiss Short Film Agency. The nominations for both acting categories are made possible by contributions from Swissperform. The Swiss Film Center is responsible for managing this collective undertaking.

The jury, which is presided over by the internationally known and recognised Swiss film and opera director Daniel Schmid, selects the winners of the prizes from the nominations. Members of this year's jury include the following: Luis Bolliger, director of the satellite programs at SF DRS/3sat; Madeleine Fonjallaz, formerly responsible for selective film support at the Federal Office for Culture; the German film publicist Peter W. Jansen; Luciano Rigolini, photographer and documentary film editor at ARTE France; Christa Saredi, businesswoman; and Alexandra Tiedeman, actress.

The Swiss Film Prize 2002 was shared by actresses Andrea Guyer and Carol Schuler for their roles in «Lieber Brad» (director: Lutz Konermann), and Michael Finger as «Rafael» in «Utopia Blues» (director: Stefan Haupt). The prize for best fiction film was awarded to Stefan Haupt for «Utopia Blues». Awards were given to Vadim Jendreyko for his documentary film «Bashkim», and Georges Schwizgebel for his short film «La jeune fille et les nuages».