Silver and Bronze Student Oscars for Swiss directors

Switzerland celebrates a historic success: two short fiction films were each honoured with a Student Academy Award 2013 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills (USA) on June 8. Talkhon Hamzavi won the Silver Medal for Best Foreign Film with her 24-minute short film “Parvaneh,” her graduation film at the Zurich University of the Arts. Mauro Mueller won the Bronze Medal in the Narrative category with his 15-minute film “Un mundo para Raúl.” The film is his graduation film at the Columbia University in New York and was coproduced by Contrast Film (Zurich).

Historic success for Swiss short films
This marks the first time that two works from Switzerland have been honoured with a Student Oscar in the same year, and the first time a film from the Zurich University of the Arts ranks among the winners. Film director Talkon Hamzavi accepted the Silver Medal together with the film’s producer Stefan Eichenberger, and film director Mauro Mueller the Bronze Medal together with producer Ivan Madeo. Prior to the award ceremony they had participated in the Student Academy Awards Week in Los Angeles.
The Student Oscars are awarded in five categories: Alternative, Animation, Documentary, Foreign and Narrative. Until now two Swiss directors have won the coveted award trophy: Reto Caffi for “Auf der Strecke” in the Foreign category in 2008; and Michael Schaerer for “Warmth” in the Alternative category in 2001.

Geneva, June 9, 2013