Swiss animation films in Annecy

The Swiss-French coproduction “Ma vie de Courgette” celebrated its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the Festival de Cannes in May. The feature-length animation film debut by film director Claude Barras, produced by Rita Productions in Geneva, depicts a nine-year-old boy who has to find his way in a children’s home after his mother’s death. The film already won an award in the Work In Progress section in Annecy in 2015.

Screened in the Short Films Competition will be “Erlkönig” by Georges Schwizgebel, the doyen of Swiss animation film (production: Studio GDS, Carouge). Schwizgebel’s graphic-musical realisation of Goethe’s poem of the same name celebrated its premiere on the Piazza Grande in Locarno last year and has since travelled to festivals around the globe and garnered numerous awards, including the Swiss Film Award for Best Animation Film.

Three films produced by students in the Animation Department at the Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU) will be screened in the Graduation Films Competition: the experimental film “I Felt Like Destroying Something Beautiful” by Katrin Jucker; the multi-award-winning “Ivan's Need” by Veronica L. Montaño, Manuela Leuenberger and Lukas Suter; as well as “Ruben Leaves” by Frederic Siegel, who was honoured with the Swiss Film Award 2016 for Best Graduation Film. “Belle comme un coeur” by Gregory Casares, produced at the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne together with Nadasdy Film, has already had an impressive festival career. “Novembre” was the graduation film by Marjolaine Perreten, from Western Switzerland, at the La Poudrière Animation Film School in France.

SWISS FILMS, June 7, 2016