Swiss Film Award 2015: “The Circle” and “Electroboy” are the winners

“The Circle” won awards in four categories: Stefan Haupt took home the trophy for Best Feature Film and shared the award for Best Screenplay with his co-writers Christian Felix, Ivan Madeo and Urs Frey. Sven Schelker (European Shooting Star 2015) won the Best Actor award for his performance in his feature debut, while yet another award for “The Circle” went to Peter Jecklin for Best Performance in a Supporting Role.

Since celebrating its world premiere at the Berlinale 2014, the docudrama about the gay organisation “Der Kreis” in Zurich can boast more than 100 festivals, 13 international awards and sales in 18 countries on 4 continents. “The Circle” was Switzerland’s official contender for an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Language Film and had also qualified for the Golden Globes. At present, “The Circle” is being screened in cinemas in the USA (Wolfe Releasing), France (Outplay), Thailand (Bioscope) and Denmark (Reel Pictures). “The Circle” was produced by Contrast Film, with the world rights at Wide House (Paris).

“Electroboy” honoured as Best Documentary Film
The award for Best Documentary Film went to “Electroboy” by Marcel Gisler. Thomas Bachmann also took home a trophy for the documentary with the Best Film Editing award. “Electroboy” tells the incredible story of Florian Burkhardt, who abandoned the constraints of his Swiss background to set out into the big wide world in search of fame and fortune as a film star, photo model, web designer and party organiser. Gisler’s documentary film debut celebrated its world premiere in the “Semaine de la critique” at the 67^th Festival del Film Locarno. It was then honoured with the Zürich Film Award in 2014. The film’s next stop is the Munich International Documentary Film Festival. “Electroboy” was produced by Langfilm, with the world rights at Picture Tree (Berlin).

Three trophies for young talents and honours for maestro Godard
The three debut films – “Chrieg”, “The Drift” and “Pause” – also garnered awards. Sabine Timoteo won the Best Actress award for her performance in “The Drift”, marking it the third time the Swiss Film Academy has honoured her for her achievements. “Pause” won the “Quartz” for the Best Film Score. And the award for Best Cinematography went to Lorenz Merz for his work in the multi-award-winning debut film “Chrieg” by Simon Jaquemet. This, too, is already the third “Quartz” for him. Jean-Luc Godard received the Honorary Award for his cinematic oeuvre. The Swiss Film Award is organised by the Federal Office of Culture.

SWISS FILMS, Friday, March 13, 2015

Press photos of the award ceremony
Press photos of the ceremony are available on the website of the Swiss Film Award: www.schweizerfilmpreis.ch / Photo gallery for “The Circle“ by SWISS FILMS

List of 2015 Swiss Film Award Winners
Best Feature Film: THE CIRCLE, Stefan Haupt, Contrast Film Zurich
Best Documentary Film: ELECTROBOY, Marcel Gisler, Langfilm
Best Short Film: DISCIPLINE, Christophe M. Saber, Box Productions
Best Animated Film: TIMBER, Nils Hedinger, prêt-à-tourner Filmproduktion GmbH
Best Screenplay: THE CIRCLE (Stefan Haupt, Christian Felix, Ivan Madeo, Urs Frey), Contrast Film Zurich
Best Actress: Sabine Timoteo, for THE DRIFT
Best Actor: Sven Schelker, for THE CIRCLE
Best Performance in a Supporting Role: Peter Jecklin, for THE CIRCLE
Best Film Score: PAUSE (Mathieu Urfer, Marcin de Morsier, John Woolloff, Ariel Garcia)
Best Cinematography: CHRIEG (Lorenz Merz)
Best Film Editing: ELECTROBOY (Thomas Bachmann)
Special Academy Award: Patrick Lindenmaier, for his outstanding contribution to motion picture design
Honorary Award: Jean-Luc Godard