Swiss Film Award 2018: BLUE MY MIND and THE PARIS OPERA garner main awards

Three trophies of the Swiss Film Award 2018 go to Lisa Brühlmann’s BLUE MY MIND (production: Tellfilm, ZHdK; World Sales: Be for Films): Best Fiction Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actress. BLUE MY MIND celebrated its world premiere in the New Directors section at the renowned San Sebastian International Film Festival. Lisa Brühlmann has won numerous awards for her first feature-length film, for example, the Golden Eye for Best Film at the Zurich Film Festival or the award for Best Director at Max Ophüls Film Festival in Saarbrücken. The film was most recently screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

Shooting Star Luna Wedler receives the Swiss Film Award for Best Actress for her role in BLUE MY MIND. This year Wedler was the youngest participant among the ten European Shootings Stars at the Berlinale. She will be performing in various films for the cinema in 2018, including Hannes Baumgartner’s MIDNIGHT RUNNER (production: Contrast Film) and the German feature film DAS SCHÖNSTE MÄDCHEN DER WELT by Aron Lehmann (production and distribution: Tobis Film). With seven nominations, BLUE MY MIND was the favourite of this year’s Swiss Film Award.

Best Documentary Film THE PARIS OPERA – a box-office hit in France
The Swiss Film Award for Best Documentary Film goes to the director Jean-Stéphane Bron for THE PARIS OPERA (production: Les Films Pelléas, Bande à part Films; World Sales: Les Films du Losange). This marks the third time Bron has been honoured with the Swiss Film Award for Best Documentary Film. Prior to this, he won the award for CLEVELAND VERSUS WALLSTREET (2011) and CORN IN PARLIAMENT (2004). The French-Swiss coproduction THE PARIS OPERA has already been sold in fifteen countries by now and released in cinemas in nine countries. Roughly 130,000 viewers in France alone have seen Bron’s film.

Two Swiss Film Awards go to the feature film MARIO by Marcel Gisler (production: Triluna film; World Sales: Films Boutique): in the categories of Best Actor (Max Hubacher) as well as Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Jessy Moravec). Gisler has already been honoured with the Swiss Film Award a number of times, for example, for his films ELECTROBOY (Best Documentary Film 2015) and F. EST UN SALAUD (Best Fiction Film 1999).

This is also the second time Max Hubacher has won a Swiss Film Award. The first time was in 2012 for Best Actor for his role in Markus Imboden’s THE FOSTER BOY. At present, Hubacher is performing in the leading role in THE CAPTAIN by Robert Schwenke in cinemas in Germany. The film is nominated for the German Film Award 2018 in five categories.

Student Academy Award winner FACING MECCA is Best Short Film
Jan-Eric Mack’s multi-award-winning Swiss short film FACING MECCA (production: Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion) was shortlisted for an Oscar in the Live Action Short Film category and won the Student Academy Award (Silver Medal), among others, this year. The internationally successful FACING MECCA has now been honoured with a Quartz for Best Short Film in Switzerland. The international festival hit AIRPORT (production Schick Film) by Michaela Müller is honoured with an award for Best Animation Film. Müller had already won a Swiss Film Award for Best Animation Film in 2011 for MIRAMARE.

THE LITTLE WITCH wins Best Film Score
The award for Best Film Score goes to by Diego, Nora and Lionel Baldenweg (Great Garbo) for their soundtrack in the German-Swiss coproduction THE LITTLE WITCH by Michael Schaerer (production: Claussen+Putz Filmproduktion, Zodiac Pictures; World Sales: StudioCanal). The family film has been nominated for the German Film Award in the category of Best Children’s Film and is currently extremely successful in cinemas in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Approximately 1.5 million cinemagoers have already seen the film in German-speaking countries.

Pio Corradi receives the award for Best Cinematography in the documentary film PURE CHARCOAL by Robert Müller, and Gion-Reto Kilias for Best Film Editing in ALMOST THERE by Jacqueline Zünd. The internationally acclaimed Swiss animation film artist Georges Schwizgebel received the Honorary Award in recognition of his cinematic oeuvre, and Thomas Nellen receives the Special Academy Award for his work as the make-up artist in Christine Repond’s VACUUM.

The Swiss Film Award is produced by the Federal Office of Culture in partnership with SRG SSR and the Association Quartz Genève Zürich and organised in collaboration with SWISS FILMS, the Swiss Film Academy and the Solothurn Film Festival.

SWISS FILMS, March 23, 2018

Winners of the Swiss Film Award 2018
Best Fiction Film: BLUE MY MIND, Lisa Brühlmann, Tellfilm GmbH
Best Documentary Film: THE PARIS OPERA, Jean-Stéphane Bron, Bande à part Films
Best Short Film: FACING MECCA, Jan-Eric Mack, Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion AG
Best Animation Film: AIRPORT, Michaela Müller, Schick Productions
Best Screenplay: BLUE MY MIND, Lisa Brühlmann, Tellfilm GmbH
Best Actress: Luna Wedler, in BLUE MY MIND by Lisa Brühlmann
Best Actor: Max Hubacher,
in MARIO by Marcel Gisler
Best Performance in a Supporting Role: Jessy Moravec,
in MARIO
Best Film Score: THE LITTLE WITCH, Diego Baldenweg,
Lionel Vincent Baldenweg, Nora Baldenweg
Best Cinematography: PURE CHARCOAL, Pio Corradi
Best Film Editing: ALMOST THERE, Gion-Reto Kilias
Honorary Award: Georges Schwizgebel for his cinematic oeuvre
Special Academy Award: Thomas Nellen, for the make-up in Christine Repond’s VACUUM

www.swissfilmaward.ch