Swiss Film Award 2023
The Honorary Award goes to Ruth Waldburger
28.02.2023
Ruth Waldburger, one of Switzerland's most influential film producers, will receive the Honorary Award of the Swiss Film Academy. Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation, will present her with the award on Friday, March 24, 2023, at the Swiss Film Award ceremony in Geneva.
Ruth Waldburger made a name for herself in the late 1970s as a dedicated production manager of numerous Swiss films by a new generation of filmmakers. Already at that time, she was laying the foundations for collaboration with filmmakers from French-speaking Switzerland, such as Alain Tanner for instance. In 1982, she switched from the set to production work and became co-owner of the production company Xanadu Film. In the years that followed, together with other young producers, Ruth Waldburger realized a number of films by up-and coming filmmakers from Switzerland and abroad.
As owner and producer of the newly-established production company Vega Film, Waldburger embarked in 1988 on a close collaboration with Jean-Luc Godard, producing eleven of his films. Shortly after, she produced Tom Dicillo's debut film, JOHNNY SUEDE, with the future Hollywood star Brad Pitt in one of his first leading roles. The film won the Pardo d'oro of the Locarno Film Festival in 1991. Many of Waldburger’s subsequent films received awards at international film festivals. Within a short time, Ruth Waldburger established herself as the most important Swiss producer in Europe working with renowned international directors such as Alain Resnais, Robert Frank, Béla Tarr, Silvio Soldini, Gianni Amelio, Noémie Lvovsky and Barbet Schroeder.
Ruth Waldburger's work is as diverse as it is successful. To name just a few of her most recent successes: The film SISTER by Ursula Meier won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2012, MY LITTLE SISTER by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond received five Swiss Film Awards in 2020, and the coproduction TIDES by Tim Fehlbaum was awarded with four German Film Awards in 2021. The world premiere of Waldburger’s latest production LET HER KILL YOU (directed by Jérôme Dassier) with Asia Argento and Jeanne Balibar is scheduled for spring 2023.
With this award, the Swiss Confederation honors a filmmaker who brings people together and has been committed to Swiss films since the beginning of her impressive career.
Swiss Film Award
The award ceremony of the Swiss Film Award in 13 categories, will take place on Friday, March 24, 2023, in Geneva. The tribute to Swiss filmmaking is organized by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC) in partnership with SRG SSR and the Association "Quartz" Genève Zurich and in collaboration with SWISS FILMS, the Swiss Film Academy and the olothurn Film Festival.
(Swiss Federal Office of Culture, February 28, 2023)
Photo: Gianmarco Castelberg