Swiss film year 2025

A number of first features celebrated their world premieres at renowned festivals: SILENT REBELLION by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo was screened at the Venice International Film Festival and continued its festival circuit in Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Montreal, Madrid and Cairo, among others. Another debut – the Swiss-South African coproduction LAUNDRY by Zamo Mkhwanazi – celebrated its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Jonas Ulrich presented his first feature film WOLVES at the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF). MEMORY OF PRINCESS MUMBI is already the fourth feature film by the young director Damien Hauser. The Afrofuturistic feature film, created with the help of AI, was also invited to the Toronto International Film Festival after its world premiere in Venice.

Well-known names with new films

Established Swiss filmmakers also showed their latest works in 2025: Petra Volpe’s LATE SHIFT and Lionel Baier’s THE SAFE HOUSE were screened at the Berlinale. THE CURRENTS by Milagros Mumenthaler began its festival career in Toronto, and was subsequently screened, among others, in Busan and at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where it was honoured with the RTVE - Another Look Award. THE EXPOSURE by Thomas Imbach and Stefan Haupt's I'M NOT STILLER were screened at the Filmfest München. Fabrice Aragno’s film LE LAC was selected to compete at the Locarno Film Festival.

Jacqueline Zünd and Nicolas Steiner – both previously known for their documentaries – presented their first feature films: Zünd’s film DON’T LET THE SUN competed in the Cineasti del presente in Locarno and Steiner’s YOU BELIEVE IN ANGELS, MR. DROWAK? celebrated its world premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival, where it was honoured with the Award for Best Cinematography.

Documentaries with international appeal

As a rule, many Swiss documentary films celebrate their premieres at the Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon before going on to international festivals around the world. This year’s opening film was Christian Frei’s Covid investigation BLAME, which was later screened at Dok.fest München, in Warsaw and Trieste, among others, and won numerous audience awards. The autobiographical family study SEDIMENTS by Laura Coppens was honoured with awards both in Nyon and at DOK Leipzig in autumn. FITTING IN, Fabienne Steiner’s graduation film, celebrated its world premiere at BAFICI in Argentina, was screened at Visions du Réel and was nominated for Best Documentary Film at First Steps, the German Newcomer Award.

Two successful minority coproductions were also screened at Visions du Réel: OBSCURE NIGHT – (“AIN'T I A CHILD?”) by Sylvain George (coproduction: Alina film) was presented in ACID Cannes, the Viennale and IDFA after its world premiere in Nyon; GEN_ by Gianluca Matarrese (coproduction: Elefant Films) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was screened at CPH:DOX, Sheffield Doc/Fest and IDFA, among others.

SUMMER CAMP by Matteo Ybarra premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and went on to be screened at festivals in Montevideo, Munich and Mexico. The graduation film FLYING SCENTS by Antshi von Moos was screened in the Semaine de la Critique in Locarno.

Nicolas Wadimoff’s Palestine documentary WHO IS STILL ALIVE was screened in the Giornate degli Autori in Venice and was honoured with two awards. Peter Mettler’s magnum opus WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS: A DIARY IN SEVEN PARTS premiered at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and continued its festival run in Jihlava, at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and RIDM Montreal.

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) hosted the world premiere of I LOVE YOU, I LEAVE YOU by Moris Freiburghaus, which won the award for Best Documentary Film as well as the Audience Award. Following its screening at the ZFF, THE BEAUTY OF THE DONKEY by Dea Gjinovci was also screened in Chicago and won an award at the Festival in Jihlava in November. Gregor Brändli’s ELEPHANTS & SQUIRRELS was honoured with the Silver Dove following its world premiere at DOK Leipzig and was screened shortly thereafter at IDFA.

World-class series productions

Internationally acclaimed Swiss series are increasingly being invited to festivals: The political thriller THE DEAL was honoured with several awards at the SeriesMania Festival in Lille, was the first series ever to be screened on the Piazza Grande in Locarno and won the Swiss Series Storytelling Award at the Geneva International Film Festival GIFF. LOG-OUT was also screened in Lille and GIFF. THE PALM LINE celebrated its world premiere at the GIFF. The SRF series L'ULTIM RUMANTSCH (2nd season) and OUR LITTLE EMBASSY were presented at the ZFF.

Short film cosmos

At the beginning of the year, the Swiss animation film CARIES by Aline Höchli was screened in the Short Film Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Numerous other animation films can look back on substantial festival careers: for example, HUNTING by Lea Favre, DOUBLE OR NOTHING by Tokay, TAPEWORM ALEXIS & THE OPERNA DIVA by Thaïs Odermatt, all of which were also screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Other festival hits were Frederic Siegel’s TV OR THE DISTURBANCE ON FOREST HILL ROAD, which was screened at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, and OSTRICH by Marie Kenov, which was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival screened approximately 25 short films from Switzerland, including Sinan Taner’s graduation film 1:10 in the International Competition. The film proved to be a festival favourite worldwide throughout the year. The short documentary film EXIT THROUGH THE CUCKOO’S NEST by Nikola Ilić was honoured with two awards in Clermont-Ferrand.

Lasse Linder’s documentary short film AIR HORSE ONE celebrated its world premiere in Locarno and was subsequently screened at IDFA. The Swiss-French coproduction BERTHE IS DEAD BUT IT'S OKAY by Sacha Trilles was shortlisted for Best Short Documentary Film of the French César Awards.

Award-winning Swiss talent

The Göteborg Film Festival honoured director Denise Fernandes with the prestigious Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award for her first feature film HANAMI. At the Venice International Film Festival, Swiss actress Luna Wedler was honoured with the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Emerging Actor for her role in SILENT FRIEND.

Director Elena López Riera won not only the Swiss Film Award for SOUTHERN BRIDES, but also the French César for Best Documentary Short Film.

At the Camerimage Festival in Poland, the world’s largest festival dedicated to cinematography, German DoP Judith Kaufmann was honoured with the award in the Main Competition for LATE SHIFT and Swiss DoP Fabian Gamper for the German film SOUND OF FALLING.

Fabian Gamper has also been nominated as European Cinematographer; German actress Leonie Benesch has received a nomination for European Actress for her leading role in LATE SHIFT, both for the European Film Awards 2026. OLIVIA AND THE INVISIBLE EARTHQUAKE, a coproduction by Swiss animation film studio Nadasdy Film, has received a nomination in the European Film and European Animated Feature Film categories.  

Many Swiss productions on domestic screens

Swiss filmmaking had a strong showing of box-office hits in Swiss cinemas in 2025: Petra Volpe’s LATE SHIFT was released to great success in February and became the most successful Swiss film of the year to date, attracting 201,500 viewers. Pierre Monnard’s HELLO BETTY hit theatres at the end of November and grossed over 77,300 ticket sales until mid-December – one of the six films supported by the new SWISS FILMS Campaign Booster.

The two most successful documentaries were the Dalai Lama portrait WISDOM OF HAPPINESS (88,000 admissions) by Barbara Miller and Philip Delaquis and the sports documentary DOWNHILL SKIERS (75,000 admissions) by Gerald Salmina. The documentary GAME OVER – THE FALL OF CREDIT SUISSE by Simon Helbling and Stefan Haupt’s film adaptation of the novel I’M NOT STILLER also grossed over 50,000 admissions. (Source: Procinema, as of December 16, 2025) 

The most successful productions from French-speaking Switzerland were THE SAFE HOUSE by Lionel Baier and DOG ON TRIAL by Laetitia Dosch.

In 2025, a remarkably diverse selection of domestic films for children and youth could be discovered on the big screen, including the animated film SAVAGES by Claude Barras, BARRY AND ME by Markus Welter, PRANK by Benjamin Eisenberg, COLOMBINE by Dominique Othenin-Girard and Marcel Barelli’s animation film MARY ANNING, which was honoured with the Locarno Kids Award and was also supported by the Campaign Booster.

Internationally, LATE SHIFT (with more than 670,000 tickets in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, the UK & Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Croatia, Taiwan) and THE SAFE HOUSE (over 161,000 tickets in France and Italy) were the most successful Swiss productions at the box office. (Source: ComScore, as of December 4, 2025)

Outlook

As has just been announced, Petra Volpe's LATE SHIFT is one of 15 films to make it onto the Oscar® shortlist in the International Feature Film category. The nominations for the 98th Academy Awards® will be announced on January 22, 2026.

Also in January, the Sundance Film Festival has a highlight in store: Petra Volpe’s latest feature film FRANK & LOUIS will be the first Swiss production ever to celebrate its world premiere in the Premieres section of the festival.
 

Our annual review can only take a selection of films, awards and festivals into account. More comprehensive festival and award lists can be found for each film using the film search on our website. SWISS FILMS records festival participation and awards at the festivals listed on its Festival Support guidelines.