Switzerland guest of honour at Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival

Switzerland will be featured as the guest of honour at the anniversary edition of the prestigious short film festival with an extensive retrospective showcasing 23 short films in four programmes, including the two Oscar-nominated short films PARVANEH by Talkhon Hamzavi and AUF DER STRECKE by Reto Caffi. Caffi was honoured with the Grand Prix in Clermont in 2008. Festival hits from Switzerland were also selected for the retrospective: DISCIPLINE by Christophe Saber; KWA HERI MANDIMA by Robert-Jan Lacombe; and DIE SEILBAHN by Claudius Gentinetta and Frank Braun. Several short productions that have already been screened in competition at previous festival editions in Clermont-Ferrand, such as RACINES by Eileen Hofer or MONTAUK by Vinz Feller, can be rediscovered this year in the “Rétrospective Suisse” programme.

Accolades for Schwizgebel, Volkart and Colla

A total of five films by the Genevan animation filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel will be screened in Clermont-Ferrand. Moreover, LA COURSE A L’ABÎME will be presented in the festival’s opening programme. Schwizgebel will also hold a master class. The directors Peter Volkart and Rolando Colla will also be honoured, each with their own programme: the “Courts de rattrapage” series features six films by Volkart and seven films by Colla. Presented together with the six films in the EINSPRUCH series is Colla’s debut short film JAGDZEIT (1993). All three Swiss short film luminaries have a long-standing history with the film festival in Clermont.

Three Swiss films will screen in competition

Three Swiss films will be screened in competitive sections of the 40^th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. The short fiction film BONOBO by Zoel Aeschbacher and the documentary film LIGNE NOIRE by Mark Olexa and Francesca Scalisi were both selected for screening in the International Competition. PARADES by Sarah Arnold, the French-Swiss coproduction that was awarded at the Locarno Festival, will be screened in the National Competition. Further, four animation films from Switzerland will be presented in the children’s programme. The festival hit THE LITTLE BIRD AND THE CATERPILLAR by Lena von Döhren as well as three films (co)produced by Nadasdy Film in Geneva: DRÔLE DE POISSON by Krishna Chandran A. Nair, LE PETIT BONHOMME DE POCHE by Ana Chubinidze and LE VENT DANS LES ROSEAUX by Arnaud Demuynck and Nicolas Liguori.

SWISS FILMS will promote Switzerland’s short film cinema with a stand at the film market in Clermont-Ferrand (February 5-9, 2018). A delegation of Swiss filmmakers will present their work personally in Clermont-Ferrand, filmmaker Dominique de Rivaz will be part of the international jury. The guest appearance is a collaboration with the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Swiss Consulate in Lyon, initiated by SWISS FILMS within the framework of the Federal Office of Culture’s programming mandate.

Programme: “Rétrospective Suisse” at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival

SWISS FILMS, January 8, 2018