World premieres and festival hits: 16 Swiss films and coproductions at ZFF

Peter Volkart’s SUBITO – INSTANT PHOTOGRAPHY (Reck Filmproduktion) about the invention of the Polaroid will celebrate its world premiere in the International Documentary Film Competition. Volkart has made a name for himself with numerous short film productions set in surreal and intricately detailed worlds: for example, with TERRA INCOGNITA, which was honoured with the Swiss Film Award for Best Short Film in 2006. SUBITO is his first feature-length documentary film.

In the running for the Golden Eye in the Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria Competition are directors’ first, second or third feature and documentary films. This year, two feature films and two documentary films from Switzerland have been selected: celebrating its world premiere is Francesco Rizzi’s feature-film debut CRONOFOBIA, featuring Swiss actress Sabine Timoteo and produced by Imagofilm in Ticino. Also screened in this section is Hannes Baumgartner’s  MIDNIGHT RUNNER (Contrast Film). The film, starring Max Hubacher in the leading role, will premiere shortly before in the New Directors section at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Furthermore, two documentary films will be screened in Focus: WALDEN by Daniel Zimmermann (Beauvoir Films / Special Jury Prize in Karlovy Vary); and THE LITTLE DEATH by Annie Gisler (Dok Mobile, world premiere).

Swiss world premieres in Special Screenings
The Swiss-Italian coproduction THE STONE EATER by Nicola Belluci (Cineworx Filmproduktion) will celebrate its world premiere in the Special Screenings section of ZFF: a murder mystery about a homicide in a Piedmont valley. Also premiering is Cihan Inan’s ZONE ROUGE (Abrakadabra Films) about a class reunion held for the first time 25 years after graduation and haunted by a dark shadow from the past. Also screened in this section will be Vitaly Mansky’s documentary film PUTIN’S WITNESSES, a Latvian-Swiss-Czech coproduction (GoldenEggProduction), which has already been screened at the festivals in Karlovy Vary and Toronto.

A restored version of Leopold Lindtberg’s film JÄ-SOO! – co-directed with Walter Lesch and produced by Praesens Film in 1935, starring the two brothers Zarli and Alois Carigiet, will be presented. Eric Grant’s short documentary film RUN FOR LIFE (2008) will also be screened in the Special Screenings section in conjunction with the “Perspectives on cancer” programme.

Gala Premiere for Michael Steiner’s new film
The world premiere of the screen adaptation of Thomas Meyer’s best-selling novel WOLKENBRUCH by Michael Steiner (Turnus Film) will be celebrated in the Gala Premieres section. The Swiss-German coproduction is set in the Orthodox Jewish community in Zurich with a star-studded cast featuring Joel Basman, Noémi Schmidt and Udo Samel. Joel Basman also stars in Thomas Vinterberg’s new film KURSK, which will also be presented as a Gala Premiere.

In addition, the internationally acclaimed Swiss coproductions – HAPPY AS LAZZARO by Alice Rohrwachter (Amka Films; Best Screenplay, Cannes 2018), SICILIAN GHOST STORY by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (ventura film; Cannes 2017), and Annarita Zambrano’s AFTER THE WAR (Cannes 2017) coproduced by Bord Cadre films – were selected for screening in the New World View: Italy section.

The film GENESIS 2.0 by Christian Frei and Maxim Arbugaev, honoured with the World Cinema Documentary Award for Cinematography at Sundance in 2018, will be screened in the #BigData programme; the documentary film KINSHASA MAKAMBO by Congolese director Dieudo Hamadi, coproduced by Alva Film, will be screened in the Border Lines section.

Industry activities by SWISS FILMS
This year marks the second time SWISS FILMS has organised its Market Preview at ZFF: on September 28, six current film projects from Switzerland will be presented to a select number of world sales representatives, international distributors and festival delegates invited to an exclusive screening, with producers in attendance.

SWISS FILMS facilitates participation for five Swiss film producers at the Zurich Summit, the high-profile networking event at ZFF.

The Talent Day, held on October 1, is an event organised by SWISS FILMS for Switzerland’s new generation of filmmakers (directors and producers) working on their first feature-film project. At the invitation of SWISS FILMS, they have the opportunity to exchange information with international guests from the industry and benefit from their experiences in various fields of activity. Participating as guests will be Mark Adams (Artistic Director Edinburgh IFF), Suzy Gillet (Coordinator Village of Écoles Les Arcs), Joanna Solecka (Consultant Audience Design, TorinoFilmLab), Hayet Benkara (Talent Development Programmer TIFF).

SWISS FILMS, September 13, 2018