ZFF 2023

Six Swiss productions will be screened in the Focus Competition, for which first, second or third director’s works from Switzerland, Germany and Austria have been selected. Three documentary films will celebrate their world premieres in this section: For THE DRIVEN ONES (Catpics), director Piet Baumgartner followed the journeys of five HSG students over the course of seven years from the beginning of their studies to their first steps in the working world.

In LAS TORERAS (Recycled TV), artist and filmmaker Jackie Brutsche and her artistic character Jack Torera set out to unravel her mentally ill mother’s unhappiness, which inspired her art but divided her family. Michele Pennetta’s coming-of-age documentary LONELY (Close Up Films) illustrates how the two teenagers Precious and Federico have to navigate the fine line between harsh reality and their dreams in the Italian city of Como.

Tamer Ruggli’s feature-film debut BACK TO ALEXANDRIA (Tipi'mages Productions) features Nadine Labaki and Fanny Ardant in the leading roles: Because her mother is dying, Sue returns to Egypt from Switzerland after more than twenty years. On the journey from Cairo to Alexandria she finds her way back to her roots.

Two feature films that had celebrated their world premieres in Cannes have been selected for the Focus Competition: LET ME GO by Maxime Rappaz (GoldenEggProduction) and BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY by Elene Naveriani (Alva Film).

High-profile coproductions as gala premieres

The German-Swiss feature film STELLA. A LIVE by Kilian Riedhof (Swiss coproduction: Contrast Film) as a world premiere in the Gala Premieres section. German actress Paula Beer stars in the leading role in a Holocaust drama based on a true story.

Also celebrating its world premiere at ZFF is the thriller EARLY BIRDS, the story of two women on a night out on the town in Zurich. Michael Steiner’s new feature film, starring Nilam Farooq, Silvana Synovia and Anatole Taubman in the leading roles, was produced by hugofilm features in collaboration with Netflix.

Several Swiss coproductions that celebrated their premieres at the major European film festivals will also be screened as Swiss premieres: at the Berlinale INGEBORG BACHMANN – JOURNEY INTO THE DESERT by Margarethe von Trotta (tellfilm); in Cannes LA CHIMERA by Alice Rohrwacher, coproduced by Amka Films Productions; and in Venice LUBO by Giorgio Diritti (coproduction: hugofilm features) and THE PALACE by Roman Polanski (coproduction: CAB Productions).

Special Screenings

Three Swiss documentary films will celebrate their world premieres in the Special Screenings section: In PARTNERS (Intermezzo Films), filmmaker Claude Baechtold uses archive footage to look back on his tour of Afghanistan, against his will, after 9/11. Director Yannick Mosimann accompanies a social experiment in NORMAL LOVE (production project: Axel Foley), in which a couple, previously unknown to each other, enters into a relationship based on a contract with 14 clauses. In HEAVEN ABOVE ZURICH Thomas Thümena (hugofilm doc) portrays a Salvation Army officer and his interactions with people in need.

The first two episodes of the new drama series DAVOS 1917 (directed by Jan-Eric Mack, Anca Miruna Lăzărescu, Christian Theede) premieres in the Special Screenings section. The Swiss German series was coproduced by Contrast Film, Letterbox Filmproduktion and Amalia Film, as well as SRF and ARD Degeto. Starring in the leading role, Swiss actress Dominique Devenport plays a nurse who gets caught between the fronts of spies during World War I.

ROMEO AND JULIET IN THE VILLAGE (1941), the Gottfried-Keller adaptation, now digitally restored by SRF and Praesens Film in collaboration with Cinémathèque suisse and Memoriav, will also be presented at ZFF as a Special Screening.

Special Screening for FOUDRE

SWISS FILMS and SRG SSR, in collaboration with ZFF, will host an exclusive screening of the official Swiss submission for the 96th Academy Awards: THUNDER will be presented in a closed screening in attendance of director Carmen Jaquier and producer Flavia Zanon (Close Up Films).