Zurich Film Festival|Switzerland Festivals

Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Zurich at the end of September since 2005. The ZFF has developed rapidly in the few years since its foundation and now attracts a total of 85.000 visitors. The 12th Zurich Film Festival takes place from September 22 - October 2, 2016.

The festival focuses on the presentation and promotion of new director's talent from around the world. Only first, second or third directing works are eligible to enter the three competition categories. Particular emphasis is placed on the discovery of new talent from the German-speaking world, with a separate competition category created solely for this purpose. Films in the competition line-up, as well as those from established filmmakers, are generally presented in person by the film’s creators. In addition to its multifaceted film programme, the festival is also renowned for its top-class side-events programme, which includes the Zurich Master Class and the international ZURICH SUMMIT – events that make ZFF one of the most important international film industry hubs. The main festival award is the Golden Eye, which is awarded in the three competition categories and to the festival’s guests of honour.

The ZFF is organised by Spoundation Motion Picture GmbH in cooperation with local institutes and sponsors, and collaborates with domestic and international distributors and producers. The idea to create an international film festival was the brainchild of Karl Spoerri, who founded the festival together with Nadja Schildknecht and Antoine Monot Jr.. Karl Spoerri (Artistic and Strategic Director) and Nadja Schildknecht (Managing Director) are the festival’s current Co-Directors.

##History

In 2004, Karl Spoerri and Tim Geser invited the renowned English digital film festival "onedotzero_adventures in moving image" to Zurich, where it was the guest of Zurich University of the Arts from October 29 – 31, 2004. This small-scale event developed into the Zürich Film Festival and brought together its core team.

In the spring of 2005, Karl Spoerri, Nadja Schildknecht and Antoine Monot, Jr. founded Spoundation Motion Picture GmbH, which has since been responsible for implementing the Zurich Film Festival and is currently managed by Karl Spoerri and Nadja Schildknecht. Karl Spoerri is the ZFF’s Artistic Director.

Theatres 1 – 6 at the cinema Plaza in Zurich’s district 4 provided the venues for the 1st Zurich Film Festival (October 5 – 9, 2005). The festival focussed on “Debuts” and screened approx. 8 premieres in one competition category. Further film line-ups included “Debut Classics” and “Züri Bellevue”. The first festival was well received by the public and attracted 8’000 visitors – the press and film industry reacted with initial scepticism towards the young event.

The 2nd Zurich Film Festival (October 2 – 6, 2006) took place in 2006 at the cinemas corso, Academy and Frosch – the Golden Eye was awarded for the first time in three competition categories (Young Feature Film, Young Documentary Film and Debut Feature Film). Additions to the programme included the ‘New World View’ line-up. The 2nd Zürich Film Festival attracted 18’000 visitors and 600 accredited film industry representatives.

The young festival took a huge leap forward in 2007 by extending its duration to 11 days – the festival’s current length. The films of the 3rd Zurich Film Festival (September 27 to October 7) were screened in the cinemas corso, Capitol, Frosch, Movie and Le Paris located along Zürich’s ‘Film Mile’. More than 50 world, European or Swiss premieres were presented at cinemas distributed along the quayside of Zürich’s river Limmat. The number of visitors rose within three years to 27’000. The Zurich Film Festival boasted a new Festival Centre located in the very heart of the city: A large marquee at Rathausplatz became the meeting point for cinema lovers and film workers. 2007 saw the festival programme expand to include the Zürich Coproduction Forum.

Zurich Film Festival continued to develop in the years between 2008 and 2012, with visitor numbers more than doubling. The cinemas ‘corso’ and ‘Le Paris’ have been the festival’s main screening venues for several years now; the cinema Arena Filmcity joined this list in 2011.

In 2009, Zurich Film Festival suffered a particularly unfortunate blow, which not only cast a shadow over the festival, but also made it known around the globe. Honorary guest Roman Polanski was arrested on arrival in Switzerland and held under house arrest for nine months. He returned to the Zurich Film Festival in 2011 to pick up his award two years later than planned.

In 2011, the Zurich Film Festival was offered guest rights by the city of Zurich to use the Sechseläutenwiese, where a new Festival Centre was erected. The Zurich Opera House became the new venue for the glamorous Award Night. The 2011 Zurich Film Festival attracted 51’000 visitors.

With the onedotzero section, Zurich Film Festival began bringing the most important and innovative festival in the field of digital film to Zürich in 2005. Even as a small independent film festival, the London-based creators were showing works by Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham, long before their names were made known to a wider audience. onedotzero_ch was the Swiss edition of the British festival, which took place within the framework of the Zurich Film Festival until 2011.

The ZFF added two films for children aged 6 and older, and two films for primary school children to its programme for the first time in 2012. Visitor figures reached a record 58’000.

With a total of 71'000 visitors, of these 4000 children and students, the festival has seen a more than 20% increase in viewer numbers in 2013. With 345 screenings of 122 film titles and some 450 national and international guests, Zurich Film Festival has once again experienced considerable growth.

The Zurich Film Festival continues on the road to success. With some 79’000 visitors in 2014, the festival’s anniversary edition saw a renewed increase in ticket sales by 11%. The 10th ZFF offered 145 films and 374 screenings. The very first‚ ZFF 72 Talent Contest’ was a huge success. A total of 235 individuals or crews of young filmmakers from eleven countries made a short film and submitted it to the contest.

##Program and Sections

Competition

Categories

The competition presents only first, second or third directing works in three categories (each with 10-14 films):

• International Feature Film Competition
• International Documentary Film Competition
• Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria

The Golden Eye and Prize Money

• A Golden Eye, the festival's main prize, is awarded in each category by a separate international jury. The Golden Eye is endowed with a 25 000 CHF cash prize (International Feature / Documentary Film) resp. a 20'000 CHF cash prize (Focus).
• The public chooses its favourite film from all of the competition entries by giving votes to every film. The best voted film receives the festival's Audience Award.
• The Swiss Association of Film Journalists presents their Critics’ Choice Award to the best narrative feature film in competition.

Jury Members 2005 - Present

The Golden Eye is awarded in each category by a separate international jury, who views the film during the festival in Zurich together with the public. The juries are not bound by any particular guidelines, they must, however, award the Golden Eye to just one film per category.

Competition Winners 2005 - Present

The Zurich Film Festival presents its Golden Eye awards to the winning directors in each category on the last Saturday of the event during a festive Award Night ceremony at the Zurich Opera House. Additional awards are conferred by the Swiss Association of Film Journalists (SVFJ) and the public (Audience Award).

Out Of Competition Film Sections

Gala Premieres

Each evening, the ‘Gala Premier’ section celebrates highly anticipated film premieres by established filmmakers in the presence of cast and crew. Both feature films and large-scale documentaries are presented in this section. The films are screened as world, European, German-language or Swiss premieres.

Selection 2013: RUSH by Ron Howard, ALL IS LOST by J.C. Chandor, AM HANG by Markus Imboden, DEVIL'S KNOT by Atom Egoyan, EXIT MARRAKECH by Caroline Link, GRAVITY by Alfonso Cuarón, LA VIE D'ADELE by Abdellatif Kechiche, LIBERACE by Steven Soderbergh, PRISONERS by Denis Villeneuve, THE RAILWAY MAN by Jonathan Teplitzky, etc.

New World View

The ‘New World View’ section presents a body of emerging, contemporary films from a particularly interesting film region. Only first, second or third directing works by filmmakers from each guest country are presented in this section. A short-film block, implemented in association with the International Short Film Festival Winterthur, also forms part of this section.

Border Lines

The Zurich Film Festival’s ‘Border Lines’ section, in collaboration with the emergency aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), presents feature-length and short films dealing with border situations occurring in current world events and humanitarian projects, territorial and social conflicts and conflicts between individuals and the state.

ZFF TVision

At the 10th Zurich Film Festival the new section "ZFF TVision" will be added to the festival's programme. The out-of-competition "ZFF TVision" section will present on the big screen productions that signal new trends and have garnered attention from the global TV world.

Honorary Guests and Retrospectives

A Tribute to... Award

The ‘A Tribute To…’ Award honours a personality from the film world who has been instrumental in influencing film history. The laureate collects the award personally in Zurich and usually imparts their knowledge and experience at a ZFF Masters.

Golden Icon Award

The Golden Icon Award was presented for the first time in 2008. It is an award bestowed upon an actor or actress in recognition of their life’s work. This award goes to a person who has become an icon for a whole generation and whose performance and work in film is unforgettable. Previous award winners are:

Career & Lifetime Achievement Award

The Career or Lifetime Achievement Award is bestowed upon a person who has achieved excellence in the field of producing, directing or interdisciplinarity. The laureate receives a Golden Eye and is honoured with a retrospective.

##Industry Events

Zurich Summit

This conference is held annually within the framework of the Zurich Film Festival at The Dolder Grand hotel. The 6th edition of Zurich Summit will take place on September 26-27, 2015. Unique to the German-speaking world, this forum offers an exclusive platform where top-class representatives from the entertainment and film industries meet investors and representatives from the world of finance. Topics include production and investment strategies, film financing and risk minimising, distribution and European co-productions.

Speakers have included: Claudia Blümhuber (CEO, Silver Reel Partners AG), Marc Butan (Principal, MadRiver Pictures), David Glasser (COO, The Weinstein Company), Nicolas Chartier (CEO, Voltage Pictures), Georges A. Kern (CEO, IWC Schaffhausen), Ben Kramer (Film Finance Agent, CAA), Pierre-Ange Le Pogam (Principal, Stone Angels), Nick Meyer (CEO, Sierra/Affinity), Brian Oliver (President, Cross Creek Pictures), Helge Sasse (CEO, Senator Entertainment), Michael Shamberg (Principal, Masproduction), Greg Shapiro (Principal, Kingsgate Films), Roeg Sutherland (Co-Head of Film Finance and Sales, CAA), Christopher Woodrow (CEO, Vendian Entertainment).

ZFF Masters

The ZFF Masters are chaired discussions with celebrated personalities from the international film industry. They offer the public insight into the creative process and attitude to film of directors, screenwriters, producers and actors. These renowned experts are available for public question-and-answer sessions.

Speakers have included: Tim Bevan, Frank Darabont, Asghar Farhadi, Charles H. Ferguson, Harrison Ford, Miloš Forman, Marc Forster, Paul Haggis, Michael Haneke, Markus Imhoof, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Tykwer, Harvey Weinstein, Jerry Weintraub.

ZFF Master Class

The ZFF Master Class facilitates networking between young, talented filmmakers and leading experts from the film industry and imparts creative filmmaking know-how. Participants are given the opportunity to interact with established industry role models who are themselves exceptional filmmakers. The ZFF Master Class serves as a source of motivation and inspiration for young filmmakers.

Speakers have included: John Battsek, Moritz Bleibtreu, Dario Suter & Joel Brandeis, Daniel Espinosa, Jennifer Fox, Stephen Frears, Costa-Gavras, Terry Gilliam, Christopher Hampton, Jessica Hausner, Markus Imboden & Jasmine Hoch, Janine Jackowski, Michael Keaton, Ken Loach, Guneet Monga, Pietro Scalia, Hervé Schneid, Michael Shamberg, Greg Shapiro, Stacey Sher, Oliver Stone, Jeremy Thomas, Christine Vachon, Benh Zeitlin.

##Side Events

International Film Music Competition

The International Film Music Competition was first introduced in 2012 and its venue alternates between the Tonhalle Zürich and one of the festival cinemas. The competition is a collaboration between the Zurich Film Festival and the Forum Filmmusik. French‐born pianist and composer Laurant Courbier is the winner of the second International Film Music Competition, which took place during the 9th Zurich Film Festival on September 27, 2013 at Arena Cinemas. Courbier received the Golden Eye endowed with a 10'000 Swiss franc cash prize for the ‚Best International Film Music 2013’.

Treatment Competition

In 2013, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) and Telepool Zürich launched - together with Zurich Film Festival - a new Treatment Competition. Authors are invited to submit a feature-length cinema or TV film treatment. The work must include a strong content-based, character-based or production-based connection to Switzerland. The Treatment Competition award is endowed with a CHF 5000 cash prize. The winner also receives a screenplay development agreement worth up to CHF 25’000 for the creation of a feature-length cinema or TV film screenplay.

ZFF for kids

On the 9th Zurich Film Festival the, ZFF for kids Audience Award' has been introduced and the screenings in this section have been expanded to total 14. The children's films are shown in the original language and simultaneously translated to German.

##External links

• Zurich Film Festival Official Site
• Film Finance Forum
• www.zurichmasterclass.org
• www.filmmusiccompetition.ch