122 Films / 16 World Premieres / 22 Debut Films

Esteemed Filmmakers, Highly Anticipated Premieres and Big-Name Stars

Let the film roll for the 9^th Zurich Film Festival! All eyes will be on Zurich from September 26 through October 6. New talent and international stars follow in each other’s footsteps when the Limmat city is once again transformed into a film metropolis for eleven long days and nights.

This year the Zurich Film Festival has a total of 122 films from 27 countries, including 22 debut films – most of which are in the four competition categories – and 16 world premieres. ZFF festival directors, Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, unveiled the programme and structure of the 9^th Zurich Film Festival at a press conference in Zurich today. They are delighted that the ZFF continues to show sustainable growth.

“We want to grow at a healthy and moderate pace,” said Nadja Schildknecht. “A higher budget of 6.1 million francs made it possible to optimize our corporate structure as well as further develop the contents of the programme. In addition to that we were able to increase the cinematic programme as well as invite a larger number of guests and schedule more industry events.”

Schildknecht added, “A large part of the event’s infrastructure is located around the Sechseläutenplatz – the rest at Sihlcity, ensuring the ZFF remains a festival of short distances, which is highly appreciated by our guests.”

The Competition

As always, the focus of ZFF is on emerging cinema in the International Feature Film, International Documentary Film, German-Language Feature Film and Germany, Austria, Switzerland Documentary Film competitions. The filmmakers will compete for the Golden Eye in the four competition categories with their first, second or third directorial work. Each category contains between eight and twelve productions screened as world or international premieres.

At the media conference, artistic director Karl Spoerri was excited to present another superlative and thematically varied programme packed with plenty new discoveries.

“The festival is on course to present a substantial, top-class programme with relevant autumn titles. The ZFF has become an integral part of the festival calendar and continues to establish itself as a place where industry and public meet, which makes pleases us immensely.”

The awards of the four competition categories, which will be presented on October 5^th during the Award Night at the opera house, are each endowed with a CHF 20'000 cash prize and distribution funding. This year sees the introduction of the new Treatment Competition as well as a ‘small Golden Eye’ for best children’s film. The Schweizer Filmkritik’s Critics Choice Award for Best First Feature Film and the Audience Award for Best Competition Film will also be presented during this event. And last, but not least, the “Tribute to... Award” will be bestowed upon Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke on Saturday. The ZFF will be presenting a film retrospective in his honour.  

Gala Premieres and Star Guests

In addition to the competition directors, a large number of directors and actors/actresses have also accepted the ZFF’s invitation to attend their respective Gala Premiere screenings. Each evening, they will walk the Green Carpet and be available to the public for photographs and autographs.

ZFF’s Gala Premieres section will present such films as the drama THE IMMIGRANT by James Gray with Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix, the war film THE RAILWAY MAN by Jonathan Teplitzky with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, the drama DEVIL‘S KNOT by Atom Egoyan with Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, the thriller FILTH by Jon S. Baird with James McAvoy, the space drama GRAVITY by Alfonso Cuarón with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the thriller PRISONERS by Denis Villeneuve with Hugh Jackman, the father-son story EXIT MARRAKECH by Caroline Link with Ulrich Tukur, the biopic DIANA with Naomi Watts by Oliver Hirschbiegel and the Swiss literary adaptation AM HANG by Markus Imboden, many of which will feature an appearance of the director at ZFF.

In addition to these gala directors, the Limmat city also expects such stars of the screen as Daniel Brühl and Alexandra Maria Lara with their Opening Film RUSH, James McAvoy as the corrupt cop in FILTH, reggae musician Tilmann Otto (Gentleman) and Alberto D’Ascola (Alborosie) from the film JOURNEY TO JAH, Henry Hübchen and Martina Gedeck from the Swiss entry AM HANG, Valeria Golino, who will celebrate her directorial debut with MIELE, her colleague Vincent Perez from the romantic drama PUPPY LOVE, Melissa Leo and Veronica Ferres as jury members and, of course, ZFF star guest and Golden Icon Award recipient  Hugh Jackman with his new film PRISONERS.

Federal Councillor Alain Berset

The carpet will also be rolled out for notable Swiss personalities: Marc Forster presides over this year’s international feature film jury, which also includes director Thomas Imbach. Markus Imhoof presides over the documentary film jury, Xavier Koller (DIE SCHWARZEN BRÜDER) comes with his leading actor Moritz Bleibtreu, and successful author Christian Kracht presents his competition entry FINSTERWORLD. The world of politics will be represented at the ZFF by Federal Councillor Alain Berset, who will hold the opening speech on September 26.

The ZFF’s extensive sidebar programme includes the ZFF Masters at the Filmpodium – this year with Tim Bevan, recipient of this year’s Career Achievement Award, producer Harvey Weinstein, and directors Marc Forster, Markus Imhoof and Michael Haneke; the fourth Film Finance Forum Zurich at The Dolder Grand; the second International Film Music competition; and the ZFF Filmboutique Screenings for buyers and festival representatives.