Editor

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) announced today the members of the two juries that will preside over the international competition categories at the 7th edition of the Festival, which takes place September 22 – October 2, 2011.

Academy Award® nominee Laurence Fishburne (“The Matrix” trilogy, “Mystic River,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It”) will serve as Jury President for the ZFF’s international section. The Festival will also be honoring Fishburne with a special achievement award.

Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” which stars Fishburne, Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law has been selected as the Festival’s opening night film and will screen at the Corso Cinema on the evening of Thursday, September 22nd.

“Contagion” is an action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak. The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures release, directed by Academy Award® winner Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh also produced the film with Gregory Jacobs, Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher. Scott Z. Burns wrote the screenplay.

The 2011 Zurich Film Festival jury members are:

International Narrative Feature Jury:

Laurence Fishburne (Jury President)
John Lesher (US) Producer, former Studio head and agent
Beki Probst (Turkey/Switzerland) director of the European Film Market (also decorated as Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by French Cultural Minister)
Paprika Steen (Denmark), multi-award winning Actress, director, writer (Adam's Apples, The Celebration, Applause)
Alice Eve (UK), Actress (leading roles in upcoming The Raven, Men in Black 3)
Stevan Arsenijevic (Serbia), oscar-nominated young writer/director (Love and Other Crimes)
 
International Documentary Jury:

Charles Ferguson (USA), Academy-award winning director, producer, writer (Inside Job)
John Battsek (UK), Producer (Sergio, Restrepo, Project Nim, The Tillman Story, One Day in September)
Nino Kirtadze (Georgia), director, writer (Durakovo: Village of Fools)
Eline Flipse (Netherlands), director, producer
Stephen Nemeth (US), Producer
 
Entering just its seventh year, the Zurich Film Festival has established itself as a marquee European Festival, discovering and promoting independent voices and talent from around the world and showcasing a diverse array of international films. ZFF continues to serve as the setting for many World and European premieres.

Multiple Academy Award® winner and humanitarian Sean Penn will be in Zurich this year to accept the Festival’s coveted Golden Icon Award.

More Festival details will be announced in the coming weeks.

About the Zurich Film Festival

The Zurich Film Festival was founded in October 2005 and became firmly established upon the national and international festival landscape within a very short period of time. This year’s seventh edition will again see Zurich transformed into an eleven-day film festival capital celebrating the art of film in all its facets!
 
The aim of the Zurich Film Festival is to offer audiences an insight into the work of young, upcoming filmmakers from around the globe and to promote the exchange of ideas between established film workers, young talent and the public.
 
The international competition will witness young filmmakers competing for the coveted Golden Eye – the festival’s main award. In addition to the competition, we will also present the latest films by renowned filmmakers as exclusive gala premieres. Furthermore, the New World View series will focus upon the current cinematic oeuvre of a developing film region. In the past years, we have been focusing on Israel (2008), Argentina (2009) and Australia (2010).
 
Numerous fringe events and parties give individuals from the field of film and movie-smitten visitors the opportunity to discuss happenings and bring the cinema day to an agreeable end in a pleasing and relaxed atmosphere

ZFF is organized by Spoundation Motion Picture GmbH, based in Zurich, in cooperation with local institutions and sponsors. The Zurich Film Festival cooperates with numerous distributors and producers from Switzerland and abroad. The idea to found a festival in Zurich came from Karl Spoerri. Today, the festival directors are Karl Spoerri (artistic director) and Nadja Schildknecht (public relations, marketing and sponsoring).

The Zurich Film Festival is generously supported by its main sponsors: Credit Suisse, Die Post, Kuoni and Audi.

For more information please visit www.zurichfilmfestival.org