Zurich, October 7, 2018
The Zurich Film Festival remains on the road to success. Despite the sunny and warm autumn weather, viewers streamed into theatres morning, noon and night. With a total of 104’000 visitors (previous year: 98’300), ZFF has cracked the 100’000 mark for the first time.
The ZFF’s two delighted Co-Directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri commented: “We had a lots of sold out screenings this year.” The 14th Zurich Film Festival’s exceedingly multifaceted and highly diversified programme included a total of 162 films (previous year: 160) from 48 countries and no less than 42 debut works.
Added to this were the popular sidebar events, such as the public talks with Donald Sutherland, Wim Wenders and Johnny Depp; the Film Music Competition, which took place this year at the Tonhalle Maag; and the well-attended kids workshops.
Added to this were the popular sidebar events, such as the public talks with Donald Sutherland, Wim Wenders and Johnny Depp; the Film Music Competition, which took place this year at the Tonhalle Maag; and the well-attended kids workshops.
European productions
Said Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri: “2018 is a strong year for cinema. The films in the three competition sections, the Gala screenings and the sidebar sections were of outstanding quality. Once again, the ZFF allowed cinema to shine.”
The glitzy Award Night took place at Zurich Opera House on Saturday evening. All the awards of this year’s Zurich Film Festival went to European productions, including two awards for Danish cinema; further Golden Eyes went to Belgium, Austria, Kosovo and France, Norway and Switzerland.
The winner of the International Feature Film Competition is the Belgian production GIRL by Lukas Dhont, which hits Swiss cinemas in mid-October. The Danish film THE GUILTY by Gustav Möller, another debut work, won the Critics’ Choice Award and also hits Swiss cinemas in mid-October.
Best Swiss Film WALDEN
The Award for Best International Documentary Film goes to HEARTBOUND by Janus Metz and Sine Plambech from Denmark, and Katharina Mueckstein from Austria takes home the award in the Focus: Switzerland, Germany Austria competition category for her film L’ANIMALE. The Emerging Swiss Talent Award for a Swiss film in the Entire Programme goes to the debut WALDEN by Daniel Zimmermann, which also screened in the Focus section.
The Kids Jury give their Golden Eye to LOS BANDO by Christian Lo from Norway, viewers chose COLD NOVEMBER by Ismet Sijarina from Kosovo as their favourite film, and the Kids Audience Award goes to RAOUL TABURIN by Pierre Godeau from France.
There’s another chance to see the winning films HEARTBOUND (18:15, Corso 4) and COLD NOVEMBER (18:45, Filmpodium) today (Sunday) at the ZFF.
The Zurich Film Festival team wishes you a fantastic final day at the festival and we look forward to welcoming you back next year. The 15th Zurich Film Festival takes place from Thursday, September 26 until Sunday, October 6, 2019.
