Zurich, September 24, 2016
Second Filmmaker Award to Germinal Roaux and Sophie Huber Uma Thurman Presents the Sponsorship Prize worth CHF 100’000
U.S. actress Uma Thurman presented the second Filmmaker Award to Lausanne-born Germinal Roaux and Berne-born Sophie Huber on Saturday evening during IWC’s ‚For the Love of Cinema’ Gala Dinner. Germinal Roaux received CHF 75’000 for his feature film project FORTUNA, and Sophie Huber received CHF 25’000 for her documentary film project DAS BLUE NOTE PROJEKT.
Said Uma Thurman at the awarding ceremony: “It is such an important task to support film projects in any way possible, because it can make a big difference. It is therefore a great honour for me to be here in person to present this prize for the Swiss film industry and its leading figures.”
Jury member Georges Kern went on to say: “We were impressed once again this year by the variety and quality of film projects entered. We hope that our sponsorship prize will enable these highly promising productions to appear on cinema screens at home and abroad as soon as possible.”
Swiss luxury watch manufacturer IWC invited guests from the film industry and the fields of media, commerce and sport to its Gala Dinner event. The CHF 100’000 prize offered by the ‘Association for the Promotion of Film in Switzerland’ supports Swiss film projects in the production and post-production stages.
A Feature Film and a Documentary Film Project
Produced by Ruth Waldburger (Vega Film), FORTUNA depicts in black and white images the collision of two worlds: African refugees in Simplon. Fortuna is a 14-year-old girl from the border region between Ethiopia and Eritrea. She has landed in Switzerland following an arduous journey, and is now spending the winter some 2’000 metres above sea level with a Catholic community in the monastery at Simplon while waiting to hear about her residency permit. Bruno Ganz puts in a stunning performance as the abbot.
Produced by Hercil Bundi and Susanne Guggenberger (Mira Film), DAS BLUE NOTE PROJEKT tells the story of the legendary American jazz record label. It places the music and the musicians in the foreground, and portrays the eternal quest for artistic expression – from the creation of groundbreaking Blue Note classics to the contemporary search for new forms of expression. With her keen musical instinct, director Sophie Huber makes jazz accessible to a much wider audience.
Further projects that were nominated for the award were the feature films LASST DIE ALTEN STERBEN from Juri Steinhart, produced by David Fonjallaz and Louis Mataré (Lomotion AG) and PAPA MOLL from Manuel Flurin Hendry, produced by Reto Schaerli and Lukas Hobi (Zodiac Pictures), as well as the documentary film project BEYOND THE BOLEX from Alyssa Bolsey, produced by Werner Schweizer and Camilo Lara (Dschoint Ventschr).
Cult Film KILL BILL: VOL. 1
Uma Thurman presented Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic KILL BILL: VOL. 1, a film in which she plays the lead role. She remained after the screening to discuss her work and films. Thurman garnered international critical acclaim starring in such Tarantino films as PULP FICTION (1994) and the KILL BILL franchise (2003/2004).
The ‘Association for the Promotion of Film in Switzerland’ was initiated in 2015 by the CEO of IWC Georges Kern, the Zurich Film Festival Co-Directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, the director Marc Forster and the CEO of Ringier Marc Walder. The jury for the Filmmaker Award comprised Marc Forster, Georges Kern and Karl Spoerri.
