Third Filmmaker Award to Niklaus Hilber’s PARADISE WAR
James Marsden presents the Award endowed with a CHF 100’000 prize
On Saturday evening, Hollywood actor James Marsden presented the third Filmmaker Award at the IWC gala dinner entitled ‘For the Love of Cinema’ as part of the 13th Zurich Film Festival. The award, endowed with a CHF 100,000 prize, went to Niklaus Hilber’s feature film project PARADISE WAR.
“It’s a real honour for me to be here to present this prize. The Filmmaker Award plays an important role in bringing creative projects by Swiss filmmakers to the big screen,” said Marsden. “The projects submitted this year were of such high quality and so diverse that it was again difficult for us to choose a winner,” continued CEO of IWC, Christoph Grainger-Herr, at the award ceremony.
Environmental activist Bruno Manser
This feature film, produced by Valentin Greutert, tells the eventful story of Swiss-born Bruno Manser, who spent many years in Malaysia. Here, he joined the indigenous Penan people in their non-violent battle against deforestation of the rainforest, which is home to many endangered species, including the orang-utan. Manser disappeared without trace during his last visit to the rainforest, and has remained missing to this day. Shooting of PARADISE WAR is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks.
The other nominees for the award were Bettina Oberli’s LE VENT TOURNE, produced by Pauline Gygax and Max Karli, and Simon Jaquemet’s DER UNSCHULDIGE, produced by Aurelius Eisenreich and Tolga Dilsiz. The two winning projects from last year – FORTUNA by Germinal Roaux and DAS BLUE NOTE PROJEKT by Sophie Huber – have since been completed and will soon be released internationally.
James Marsden
James Marsden became known to wider audiences through his portrayal of the Cyclops in three X-Men films. The US actor from Oklahoma recently wowed audiences in his role as Teddy Flood in the successful TV series WESTWORLD. Marsden also premiered his new film SHOCK AND AWE, directed by Rob Reiner, at the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF).
The luxury Swiss watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen invited numerous personalities from the world of culture, media and commerce to attend the event. The Filmmaker Award, endowed with a CHF 100,000 prize, was established by the Association for the Promotion of Film in Switzerland with the aim of supporting exciting projects by Swiss filmmakers in the challenging stages of production or post-production. Co-directors of the ZFF, Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, CEO of Ringier, Marc Walder, director Marc Forster and then CEO of IWC Schaffhausen, Georges Kern, established the association in 2014.
