20/01/2009

Vincent Pluss’ The Noise in My Head [+see also:
trailer
interview: Céline Bolomey
film profile] yesterday opened the 44th Solothurn Film Festival (January 19-25). The event will unveil the best of local production and host a retrospective of Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Léa Pool’s work.

Ivo Kummer – festival director for the past 19 years – highlighted the great diversity of the 2009 selection. Features to be presented in première include Dominique de Rivaz’s Luftbusiness [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Carla Lia Monti’s Räuberinnen, Moritz Gerber’s Tag am Meer, Luzius Rüedi’s Sunny Hill, Oliver Paulus’ Tandoori Love and Francesco Jost’s Segreti e sorelle (“Secrets and Sisters”).

Documentaries also put in an appearance with Theo Stich’s Champion von Morgen, Villi Hermann’s From Somewhere To Nowhere, Alain Godet’s Chantal Michel and Rolf Lyssy’s Hard(ys) Life.

Moreover, the festival is launching a new prize of €40,500, which goes to a work "characterised by its humanism". Features vying for the award include Ursula Meier’s Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
interview: Thierry Spicher
interview: Ursula Meier
film profile], Klaus Händl’s March, Christoph Schaub’s Happy New Year and The Noise in My Head. Documentary contenders are Constantin Wulff’s In die Welt, Dieter Gränicher’s Pausenlos, Fernand Melgar’s The Fortress [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Fanny Bräuning’s No More Smoke Signals.

Finally, the nominations for the Quartz 2009 - Swiss Film Prize – whose ceremony is to be held on March 7 in Lucerne – will be announced on January 23 at Solothurn.

(Translated from French)