24/09/2024 - The festival will screen 107 films in celebration of its anniversary, 35 of which enjoying their world or European premieres

The programme of the Zurich Film Festival (unspooling 3 – 13 October), which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, comprises 107 films, 35 of which are set to be revealed in world or European premieres.

The audience will get to savour no fewer than twelve Swiss movies showcasing in world premieres, including Michael Krummenacher’s espionage film The Traitor [+see also:
film review
film profile], and Maria Brendl’s historical drama Frieda's Case, both of which are screening in the Gala Premieres section, as well as Lisa Brühlmann’s second full-length work, When We Were Sisters [+see also:
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film profile], which has been selected for the Feature Films Competition. Countless high-level stars hailing from Hollywood, the UK, Germany and Switzerland will also be presenting their films to viewers at this anniversary edition of the event.

Fourteen titles have been selected for the afore-mentioned Feature Films Competition, which aims to reveal new talent grappling with their first, second or third works to audiences. As stressed in the press release, many of these movies tell stories revolving around women, such as Mariana Wainstein’s Argentine-Spanish co-production Linda [+see also:
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film profile], and Mother Mara [+see also:
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film profile] by Serbian director and actress Mirjana Karanovic. We’ll also see a great many films made by women directors (8 out of the 14 titles), such as Germany’s About Luis by the Italian director living in Berlin Lucia Chiarla, which follows a family struggling with the bullying their son is subjected to, and Swiss movie The Courageous [+see also:
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film profile] by Jasmin Gordon, exploring precariousness in wealthy Switzerland. Quite a few European (co)productions, in addition to those mentioned above, are also on the agenda, notably Under the Volcano [+see also:
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interview: Damian Kocur
film profile] by Poland’s Damian Kocur, which is a family drama exploring the terrible behind-the-scenes consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the French movies Le Royaume [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Julien Colonna
film profile] by Corsican director Julien Colonna and Lawrence Valin’s super-energised thriller Little Jaffna [+see also:
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interview: Lawrence Valin
film profile], Bogdan Muresanu’s drama focused on the Ceausescu dictatorship The New Year that Never Came [+see also:
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interview: Bogdan Mureşanu
film profile], Karen Kandhari’s absurd comedy about an arranged marriage Sister Midnight [+see also:
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interview: Karan Kandhari
film profile], the Welsh director of Zambian origin Rungano Nyoni’s movie On Becoming a Guinea Fowl [+see also:
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interview: Rungano Nyoni, Susan Chardy
film profile], and Jianjie Lin’s psychological thriller Brief History of a Family [+see also:
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film profile].

In terms of the Documentary Competition, this year will see the ZFF inviting us to observe the world from a critical and militant viewpoint, with artistic director Christian Jungen enthusing that: “This year’s Documentary Competition is more political than ever”. European (co)productions are also plentiful in this section. These include Tata [+see also:
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interview: Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile] by Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc, which demonstrates how emotional coercion and domestic abuse are passed on from one generation to the next; The Battle for Laikipia by Daphne Matziaraki, a thriller, of sorts, which morphs into a political essay on the tragic battle for land and resources unfolding on the Laikipia plateau; Stealing Giants by Karl Ammann and Laurin Merz, which casts a critical eye over the illegal elephant trade; Russians at War by Anastasia Trofimova, homing in on Russian soldiers on the front line in Ukraine; the touching work The Remarkable Life of Ibelin [+see also:
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interview: Benjamin Ree
film profile] by Norway’s Benjamin Ree; the extremely moving ethnographic film The Wolves Always Come at Night [+see also:
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film profile] by Australian Gabrielle Brady; Marching in the Dark [+see also:
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film profile] by Kinshuk Surjan, examining the precarious and exhausting lives of farmers in India; Swiss movie Home is the Ocean by Livia Vonaesch, which sees the director observing the daily life of a family who have been living on a sailboat for twenty years; Agent of Happiness [+see also:
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film profile] by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó; Black Box Diaries [+see also:
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film profile] by Japanese director and journalist Shiori Itō, which homes in on the highly mediatised case of the rape the director herself suffered, and Hiding Saddam Hussein [+see also:
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film profile] by Halkawt Mustafa.

The highlight of the festival’s industry activities, meanwhile, will be the Zurich Summit, a leading platform for the creative industries which will gather together an array of producers, business executives, and film, TV and entertainment creators, alongside entrepreneurs and financiers from the technological sector. ZFF Masters, which hosts privileged encounters between the audience and directors, screenwriters, producers and actors, will further enrich the event, as will the Special Screening Award - a closed-doors screening event in which Oscars voters will get to see Switzerland’s representative Thunder [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carmen Jaquier
film profile]; the Film Music Competition, an international competition dedicated to soundtracks; the Industry Spotlights platform, aimed at presenting important film industry themes; Leading FeMales, which places exceptional women working within the film industry centre stage; SoundTrack_zurich, a professional three-day event revolving around film and media music; SRF Writer’s Day, which will explore the theme of AI in the future of Swiss TV programmes; Zurich Filmnacht, which is dedicated to the connection between the city of Zurich and Swiss film production, and How to Kinderfilm, which is specially designed for families and children.

(Translated from Italian)