07/05/2007

After last year’s edition, at which it had a short in competition and a Swiss Day as part of the All the Cinemas of the World section, this year Swiss cinema will have a low-key presence at Cannes, despite an increase in its market share from 5.9% to 9.26% in 2006. Big hits that have helped meet this historic record have primarily been German-speaking films, which proved more popular at Berlin than Cannes.

While no feature has been selected in Official Selection or in the sidebars of the 60th Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27), So Long! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand will be presented on May 24 during the Association du cinéma indépendant pour sa diffusion (ACID) screenings. This is the second feature by the Swiss/German directing duo, especially known for their documentaries, and was discovered in 2006 in the Zabaltegi competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Internationally renowned DoP Renato Berta is sitting on the independent Caméra d’or jury. Seventeen of the cinematographer’s films have screened at Cannes to date. The Caméra d’Or has been awarded since 1978 to the best first film from all sections. Berta, who worked in the 1970s, the glorious decade of Swiss Cinema, has just spent almost a year shooting Frédéric and Samuel Guillaume’s animated feature Max & Co, which will have its world premiere at the 31st Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 11-16).

2007 Swiss Producer on the Move Elena Tatti (see interview) will also be at Cannes. Tatti, who co-founded with Thierry Spicher the Lausanne-based outfit Box Productions (My Brother is Getting Married [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Stéphane Bron
interview: Thierry Spicher
film profile], see Focus), is currently preparing Ursula Meier’s Home, a feature developed last year at the Cannes Atelier.

Critics’ Week will play host to young Swiss director Frédéric Mermoud’s out-of-competition short Le créneau, which will feature in the Canal+ collection “Ecrire pour un acteur… une actrice” (lit. “Writing for an Actor… an Actress”) – in this case Hippolyte Girardot and Emmanuelle Devos.

Other highlights include the Tribute to Switzerland evening, which takes place on May 23 at the International Film Music Pavillon and is organised by the professional association UFMC Switzerland (Union of Film Music Composers).

(Translated from French)