The 22nd Zurich Film Festival has come to a star-studded close at the Zurich Opera House, where the awards ceremony was followed by a screening of the closing movie, Andy Garcia’s Diamonds. Pierre Le Gall’s Flesh and Fuel was crowned the big winner in the Feature Film Competition (for first, second or third fiction features), while Pete Muller’s Bucks Harbor received the corresponding award in the Documentary Competition. Both were honoured with the festival’s Golden Eye, along with 25,000 CHF (approximately €26,800) each.

Le Gall’s gay trucker romance – about two long-haul lorry drivers connecting across distance, time and cultures – world-premiered in the Cannes Critics’ Week and also earned him the Queer Palm Revelation Prize at the French festival. In a video message, the debuting French director dedicated the Golden Eye for Best Feature Film to “all those who work hard and with pride”. The jury praised Flesh and Fuel as a “compelling and deeply cinematic reflection on the fundamental human need for connection”.

The features jury was presided over by US director Cary Joji Fukunaga, and included Swiss actress Ella Rumpf, Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, French producer Julie Billy and Italian director-editor-screenwriter Walter Fasano.

The jury also awarded three Special Mentions in the Feature Film Competition: to Mads Mengel’s The Guest, Zou Jing’s A Girl Unknown and Blerta Basholli’s Dua. The Guest was lauded as “a story that resonates with profound honesty”, A Girl Unknown was praised as “one of the most beautifully directed films in this year’s competition”, while Dua was highlighted as a “striking and relevant story” with its history that “continues to echo in the present”.

Bucks Harbor, meanwhile, premiered at the Berlinale in the Panorama strand and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. The US documentary explores the lives of fishermen and their families in the titular community of coastal Maine – with an emphasis on performances of masculinity. In his acceptance speech, Emmy Award-winning photographer Muller emphasised the need to listen to each other; the jury praised the film’s visual style and the director’s ability to operate at eye level with his protagonists.

Two documentary Special Mentions were given out, one each to One in a Million by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes, and My Home of Wind and Sand by Patrick Wally. The former is a decade-long portrait of a girl and her family fleeing Syria and finding a home in Germany, while the latter follows Najla, a young activist from the Western Sahara. The jury was presided over by Danish film director and anthropologist Sine Plambech, and included British cinematographer Alfredo de Juan, Norwegian producer Anne Köhncke, Swiss helmer Jela Hasler and Austrian director-cinematographer-producer Nikolas Geyrhalter.

The Audience Award, voted on by viewers and with all 28 competition entries, both fiction and documentary, in contention, went to Andria Mračnikar’s Mila/Marija, about a young Carinthian Slovene woman who joins the partisan resistance during World War II.

Decided upon by a jury of critics representing Germany, Greece and Switzerland, the Emerging Swiss Talent Award (Critics’ Prize) went to Heinz Bütler’s Ebjä! Adolf Wölfli, a documentary about art brut. Finally, a sum of 10,000 CHF (approximately €10,700) was given out with the Film Prize of the Churches of Zurich (an award available to co-productions from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France or Italy), going to Colors of White Rock by Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Golden Eye for Best Feature Film
Flesh and Fuel – Pierre Le Gall (France/Poland)
Special Mentions
The Guest – Mads Mengel (Denmark)
A Girl Unknown – Zou Jing (China/France)
Dua – Blerta Basholli (Kosovo/Switzerland/France)

Golden Eye for Best Documentary Film
Bucks Harbor – Pete Muller (USA)
Special Mentions
One in a Million – Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes (UK)
My Home of Wind and Sand – Patrick Wally (Austria)

Audience Award
Mila/Marija – Andrina Mračnikar (Austria/Slovenia/Greece/Slovakia)

Emerging Swiss Talent Award (Critics’ Prize)
Ebjä! Adolf Wölfli – Heinz Bütler (Switzerland)

Science Award
We Are Stardust – Elisabeth Rasmussen (Norway/Denmark)

Film Prize of the Churches of Zurich
Colors of White Rock – Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig (France/Mongolia)

Kids’ Jury Prize (Little Golden Eye)
The Secret of the Stolen Mask – Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye (Germany)

ZFF for Kids Audience Award
The Secret of the Stolen Mask – Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye

Best International Film Music (International Film Music Competition)
Son Semin