Like every year during the Locarno Film Festival, Swiss Films offers industry professionals the chance to attend exclusive presentations of feature films scheduled for release in the coming months (between late 2025 and 2026). This year, six features were presented, spanning from fictionalised biography to social critique, as well feminist historical film and family drama. Many of these are looking for a festival to host their world premiere, and all are searching for international distributors or someone to handle international sales. Two films have announced their selections in two prestigious international festivals: the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Venice Film Festival.

Hello Betty – Pierre Monnard
Production: C-FILMS (Switzerland), SRF, SRG SSR, CH Media
The film centres on a woman who became an icon for all Swiss citizens, in particular women: Betty Bossi (played by Sarah Spale). It is set in 1956, the year when Emma Creola created her alter ego Betty Bossi, a perfect housewife and above all an absolute model for all homemakers. Betty Bossi becomes famous and Emma suddenly finds herself in the spotlight. How should one manage and balance private and work life in a heteropatriarchal society that wants to transform all women into caring mothers and devoted wives? The film shows a woman fighting to impose herself in a world created and dominated by men. Hello Betty tackles, through the eyes of its protagonist, a highly topical issue that cinema has a duty to address. The film is expected for November 2025.

Geneva Dublin – Frédéric Baillif
Production: Alva Film (Switzerland), Freshprod (Switzerland), RTS
The film is set in Geneva, yet a Geneva that deviates from the idyllic, postcard image that many people have of it. In a popular neighbourhood of the city on Lake Geneva, a two-storey bus becomes a refuge for a group of social workers looking to guide refugees through the labyrinth-like practices involved in asylum application. Many of them, witnessing the despair of those living constantly in the shadows and in precarity, must face heavy ethical and existential dilemmas. Solidarity and illegality, compassion and rigour must, despite themselves, coexist in a world that prefers to see refugees as numbers rather than human beings. What to do when empathy becomes a “crime” by law? Geneva Dublin is a social drama that turns into a thriller, a brave portrait of men and women fighting to give back their dignity to those who have lost it. The film is in the editing stage and should be completed in Winter 2025/2026. Like for his other films, Frédéric Baillif (The Fam [+lire aussi :
critique
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interview : Fred Baillif
fiche film]) used non-professional actors and actresses.

Silent Rebellion [+lire aussi :
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fiche film] – Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
Production: Box Productions (Switzerland), Helicotronc (Belgium), Offshore (France), RTS
The film, a historical drama set during the Second World War, centres on 15-year-old Emma (Lila Gueneau), who finds herself pregnant following a rape. Despite the tragedy, Emma decides to face the repressive, rural and protestant community in which she lives, imposing her own vision of the world. Silent Rebellion presents the struggle of a young girl who doesn’t intend to abide by the rules of a society that doesn’t recognise women’s right to choose. As stated by the director, the story is a tribute to the women in her family. It will have its premiere at the Venice Film Festival and is currently looking for an international distributor. 

Enjoy Your Stay – Dominik Locher
Production: Close Up (Switzerland), JBA Production (France), RTS
This is the story of a Filipino cleaning lady working without documents in a luxurious Swiss mountain resort. Determined to return home to her daughter whatever the cost, the protagonist will get entangled despite herself in a human trafficking ring that will test the limits of her morality. The film is a social drama that gives a voice to women left in the shadows and exploited by people who think that their own privileges are stronger than any law or morals. For his research and the drafting of the script, the director made use of the skills of Mary Honeylyn Joy Alipio. The film is finishing post-production and will be completed by the end of November.

A Happy Family – Jan-Eric Mack
Production: C-FILMS (Switzerland), SRF
This film is a social drama that turns into a thriller, the story of a woman, Niki (Anna Schinz), who must juggle two jobs to support herself as well as her two children. When the two kids accidentally set fire to her kitchen, social services take them into custody and entrust them to the care of a foster family. Despite restrictions, Niki will manage to find them and will devise a Machiavellian plan to stay close to them. The film tackles the difficult topic of poverty in a country as seemingly rich as Switzerland, but also that of a mother ready to do anything not to lose her children. It is now in post-production and the producers are looking for a festival to welcome its world premiere and an international distributor.

Laundry – Zamo Mkhwanazi
Production: Akka Films (Switzerland), Kude Media (South Africa), RTS
The first fiction feature by the South African director will have its world premiere in September in Toronto. The story centres on aspiring musician Khuthala, a young man from Johannesburg who does not intend to take over his father’s laundrette. Set in 1968 during the apartheid period, the film presents the challenges and terrible injustice that store owners in the black community had to endure. Khuthala is torn between his dream of becoming a professional musician and the struggle for the rights not only of his father, but of his whole community. The film is inspired by a personal story tied to the filmmaker’s family, but then departs from it to tell a fictional story with strong political implications.