Media Release

A Tribute to... Award to French Director Olivier Assayas PERSONAL SHOPPER as ZFF Closing Night Film

Zurich, September 1, 2016

The French screenwriter and film director Olivier Assayas will receive the 12th Zurich Film Festival’s A Tribute to... Award. The 61-year-old filmmaker will travel to Zurich to pick up the prestigious distinction in person during the Award Night at Zurich Opera House on October 1. Starring Kristen Stewart in the lead role, the ZFF will screen his most recent work PERSONAL SHOPPER as its closing night film. A retrospective of Assayas’ most important works will be screened at the Filmpodium.

Olivier Assayas has been regarded as one of the most important directors of French film and a star of European auteur cinema since the 1990s. Spanning a broad thematic and aesthetic spectrum, his oeuvre includes more than twenty feature films, numerous documentaries, short films and screenplays written for other directors. His works usually centre on private relationships and the meaning of art in the modern world; they also contain numerous references to film history.

Said the two festival directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri: “We are very proud to welcome the great French filmmaker Olivier Assayas to Zurich and present him with this year’s A Tribute to... Award. His tremendously rich body of work spanning a wide variety of genres has left a lasting impression on modern European cinema. We are honoured to screen his Cannes prize-winner and highly anticipated production PERSONAL SHOPPER as our closing night film.”

IRMA VEP

After completing his studies in art and literature, Assayas began writing screenplays for other directors, in particular for André Téchiné. He also spent six years as a critic for the renowned French film magazine ‚Cahiers du Cinéma’. His debut film DÉSORDRE (1986), about a lost generation’s outlook on life, won an award at the festival in Venice and established Assayas as one of the most significant filmmakers of his generation. His extraordinary talent continued to shine through across various genres, including coming-of-agers, melodramas, science fiction, thrillers, artist portraits and concert films.

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New Asian Cinema had a major influence on Assayas’ work. During one of his many trips to the Far East, he met Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung, who he cast in films such as IRMA VEP (1996), in which she attracted a world of attention wearing a skin-tight, black latex suit. Maggie Cheung garnered the award for best actress in Cannes for her role as a drug addicted singer trying to get her life back on track in CLEAN (2004).

Assayas’ films are regularly invited to screen at Cannes. The first to compete for the Golden Palm was the literary adaptation LES DESTINÉES SENTIMENTALES (2000) starring Charles Berling, Isabelle Huppert and Emmanuelle Béart. He has since become a regular welcome guest at the prestigious festival. His 2002 cyber thriller DEMONLOVER, in which he also explores new formal aspects of filmmaking, screened to critical acclaim at Cannes.

SILS MARIA

Assayas often takes strong female personalities to play his leading roles, including Judith Godrèche in PARIS S'ÉVEILLE (1991), Asia Argento in BOARDING GATE (2007) and most recently, the U.S star Kristen Stewart, who stars in both SILS MARIA (2014) and his latest production PERSONAL SHOPPER (2016).

In the ZFF’s closing night film PERSONAL SHOPPER, a modern mystery thriller, the ex- TWILIGHT star works as a fashion stylist for a rich celebrity. The job enables Maureen, her character, to finance her life in Paris, where she also receives signs from her recently deceased twin brother. The film garnered the award for best director in Cannes last May.

A striking aesthetic feature of Olivier Assayas’ films is the art of omission. In addition to the virtuosic elliptical narrative structure, his films are further characterised by bold, hard cuts, a mobile handheld camera and impressively incorporated pop and rock music. These innovative soundtracks are usually provided by the likes of Sonic Youth, Brian Eno, Ry Cooder and John Cale.

Olivier Assayas’ PERSONAL SHOPPER hits Switzerland’s French-speaking cinemas on December 14 and German-speaking cinemas on January 19.

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