Press Release

Please follow this link to download the press dossier: http://zff.com/de/presse/mediendossier/

Zurich, September 6, 2012

Celebrating Cinema 111 Films Over 11 Days – Nine World Premieres All-Star Line-Up Including Gere, Sarandon, Travolta, Stone, Tykwer

Celebrating cinema – celebrating Zurich. For 11 days, from September 20 – 30, all eyes will once again face Zurich – and the festival eye will look back from all corners of the city.

And there’s lots to see: 111 films from 22 countries, nine world premieres and a remarkable shower of stars, including Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, John Travolta, Emmanuelle Riva, John Hawkes, Carlos Leal, Julia Jentsch, Jerry Weintraub, Tom Tykwer, Oliver Stone, Asghar Farhadi, Frank Darabont, Herbert Grönemeyer and Pietro Scalia.

Several aspects of this year’s Zurich Film Festival are bigger. There are more films, more screenings, more guests, more awards and a larger budget. Other things remain the same: The Festival Centre at Sechseläutenplatz, premiere cinemas corso and Arthouse Le Paris in the immediate vicinity, Award Night in the Opera House right next door and just behind that, the Night Lounge at NZZ Bistro by tibits. In short, the ZFF remains a festival of short distances.

Competition Core

The two festival directors, Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, announced the 8th Zurich Film Festival’s programme today (Thursday) in Zurich. They are delighted with the fact that this year’s event has grown even more, yet still remains clear and uncomplicated thanks to the short distance between venues and a clearly structured programme. An increase in the budget to 5.7 M (previous year: 4.9 M) has enabled the festival to screen more films (111; previous year: 95) and invite many more guests (350; previous year: 215).

The core of the festival programme still comprises the four competition sections: International Feature Film, International Documentary Film, German-Language Feature Film and German-Language Documentary Film, each screening first, second or third productions. Many directors represented in the competition are looking forward to meeting the Zurich public when they attend the festival.

The Golden Eyes, each endowed with a CHF 20’000 cash prize and distribution funding, will be presented during the Award Night at Zurich’s Opera House on Saturday (29.09.). The Swiss Filmcritic’s Critic’s Choice Award for Best First Feature Film and the Audience Award for Best Competition Film will also be presented during this event. And last, but not least, the Tribute to... Award will be bestowed upon German screenwriter, director and producer Tom Tykwer.

Star Guests and Awards

In its Gala Premieres section, the ZFF will screen SAVAGES by Oliver Stone as its Opening Film (20.09.), DANS LA MAISON by François Ozon as a European premiere and its Closing Film (30.09.), Cannes winner AMOUR by Michael Haneke, ARBITRAGE by Nicholas Jarecki, THE SESSIONS by Ben Lewin and LOOPER by Rian Johnson, both as European premieres, ARGO by Ben Affleck, THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES by Lauren Greenfield, ROBOT AND FRANK by Jake Schreier, LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED by Susanne Bier and JAGTEN by Thomas Vinterberg.

Many star guests will be in Zurich to celebrate the premiere of their films, the list includes Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon (ARBITRAGE), Oliver Stone and John Travolta (SAVAGES), John Hawkes (THE SESSIONS), Emmanuelle Riva (AMOUR) and François Ozon (DANS LA MAISON). Herbert Grönemeyer, Carlos Leal, Julia Jentsch, Frank Darabont and Pietro Scalia are jury members, and Jerry Weintraub, Tom Tykwer, Asghar Farhadi and Frank Darabont will give Public Master Classes.

A selection of the most important films by this year’s honorary award winners will be screened in a total of four retrospectives: See the OCEAN'S trilogy by US producer Jerry Weintraub, who will collect the Career Achievement Award on his 75th birthday (26.09.); watch as Richard Gere (Golden Icon, 23.09.) melts even more hearts in AMERICAN GIGOLO and PRETTY WOMAN; Tom Tykwer’s (A Tribute to... Award, 29.09.) RUN LOLA RUN and PERFUME will be screened as part of his retrospective, and John Travolta (Lifetime Achievement Award, 20.09.) can be seen in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and PULP FICTION.

Johann Schneider-Ammann

Following Federal Councillors Moritz Leuenberger and Didier Burkhalter in previous years, the festival’s Managing Director Nadja Schildknecht is pleased to announce that Johann Schneider- Ammann, a further member of the Federal Government, will hold this year’s opening speech. Despite tension in the current economic climate, Schildknecht has managed to increase the amount of funding from the private sector and convinced private partners to remain loyal to the ZFF.

Amounting to approximately 80%, the ZFF has by far the highest proportion of private sector funding when compared to all other Swiss film festivals. More than 80 sponsors contribute to the success of this event with either cash or non-cash benefits. Subventions amount to just CHF 510'000 (City of Zurich: 250’000, Canton of Zurich: 210’000, Federal Government: 50'000); the rest must be made up by ticket sales.

Artistic Director Karl Spoerri was pleased at the conference to present another high-quality programme. "This year's programme reflects all of life's stages: Birth, childhood, teens, heyday, pensioner, death. It mirrors change, development, tension and transitoriness. It is not about surrendering to boundless freedom and never-ending possibilities, but to find a smart way by setting clear boundaries."

New Swiss Cinema

Switzerland is represented at the ZFF with five world premieres – three feature films and two documentary films. Geneva-born video artist Emmanuelle Antille’s debut AVANTI, a mother-daughter tale with Hanna Schygulla and Nina Meurisse, premieres in the International Feature Film Competition, while Matthias J. Michel’s comedy LEUCHTTURM, LEICHEN & PASTETEN runs in the German-Language Feature Film Competition.

Based on the novel by Martin Suter, Markus Welter’s DER TEUFEL VON MAILAND is shown in the Special Screenings section and stars Regula Grauwiller and Max Simonischek. Switzerland is further represented in the Documentary Film Competition with Christian Labhart’s music film APPASSIONATA about Alena Cherny, the Ukrainian pianist now living in Zurich, and Daniel Young’s biopic PAUL BOWLES: THE CAGE DOOR IS ALWAYS OPEN about the US author.

The New World View section is dedicated to this year’s guest country Sweden. The eleven Swedish films in the NWV programme cover almost every genre and embrace everything from documentary, drama and action thriller to youth film, autobiography and a short film block that presents a comprehensive overview of Sweden’s productive short film scene.

As usual, the Supporting Programme includes the Zurich Master Class, which celebrates its seventh edition this year, Zurich’s third international Film Finance Forum at the Dolder Grand, the first ever Film Music Competition at the Tonhalle Zurich, and the ZFF Filmboutique for buyers and festival representatives.

We wish you a warm welcome to the 8th Zurich Film Festival!