Media Release

Zurich Film Festival Opening Night Ron Howard's RUSH opens the 9th ZFF

Zurich, August 22, 2013

The Zurich Film Festival opens on Thursday, September 26 with the brilliant Formula 1 drama RUSH by US director Ron Howard.

RUSH re-creates the legendary rivalry between the two Formula 1 drivers Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth). The well-disciplined, hard-working Austrian dueled for years with the charismatic English playboy. The film focuses on the 1976 season, when Lauda suffered his infamous accident at the Nürburgring. To the amazement of his fans and fellow competitors, and driven by a burning ambition to beat his arch-rival at the world championships, Lauda was back in the race to the top of the podium just six weeks after the life- threatening incident.

Thrilling to the very end, RUSH is an exciting, action-packed drama, furnished with authentic images, an uncompromising narrative style, a brilliant cast that also includes Alexandra Maria Lara, and a great sense of the 70s – the golden age of Formula 1.

The rivals: Niki Lauda and James Hunt

Daniel Brühl plays the part of Niki Lauda. Now in his mid-thirties, Brühl gained international recognition through the 2003 film GOOD BYE, LENIN! and has since put together an impressive trophy collection. He is best remembered for his role as a German war hero in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. The ZFF public also met him in 2009 in the Martin Suter adaptation LILA, LILA.

The role of James Hunt is played by Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, who has previously appeared in such large-scale Hollywood productions as THOR and SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN HUNTSMEN. Having demonstrated her flexibility as an actress in more than 50 screen productions and countless TV roles, Alexandra Maria Lara is also in need of little introduction. Her most memorable appearances were in the cinema films NACKT, DER UNTERGANG and DER VORLESER.

RUSH is directed by Ron Howard. The script was written by British screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon), Hans Zimmer contributed the score and Anthony Dot Mantle worked as the director of photography.

Ron Howard who made a name for himself with films such as SPLASH, APOLLO 13 and BACKDRAFT. The highlight of his career to date is the two-time Oscar winning A BEAUTIFUL MIND. His most recent international successes include THE DA VINCI CODE, FROST/NIXON and ILLUMINATI. RUSH was produced by Brian Oliver, Brian Grazer, Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan.

Rush, distributed by Ascote Elite, will hit Swiss cinemas on October 10th, 2013. This year's partner for the opening night is Audi, a longstanding main sponsor of the Zurich Film Festival.

Das 9. Zurich Film Festival findet vom 26. September bis 6. Oktober 2013 statt. Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter www.zff.com Herzlichen Dank an die Hauptsponsoren des ZFF 2013: Credit Suisse, upc cablecom, Die Schweizerische Post, Audi