Zurich Film Festival

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is one of the most important upcoming international film festivals, held annually in Zurich, Switzerland. The main objective of the festival is to support young directors and writers from all over the world.

The Zurich Film Festival is organised by Spoundation Motion Picture GmbH, based in Zurich, in cooperation with local institutions and sponsors. The Zurich Film Festival cooperates with numerous distributors and producers from Switzerland and abroad. The idea to found a festival in Zurich came from Karl Spoerri. Today, the festival directors are Karl Spoerri (creative director) and Nadja Schildknecht (public relations, marketing and sponsoring). Founding member Antoine Monot, Jr. curates the series “Panorama D”.

For this year's 2008 film festival, see: 2008 Zurich Film Festival.

= History =In 2004, Karl Spoerri decided to launch the renowned British digital festival „onedotzero_adventures in moving images“ in Zurich. Karl Spoerri engaged Nadja Schildknecht as the responsible person for public relations and Antoine Monot as web designer. From October 29 to 31, 2004, the festival was hosted at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zurich. Out of this small but successful event the team developed the Zurich Film Festival.

In October 2005, the 1^st Zurich Film Festival was launched, and it attracted around 8000 visitors. In 2006, the competition was supplemented with two new awards and a total of three “Golden Eye” awards were granted for “Beast Feature Film”, “Best Documentary Film” and “Best Debut Feature”. The 2^nd Zurich Film Festival denoted more than 18’000 visitors. In 2007, the “Zurich Coproduction Forum” was added to the festival programme.

In 2005, the festival took place at the Plaza cinema, in 2006 at the cinemas Corso 1, Academy 1 and 2 and Frosch cinema and studio, and in 2007 at the cinemas Corso 1, Captiol 1 and 6, Frosch cinema and studio, Movie 1 and 2 and Le Paris. Some of these theatres are run by Kitag, others by the Arthouse group.

The first edition of the Zurich Film Festival was not very well received both by the press and the film industry. This changed already with the second edition, when the festival was praised in the press and the industry proved its interest with almost 600 accreditations. The public took the festival very well from the beginning.

In 2007, the Zurich Film Festival continued to grow, and more than 50 Swiss, European and world premiers were shown at the festival theatres. Within three years, the number of visitors had augmented to 27’000. A large tent situated on Rathausplatz served as the new central meeting point for film buffs and filmmakers.

At the end of September 2008, the Zurich Film Festival will go into the fourth round. The festival will take place at the cinemas Corso and Le Paris and a tent on Hechtplatz will serve as the festival’s centre. A newly created series will complement the festival with American independent films.

= Sections =

Competition

The competition constitutes the core of the Zurich Film Festival; in this section, the main awards, the “Golden Eyes”, are granted. The competition shows only feature and documentary films produced no earlier than 24 months before the festival. An international jury, presided by a jury president, chooses the winners at the end of the festival. The competition is divided into three categories: “Best Debut Film” (first fictional work of a director), “Best Fiction Feature” (second or third fictional work of a director) and “Best Documentary Film” (first, second or third non-fictional work of a director). Films are admitted to the competition provided that they have neither been aired on any German-speaking TV channel nor been released in Swiss theatres before the festival.

Prize money

The awards for “Best Fiction Feature” and “Best Documentary Film” are endowed with USD 20’000 each, while the award for “Best Debut Film” is endowed with USD 10’000. In addition, the three winners receive a promotion prize with a total equivalent value of USD 150’000. The awards cannot be granted ex aequo.

Jury

The international jury is comprised of 5 members and a jury president. The jury assigns the three competition awards “Best Debut Film”, “Best Fiction Feature” and “Best Documentary Film”.

A Tribute To

“A Tribute To” honours an outstanding personality who has significantly influenced the history of film and who has repeatedly encouraged and supported young filmmaking. In 2005, the then called “Retrospective” paid tribute to Rainer Werner Fassbinder with a showcase of his lifework, especially focusing on his TV works.

In 2006, the name of the series was changed to “A Tribute To”. The laureates accept the award at the festival in person. In 2006, the award was handed over to Stephen Frears, and in 2007 the Zurich Film Festival honoured Oliver Stone for his lifework.

Panorama D

The series “Panorama D” offers an overview of current German-speaking films and shows the latest works of German, Austrian and Swiss directors.

Spotlight

This series combines award-winning films from other festivals and offers thus a unique overview of the best films of the current festival year.

Out of Competition

In this series, visitors get to see star-studded premiers of international films.

Onedotzero and onedotzero_ch

The London-based onedotzero is the most important and innovative digital film festival to date. Already in its early stages the independent festival has shown works of at the time lesser known directors such as Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry or Chris Cunningham. With this series, the Zurich Film Festival brings the crème de la crème of digital film to Switzerland.

"Onedotzero_ch" offers a platform for young Swiss digital filmmakers and presents each year the latest ideas in the realm of creative video art.

= Further events =

Zurich Master Class

The Zurich Master Class was launched in 2006 and addresses itself to talented young directors, actors, writers and producers. Top-class filmmakers join the discussions and share their know-how and experiences with the participants.

In 2006, Stephen Frears, Jan Harlan, Ueli Steiger and Christian Frei were invited to the Zurich Master Class workshops. In 2007, the young participants could profit from the presence of Pavel Lungin, Stanislaw Mucha, Jim Stark, Quirin Berg, Albert S. Ruddy, Matthew Modine, Bettina Oberli and Moritz Bleibtreu.

= Weblinks =
* [http://www.zurichfilmfestival.org Zurich Film Festival]
* [http://www.onedotzero.ch www.onedotzero.ch]
* [http://www.outnow.ch/specials/2005/ZFF/ 1^st Zurich Film Festival: film reviews]
* [http://www.outnow.ch/specials/2006/ZFF/ 2^nd Zurich Film Festival: film reviews]
* [http://www.outnow.ch/specials/2007/ZurichFilmFestival/ 3^rd Zurich Film Festival: film reviews]