Four Swiss Films Nominated for Filmmaker Award

Zurich, September 2, 2015

German-Austrian actor Christoph Waltz will attend the Zurich Film Festival on its opening day. The two-time Academy Award winner will arrive in Zurich on Saturday September 26 for a packed programme of activities. Waltz will preside over the jury for the 100’000 Swiss-franc endowed Filmmaker Award, hold a keynote conversation at the Zurich Summit (which takes place in association with the ZFF and IWC Schaffhausen), and strut the Green Carpet for press and public before presenting the screening of Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS at the corso cinema.

 

Established in December 2014, the Association for the Promotion of Film in Switzerland will award its first 100’000 Swiss-franc endowed prize to one or more Swiss filmmakers whose projects are currently in the late production or post-production phase. In addition to distributing the prize money, the Association’s jury, whose members are director Marc Forster, IWC CEO Georges Kern, ZFF Co-Director Karl Spoerri and their celebrity president, Christoph Waltz, will also honour the winner with the Filmmaker Award. Swiss filmmakers were able to enter their cinema projects for the first time this spring in a bid to win the prize. Films and documentaries of at least 60 minutes in length requiring late production or post-production financing could be entered.

 

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

 

Christoph Waltz lives in Los Angeles and Berlin. He studied acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. After beginning his career on stage, Waltz went on to appear in such TV thrillers as DERRICK, DER ALTE and POLIZEIRUF 110, before appearing in his first feature film in the 1990s. He garnered numerous awards, including an Oscar and Golden Globe, for his role as an SS Officer in Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

 

Waltz has since appeared in Roman Polanski’s CARNAGE and Quentin Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED, a role for which he garnered his second Oscar and another golden Globe. He will appear in a further leading role in the new James Bond film SPECTRE, which will hit cinemas in November this year. Christoph Waltz’s star has been on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 2014.

 

Originality and Professionalism

 

“There’s a lively filmmaking industry in Switzerland, employing many talented people. However, the financial backing required to see projects through to the end is often lacking; this is particularly the case in the late production stages,” says Georges Kern, CEO of watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen. To bridge this gap, Georges Kern and the co-directors of the Zurich Film Festival, Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, the CEO of Ringier, Marc Walder, and director Marc Forster got together to create the Association for the Promotion of Film in Switzerland.

 

The entries have been narrowed down to four finalists by the Association’s jury. The four works competing for the Filmmaker Award are: EUROPE, SHE LOVES; GOLIATH; UND MORGEN SEID IHR TOT; and WAFFENLÄUFER. “All four films impressed us with their bold approach to the unusual, their originality and their professionalism. Each of these productions also has the potential to wow audiences outside Switzerland,” says Karl Spoerri in conclusion.

 

 

The Four Nominees and Their Projects

 

EUROPE, SHE LOVES

Producer: Lisa Blatter (2:1 Film GmbH), Andreas Hörl (lüthje schneider hörl | FILM) Director: Jan Gassmann

 

Director Jan Gassmann and his small team travelled 20,000 kilometres in a bus to film portraits of couples in Seville, Dublin, Tallinn, Zagreb and Thessaloniki. The result is a semi-fictional political documentary about Europe during the economic crisis, and portrays the daily struggle for survival of five couples who use their reserves of wit and love. The storyline of the film, which is now in post-production, moves cleverly between fiction and documentary. The intimate camerawork and the bleak atmosphere are striking.

 

GOLIATH

Producers: Dario Schoch, Rajko Jazbec (Cognito Films)

Director: Dominik Locher

 

Goliath tells the tale of the young David, who is mugged while on the way home with his pregnant girlfriend. This leaves him feeling like a weakling. Rendered insecure in his role as a man and father-to-be, he pumps himself full of anabolic steroids – only to turn into a threat to his family, who he had actually wanted to impress and protect. Goliath began shooting in July 2015, and is directed by Dominik Locher, who trained at Zurich University of the Arts and the American Film Institute and is considered to be one of Switzerland’s most promising directors.

 

UND MORGEN SEID IHR TOT (TOMORROW YOU’LL BE DEAD)

Producer: Bernhard Burgener, Norbert Preuss (Kontraproduktion AG)

Director: Michael Steiner

 

This film tells the true story of Daniela Widmer and David Och, two Swiss citizens kidnapped by the Taliban in July 2011 while on a trip along Pakistan’s historic Silk Road. After eight months in captivity they managed to make their escape. According to the gripping script, the film will tackle the difficult time after their return to Switzerland and examine the events that took place in Pakistan. Shooting is planned to start in India in February 2016. The film will be directed by well-known Swiss director Michael Steiner (Grounding, Mein Name ist Eugen).

 

WAFFENLÄUFER (THE GUN RUNNER)

Producers: Stefan Eichenberger, Ivan Madeo (CONTRAST FILM)

Director: Hannes Baumgartner

 

Zurich-based director and winner of the Zurich Film Award Hannes Baumgartner chose a controversial topic for his first movie: his story of Jonas Fischer is based on the real-life tragedy of a famous Swiss long-distance runner. At the peak of his sporting career, it is revealed that he has been living an ill-fated double life and is in fact wanted across Switzerland for over two-dozen attacks on women, who he robbed, injured or murdered. The Waffenläufer project is currently in the financing stage.