Julia’s Disappearance nabs five Swiss Film Prize nominations

by Anna Percival

29/01/2010 - The nominees for the Quartz Swiss Film Prize 2010 were announced at the Solothurn Film Festival, with Culture Minister Didier Burkhalter in attendance. The Quartz trophies will be awarded on March 6 in Lucerne.

Almost 180 professionals from the Swiss Film Academy (72% of voters) took part in the selection vote in eight categories: ten feature-length films, five shorts, nine actors, three screenplays and three film scores.

Five productions will vie for the Best Feature trophy: Ivan Engler and Ralph Etter’s Cargo, Séverine Cornamusaz’s Animal Heart [trailer], Frédéric Mermoud’s Complices [trailer, film focus] (“Partners”), Christoph Schaub’s Julia’s Disappearance [trailer, film focus], and Bettina Oberli’s The Murder Farm [trailer].

Two of the above films, Complices and Julia’s Disappearance, will also compete for Best Screenplay, alongside Erik Bernasconi’s Sinestesia.

In the Best Documentary category, contenders include Vadim Jendreyko’s The Woman with the 5 Elephants, Stascha Bader’s Rocksteady, Peter Guyer and Norbert Wiedmer’s Sounds and Silence, Christian Frei’s Space Tourists [trailer] and Peter Liechti’s The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy [trailer].

Actors will also be in the spotlight. Vying for Best Actress are Marie Leuenberger (for Micha Lewinsky’s Will You Marry Us? [trailer]), Sunnyi Melles (Julia’s Disappearance ) and Melanie Winiger (Sinestesia).

Antonio Buil will compete for Best Actor (for his role in Animal Heart), alongside Bruno Ganz (Julia’s Disappearance) and Roeland Wiesnekker (Lutz Konermann’s Der Fürsorger).

Meanwhile, Jennifer Mulinde-Schmid (Will You Marry Us?), Giorgia Würth (Sinestesia) and Uygar Tamer (Dominique Othenin-Girard’s Dirty Money - L’infiltré) will battle it out for Best Emerging Actor or Actress.

Finally, nominees for Best Score include Julia’s Disappearance (composed by Balz Bachmann), The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (Norbert Möslang) and Alexandre Iordachescu’s The Way Beyond [trailer] (The Young Gods).