Swiss works on show at Solothurn
Having served as an unbeatable showcase for Swiss cinema over the past 45 years, the Solothurn Film Festival (January 21-28) kicks off today, with Confederation president Doris Leuthard in attendance. The event will open with the world première screening of Christoph Schertenleib’s narrative film Zwerge Sprengen, which describes a family who are in the habit of blowing up garden gnomes.
On January 27, the nominations for the Swiss Film Prize will be announced in Solothurn by new Culture Minister Didier Burkhalter. The Quartz trophy presentation ceremony will be held in Lucerne on March 6.
The line-up, including co-productions and numerous shorts, comprises 302 titles selected from among all of last year’s Swiss productions. Erik Bernasconi’s Sinestesia will have its world première at Solothurn, while there will be Swiss premières for Alexandre Iordachescu’s The Childhood of Icarus, Mitko Panov’s The War Is Over, Urs Odermatt’s My Fight, Jean-Laurent Chautems’ No Longer There and Sonja Wyss’ Winter Silence [+see also:
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Already released in France and French-speaking Switzerland, Patricia Plattner’s Bazar [+see also:
trailer
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Solothurn director Ivo Kummer, who has headed the festival for 20 years, pointed out that “Swiss documentaries are in the spotlight again this year”. There will be an abundance of world premières in this genre, including Richard Dindo’s Gauguin In Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, Damian Pandolit’s Juste Avant la Catastrophe (“Just Before the Catastrophe”) and Dominique Margot’s Toumast - Entre Guitare et Kalashnikov (“Toumast: Between Guitar and Kalashnikov”) .
Ahead of the announcement of the Solothurn Award on January 28, the Solothurn Film Festival has presented its first prizes. Film critics Christoph Egger and Michael Sennhauser received the Pathé Award, while DoPs Carlo Varini and Patrick Lindenmaier won regional honours.
(Translated from French)
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