Record audience numbers for the Zurich Film Festival
- US title Sound of Metal and European works Collective and System Crasher dominate the Swiss festival’s winners’ list
The 15th edition of the Zurich Film Festival closed on Saturday 5 October with the announcement of the various competition section winners, not to mention the victor of the Audience Award and of the prestigious Golden Icon.
Sound of Metal (which premiered in Toronto) walked away with the International Feature Film Competition’s Golden Eye, thanks to its captivating and emotionally intense study of a musician who’s losing his hearing, courtesy of America’s Darius Marder. The film’s cast is graced by astonishing actors such as Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke and Mathieu Amalric. And amongst the three films treated to a Special Mention within this section, we find European work A White, White Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile] (Iceland/Denmark/Sweden) by Hlynur Pálmason.
Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], meanwhile, a Romanian documentary thriller by Alexander Nanau which denounces one of the most shocking corruption scandals to have erupted in the country’s healthcare sector, took home the award for Best Film in the International Documentary Competition, having already screened out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. As for the competitive section “Focus on Switzerland, Germany and Austria”, it was the German work System Crasher [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nora Fingscheidt
film profile] by Nora Fingscheidt which claimed top spot on the awards podium. Having also scooped the Berlinale’s Alfred Bauer Award earlier in the year, System Crasher is a powerful and moving first film which sees stupendous, upcoming actress Helena Zengel take centre stage. Nora Fingscheidt, for her part, has previously featured in the ZFF Master Class line-up.
In terms of other accolades, Volunteer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Anna Thommen and Lorenz Nufer bagged itself the Audience Award, while Too Far Away [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sarah Winkenstette stole the Golden Eye in the children’s line-up, not forgetting Invisible Sue [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Germany’s Markus Dietrich which took home the Young Audience Award.
The Festival’s most prestigious prize, however - the Golden Icon Award – was handed to Cate Blanchett. The ZFF’s co-founders Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri were delighted to welcome the actress to the festival once again, five years on from her first appearance on the banks of the Limmat promoting Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. This year, Cate Blanchett presented her latest film Where’d You Go, Bernadette to ZFF audiences, a work by US director Richard Linklater.
The full list of winners is as follows:
International Feature Film Competition
Golden Eye for Best Film
Sound of Metal - Darius Marder (US)
Special Mention
Babyteeth – Shannon Murphy (Australia)
Just 6.5 – Saeed Roustaee (Iran)
A White, White Day [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile] – Hlynur Pàlmason (Iceland/Denmark/Sweden)
Mention for Best Actress
Trine Dyrholm – Queen of Hearts [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gustav Lindh
interview: May el-Toukhy
film profile] (Denmark)
Mention for Best Director
Mano de obra - David Zonana (Mexico)
International Documentary Competition
Golden Eye for Best Film
Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Alexander Nanau (Romania)
Special Mention
17 Blocks - Davy Rothbart (US)
Midnight Family - Luke Lorentzen (US/Mexico)
“Focus on Switzerland, Germany and Austria” Competition
Golden Eye for Best Film
System Crasher [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nora Fingscheidt
film profile] - Nora Fingscheidt (Germany)
Special Mention
Lillian [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andreas Horvath
film profile] - Andreas Horvath (Austria)
Series Competition
Golden Eye for Best International Series
Just for Today - Nir Bergman and Ram Nehari (Israel)
Other Awards
Audience Award
Volunteer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Anna Thommen and Lorenz Nufer (Switzerland)
Prize of the Children’s Jury
Zu Weit Weg - Sarah Winkenstette (Germany)
ZFF for Kids Audience Award
Invisible Sue [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Markus Dietrich (Germany)
Science Film Award
Paradise War - The Story of Bruno Manser [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Niklaus Hilber
film profile] - Niklaus Hilber (Switzerland/Austria)
(Translated from Italian)
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