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ZURICH 2021

The Zurich Film Festival unveils a programme lending an important place to Hollywood glitz

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- Zurich will host its festival from 23 September to 3 October, targeting wider audiences and arthouse cinema fans alike

The Zurich Film Festival unveils a programme lending an important place to Hollywood glitz
The French Dispatch by Wes Anderson

Now at its 17th edition, the Zurich Film Festival is confirming its offering as “a good mix of intelligent mainstream films and cinematic discoveries”, as emphasised by the festival’s artistic director Christian Jungen. Indeed, alongside famous names from the global film landscape, such as Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch [+see also:
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]
), Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog [+see also:
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]
) and Todd Haynes (The Velvet Underground), and an intriguing focus on young Tunisian cinema, there are some genuinely dynamic and crowd-pleasing titles in the festival line-up, including the hotly anticipated No Time to Die by Cary Joji Fukunaga, which is the final James Bond adventure to star Daniel Craig, and Paul Schrader’s Hollywood thriller The Card Counter [+see also:
film review
trailer
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]
. This year will even see the Zurich Festival place Hollywood glamour centre stage, awarding its Golden Icon Award to none other than Sharon Stone herself.

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164 films hailing from 53 countries will battle it out in this year’s Fiction, Documentary and Focus competitions. Among these are 25 world or international premieres and five European premieres. And the festival isn’t averse to young talent either, making room for no less than 38 first works in its Gala Premieres section, which will also include numerous prestigious productions which have already had the good fortune of being presented in high-profile festivals. Zurich is also offering up a number of other long-awaited feature films, such as The Hand of God [+see also:
film review
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interview: Paolo Sorrentino
film profile
]
by Paolo Sorrentino, Spencer [+see also:
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trailer
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]
by Chile’s Pablo Larraín, which is toplined by Kristen Stewart, A Hero [+see also:
film review
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interview: Asghar Farhadi
film profile
]
by Asghar Farhadi and the first film directed by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal The Lost Daughter [+see also:
film review
trailer
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]
. Likewise highly-anticipated is German director Florian Gallenberger’s latest film It’s Just a Phase, Honey [+see also:
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]
, which will be presented in a world premiere within the Gala Premieres section, and the thriller by Swiss director Michael Steiner And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Steiner
film profile
]
, which is opening this seventeenth edition of the event.

Thirty-eight films will be battling it out for the Golden Eye across the three competition sections, with the fiction contest boasting a great many European productions, namely the third work by Italy’s Jonas Carpignano A Chiara [+see also:
film review
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interview: Jonas Carpignano
film profile
]
, a drama about the mafia as remembered through the eyes of an eighteen-year-old woman; Norwegian work Ninjababy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kristine Kujath Thorp
interview: Yngvild Sve Flikke
film profile
]
by Yngvild Sve Flikke, in which “real” images rub shoulders with drawings of the film’s protagonist; French title Softie [+see also:
film review
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interview: Samuel Theis
film profile
]
by Samuel Theis, which follows the day-to-day life of an unusual little boy; the gastronomic huit-clos Boiling Point [+see also:
film review
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interview: Philip Barantini
film profile
]
by British director Philip Barantini; surprising debut film Lamb [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Valdimar Jóhannsson
film profile
]
by Iceland’s Valdimar Jóhannson; Miracle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bogdan George Apetri
film profile
]
by Bogdan George Apetri, a drama with noir undertones by a “new Romanian school” director; and Silent Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aga Woszczyńska
film profile
]
, which is young Polish director Aga Woszczyńska’s first film. European cinema is similarly well-represented within the Documentary Competition, thanks to Denmark’s From the Wild Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robin Petré
film profile
]
, a poetic dialogue between man and animalkind by director Robin Petré; The Velvet Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marie Amiguet and Vincent M…
film profile
]
by Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier, which also homes in on the animal kingdom in all its splendour; Sabaya [+see also:
film review
interview: Hogir Hirori
film profile
]
by Hogir Hirori, telling a story which seems to tragically repeat itself time and time again; the poignant work Soy libre [+see also:
trailer
film profile
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by French director Laure Portier, which lends a voice to her brother and his need for freedom; The Real Charlie Chaplin [+see also:
interview: Peter Middleton and James S…
film profile
]
by Peter Middleton and James Spinney, presented in a European premiere; the colourful All-In [+see also:
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trailer
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]
by Volkan Üce, and President [+see also:
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interview: Camilla Nielsson
film profile
]
by Camilla Nielsson, alongside many others.

To top it all off, Swiss film is set to sparkle this year by way of 22 films, which include the world premieres of Momentum [+see also:
film review
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]
by the “child prodigy” of Swiss cinema Edwin Charmillot, Youth Topia [+see also:
film review
interview: Dennis Stormer, Marisa Meier
film profile
]
by Dennis Stormer and Love Will Come Later [+see also:
film review
interview: Julia Furer
film profile
]
by Julia Furer, both of the latter being first films by two young directors. All three works will feature within the Focus Competition. Likewise much-anticipated are two portraits of major players on the Swiss cultural scene - Adolf Muschg – der Andere [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
 by Erich Schmid and Harald Naegeli-Der Sprayer von Zürich by Nathalie David -, both of which will be presented in the Special Screenings section, alongside the collective documentary Les nouvelles Eves [+see also:
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]
, directed by Camille Budin, Annie Gisler, Jela Hasler, Thaïs Odermatt, Wendy Pillonel and Anna Thommen. All three titles will be screened in world premieres.

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(Translated from Italian)

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