The Kings of the World is crowned yet again at the 18th Zurich Film Festival

by David Katz

03/10/2022 - Laura Mora Ortega has won her second big prize in a month, following her victory at San Sebastián, whilst Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen was awarded the Golden Eye in the Focus Competition

The Kings of the World is crowned yet again at the 18th Zurich Film Festival

Director Elena Avdija with her Golden Eye for Stuntwomen

The 18th edition of the Zurich Film Festival drew to a close this Saturday, after having celebrated welcoming a record number of 137,000 attendees across the fortnight – 20,000 more than the pre-pandemic year of 2019. Out of the 146 films shown, from an array of 49 countries, 38 were world and European premieres, with 41.4% of those having been directed by women.

All three of its international competition strands, where titles were competing for the Golden Eye Award, are set aside for “young, promising” filmmakers on one of their first three features, which must be classified as a world, European or Swiss premiere. After winning the Golden Shell last month at the San Sebastián Film Festival, Laura Mora Ortega added another gong to her trophy cabinet as The Kings of the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] nabbed the Golden Eye in the Feature Film Competition. Her adventure flick, headed up by a cast of young actors and shot in Colombia’s spectacular natural landscapes, was cited by the jury, chaired by Academy Award-winning Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi, as “an important and powerful story about the marginalised in society […] that left us with unforgettable images and scenes”.

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In the Focus Competition, the festival’s strand for films from Switzerland, Germany and Austria, the Golden Eye went to Stuntwomen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the debut feature-length documentary by Swiss director Elena Avdija. In what seems like something of an “answer film” to Quentin Tarantino’s portrayal of hard-bitten stuntmen in his last movie Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Avdija provides a deep dive into the lives and work regimes of three professional stuntwomen, a “hard-hitting business in which female stunt performers all too often remain in the shadows”. The jury, compered by eminent US indie producer Christine Vachon, singled out the film’s “beautiful direction and strong cinematography” as well as its “wonderful sense of cinematic rhythm and its respect for its characters”.

The Documentary Film Golden Eye was awarded to Sam Now, from US filmmaker Reed Harkness, a story of two filmmaking-obsessed half-brothers, and the search for one of their mothers. The jury, presided over by acclaimed Romanian documentarian Alexander Nanau, said the movie “stood out to all of us as the finest that cinema can do, sending the viewer on a journey of introspection and questioning of human life and human relationships”.

Regarding the festival in its entirety, its artistic director, Christian Jungen, boasted, “Our expectations have been exceeded by far […]. The last few days have shown with impressiveness that after two years of the pandemic, people have a renewed appetite for cinema and the shared viewing experience.” Regarding the local recovery of cinemas after the worst of the pandemic, he said, “Now, we hope that people will continue to go to the cinema on a regular basis after the ZFF is over. Because ultimately, we also want our festival to help keep cinema culture alive.”

A full run-down of the awards is as follows:

Feature Film Competition

Golden Eye
The Kings of the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Laura Mora Ortega (Colombia/Luxembourg/France/Mexico/Norway)
Special Mentions
War Pony - Gina Gammell/Riley Keough (USA)
Until Tomorrow [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Ali Asgari (Iran/France/Qatar)

Focus Competition

Golden Eye
Stuntwomen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Elena Avdija (Switzerland/France)
Special Mention
Thunder [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carmen Jaquier
film profile] - Carmen Jaquier (Switzerland)

Documentary Film Competition

Golden Eye
Sam Now - Reed Harkness (USA)
Special Mentions
The New Greatness Case [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Anna Shishova (Finland/Norway/Croatia)
The Killing of a Journalist [+see also:
film review
interview: Matt Sarnecki
film profile] - Matt Sarnecki (Czech Republic/USA/Denmark)