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FESTIVALS Switzerland

Festival success for Swiss films in 2008

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With 52 films presented at major international festivals in 2008 (11 features, 12 documentaries and 29 shorts), Swiss film recaptured the good form of 2006 and scooped 136 awards worth a total of €234,000.

Micha Schiwow – director of the national film promotion agency – commented: "This year’s presence reflects the diversity of Swiss film creation: a broad range of films were showcased at important international festivals".

French-speaking Swiss directors in particular enjoyed success: Fernand Melgar’s The Fortress [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
won the Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present section at the Locarno Film Festival, where Lionel Baier’s Another Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lionel Baier
film profile
]
screened in international competition. Moreover, Juan José Lozano’s Unwanted Witness was selected at Toronto and Ursula Meier’s Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kacey Mottet Klein
interview: Thierry Spicher
interview: Ursula Meier
film profile
]
had a special screening in Cannes Critics’ Week.

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The latter title is nonetheless an exceptional case, for the presence of Swiss films remains rather low-key at prestigious events such as the Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Sundance festivals.

(Translated from French)

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