Three new Swiss films will have their world premieres during the Swiss Cinema Day at this year's Locarno Film Festival, while Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov's Yuri's Day (Yuriev Den) will screen in the International Competitiion.

The Swiss Cinema Day, which will be held by the festival in cooperation with the Federal Office of Culture (BAK) and Swiss Films for the third time on August 12, will feature the world premieres of Dominique de Rivaz's Luftbusiness - with this year's Swiss Shooting Star Joel Basman in one of the leads - in the Here and Elsewhere sidebar as well as of Denis Rabaglia's Marcello Marcello and Georges Schwigebel's animated short Retouches in an open-air screening on the Piazza Grande that evening.

De Rivaz's drama about three young men deciding to make money by selling everything 'humanly' possible on the Internet is being handled internationally by Media Luna Entertainment, while Rabaglia's comedy set in an Italian village in 1958 is being sold by Telepool.

Switzerland's acting talent will be in the spotlight during the Cinema Day under the motto of 'there's more than one face to Swiss films' with a presentation of up-and-coming local actors and actresses by casting directors Corinna Glaus and Susan Mueller and a panel discussion on the pros and cons of film prizes and red carpets with contributions by Nicolas Bideau, head of the BAK's Film Department, and Swiss Films' Francine Bruecher, among others.

Meanwhile, Kirill Serebrennikov's Yuri's Day (Yuriev Den), which had its world premiere at last month's Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival in Sochi and won the Best Actress Award for female lead Ksenia Rappoport, has been invited to screen in Locarno's International Competition.

The Russian-German co-production was produced by Moscow-based New People with Berlin outfit Rohfilm with backing from Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung and the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinema of the Russian Federation

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