zurich juries

Source: Zurich Film Festival

Asghar Farhadi, Christine Vachon, Alexander Nanau

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, US producer Christine Vachon and Romanian documentarian Alexander Nanau will head  the juries of the 18th Zurich Film Festival, which runs from September 22 to October 2 this year.

Farhadi will lead the jury for the International Feature Film Competition, alongside UK filmmaker Clio Barnard, Swiss filmmaker Petra Volpe, Swedish producer Piodor Gustafsson and US producer Daniel Dreifuss.

Vachon presides over the Focus Competition jury, which is comprised of Swiss filmmaker Fred Baillif, Austrian filmmaker Katharina Muckstein, Italian editor Maria Fantastica Valmori and Swiss journalist Roger Schawinski.

In the Documentary Film Competition jury alongside Nanau are Macedonian filmmaker Atanas Georgiev, Swiss filmmaker Joelle Bertossa, Indian filmmaker Sushmit Ghosh, and Nina Numankadic, director of European documentary festival partnership Doc Alliance.

Each jury will watch 14 films, and award a Golden Eye to the best film, with a CHF 25,000 ($25,999) cash prize. An additional CHF 10,000 ($10,399) cash prize is presented in the Focus Competition.

The Feature Film Competition consists of first, second or third features from around the world; while the Focus Competition is for first, second or third films from Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

“Our competitions are committed to promoting new talent, so it’s an encouragement to all participants that the juries are presided over by such inspiring greats of international auteur cinema,” said Christian Jungen, artistic director of the festival.