The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) kicks off on September 24 with the European premiere of Jennifer Peedom’s Everest drama Tenzing, starring Tom Hiddleston and Willem Dafoe.
The festival is a major launchpad for films into the German-speaking market, and an increasingly important staging post in the international awards race. This year’s line-up, for example, includes Ink, Wild Horse Nine, Fatherland, Club Kid and Minotaur.
Meanwhile, Zurich’s fiction and documentary competitions are home to world and European premieres. Its industry activities include the Zurich Summit, which gathers leading industry execs.
ZFF CEO Christian Jungen and festival director Reta Guetg talk to Screen about how they try to identify awards season films months in advance, why they are bringing back Tilly Norwood’s creator to the summit and why Sylvester Stallone told them to “keep punching”.
When did you start putting together this year’s selection?
Reta Guetg: Our main kick-off is Sundance; we try to pick films we think will be relevant for awards, like the John Turturro-starring The Only Living Pickpocket In New York.
Christian Jungen: We travel a lot. I’ve been in LA five times over the last 12 months. We’re constantly in touch with producers and the agencies. That helps to get an early sense of how they are positioning the films. More and more, we don’t have to chase the films, they get offered to us. I got an email from Casey Affleck, who was interested in presenting his new film, Company. Sylvester Stallone dropped me an email. Unfortunately, he can’t make it to the I Play Rocky premiere, but he promised to be back and said “Keep punching”. They know we can be a good place for a European premiere. A lot of Academy voting members are at the festival, both from the US via the Summit and from across Europe.
What are the highlights of the international competition?
Reta: There are two I’m particularly looking forward to. One is the European premiere of Head To Head by Iranian director Ghasideh Golmakani. It’s a very interesting female debut that is actually a comedy, but is also very critical and timely. Then we have a British world premiere in competition: Rhys Marc Jones’s Black Church Bay with Joe Locke. It’s a mystery thriller, and we’re happy they trusted us to bring this film to the audience.
And the documentary competition?
Docs are important to us: almost a third of our whole programme is documentaries. We’re premiering a Swiss film that’s super dear to my heart, Schreckschraube by Simon David. He attended our academy programme, and it was his dream to come back with his debut.
Why have you chosen to open the festival with Tenzing?
Christian: The festival’s slogan this year is Dream Big…We wanted to set the tone with this film. There is so much negativity in the world - wars, tariffs and dictators. We wanted [the opposite] because movies can also be inspiring. They let you dream. And for us, it’s a spectacular film. We can see it in the ticket sales – it is our best seller. The Swiss and mountains: that’s always a good thing.
Are there any other films that you’re particularly proud to have secured this year?
Reta: Personally, I’m super excited to have Musk in our programme. I talked about this film for years with the producer and am really curious how the Swiss will react to it.
Then I’m looking forward to Babies that premiered in TIFF. It’s such a such a timely, modern film starring Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick as a couple who decide not to have children. It’s a very personal story, and it’s quite daring to put it on a screen in a funny way.
Christian: For me, it’s I Play Rocky. I’m a big Rocky fan. It’s the perfect film about the making of the original film. It takes place in the industry, so every producer, every actor can identify – and everybody roots for the underdog. Anthony Ippolito gives a star-making performance.
And there is a Swiss film which already kickstarted a national conversation before being shown: 111 Echoes From Halifax about a Swissair crash in 1998, where all the passengers and the crew were killed. I have no doubt it will be the big Swiss film of the year in terms of audience attendance, but it’s also truly global in terms of its subject matter.
You sparked a global news story at the Summit last year with Tilly Norwood. How are you repeating it this year?
Reta: [Tilly creator] Eline van der Velden is coming back, and there will be a live conversation with Tilly in the room. There will also be announcements about new production initiatives around the Summit too. We’ve also got Backrooms director Kane Parsons coming.
Christian: There are tectonic shifts going on in the film industry, but also in the festival landscape, so the need to come together and analyse where we stand and what’s next is more urgent than ever. Ten years from now, the whole festival landscape will look a lot different. If we are not able to adapt, you will just disappear. We have a partnership with TikTok this year; one of the most important sources bringing traffic to our website by far is TikTok. It’s an important way to connect with new audiences. But it’s an exciting time. Movies are back big time today. We are 18.7% above last year in terms of attendance in theatres so far.
As a film festival, how do you reach these audiences?
Christian: Well, TikTok is one piece. Another one is to hire young people. Compared to other festivals, we have quite a young audience because of the universities and art schools in Zurich.
Reta: And we really listen to them. Last year the big surprise to us old people was Twinless starring Dylan O’Brien. Our young team members went nuts [about him coming], and so did the people on the carpet and the young people. This year, I expect the same with Joe Locke. Everybody is really crazy that he’s coming. It helps to have heroes from all generations walking the carpet and presenting their films.
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