Christian Jungen and Reta Guetg

Source: © Yves Bachmann

Christian Jungen and Reta Guetg

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) has named Christian Jungen as CEO and Reta Guetg as festival director.

Jungen was previously Zurich’s festival director, while Guetg has spent more than a decade overseeing the ZFF’s industry and programming activities.

Their redefined roles follow last year’s management buyout of the festival from the NZZ Group, publisher of the centre-right Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper.

Jungen and Guetg are two of the festival’s five new owners, alongside entrepreneur and TV host Max Loong; long-time ZFF president Felix E. Müller; and finance expert Marek Skreta.

Jungen will lead ZFF, with a focus on commercial partnerships, sponsorship and the development of the festival. He will continue to be involved with programming, in particular the gala premieres.

Guetg will run programming, focusing on the festival’s competition strands, as well as industry events such as the Zurich Summit.

Zurich is unusual among festivals in that it is strongly reliant on private funding. Sixty percent of its $17.6m (CHF14m) budget comes from sponsors, and 30% from ticketing, foundations and donors. Only 10% currently is from public money.

In terms of programming, Guetg said ZFF’s mission would remain as supporting and showcasing upcoming talent in its main competitions, while also being a high-profile home for acclaimed awards contenders.

“Being an A-listed festival is not our plan. We want to be the trend-setting festival in Europe in autumn. That’s our goal, to pick the best and show it in Zurich and help them rise and get awareness.”

Last year’s 21st edition of ZFF had 135,000 visitors, with stars such as Dakota Johnson, Russell Crowe, Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Farrell attending.

Tereza Nvotová’s Father won the Golden Eye award in ZFF’s feature competition, while the Swiss film I Love You, I Leave You by first-time director Moris Freiburghaus won the Golden Eye for best documentary and the audience award.

At the Zurich Summit last year, Particle 6’s Eline Van Der Velden introduced AI actress Tilly Norwood – sparking a major debate on artificial intelligence in entertainment.

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