Animal Heart is surprise winner at Swiss Film Prizes

 

Séverine Comamusaz’s Animal Heart, a drama about a dysfunctional farming family, was the surprise winner at this year’s Swiss Film Prize ceremony in Lucerne, picking up the “Quartz” awards for best fiction film and best actor for Antonio Buil.

 

Christoph Schaub’s romantic comedy Julia’s Disappearance, which had been nominated in five categories including best fiction film, however, left the awards ceremony at the weekend empty-handed.

 

The best actress “Quartz” went to stage actress Marie Leuenberger for her first film role in Die Standesbeamtin, while the award for best emerging actor/actress went to Uygar Tamer for her role in Dirty Money, L’Infiltré.

 

Other awards included best documentary film to Vadim Jendreyko’s The Woman With The 5 Elephants, best screenplay to Frederic Mermoud for Complices, best film score to Norbert Möslang for his score to the documentary The Sound of Insects – Record Of A Mummy, and best short to Chris Niemeyer for Las Pelotas.

 

This year was the first time that the members of the new Swiss Film Academy voted on both the nominations and prizes in the eight categories. In addition, a special jury prize was presented to Stéphane Kuthy for his camera-work in Bettina Oberli’s mystery drama Tannöd.

 

Moreover, the veteran filmmaker Claude Goretta received this year’s Honorary Award for playing a crucial role in shaping Swiss filmmaking through his films for cinema and television.