International and documentary competitions include The Skeleton Twins, ‘71 and The Look of Silence. A total of 17 world premieres secured for the festival, which has received a budget boost.

The 10th Zurich Film Festival (Sept 25 – Oct 5) has revealed its full line-up, which comprises 145 features – up from 122 last year – from 29 countries.

Co-director Nadja Schildknecht revealed a rise in budget for the festival as well as growth in anticipated guest numbers.

“This year, we expect some 500 guests (previous year 450) from around the world to accompany their films,” she said.

“And the budget has increased accordingly to CHF6.9m ($7.4m) (previous year CHF6.1m/$6.5m).”

As previously announced, Tate Taylor’s James Brown biopic Get On Up will open the festival on Sept 25. The closing film has yet to be revealed.

International competition

The International Feature Film Competition includes 14 titles, some of which have received critical acclaim at previous festivals such as Yann Demange’s action thriller ‘71, which debuted at the Berlinale; Craig Johnson drama The Skeleton Twins, starring Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, which won a screenwriting award at Sundance; and Nima Javidi drama Melbourne, which played at Venice.

Titles in competition that are currently showing at Toronto include Michael R Roskam’s The Drop, starring Tom Hardy and the late James Gandolfini, and Baldvin Zophoníasson’s Icelandic drama Life in a Fishbowl.

  • Bouboule, Bruno Deville (Swi)
  • Chrieg, Simon Jaquemet (Swi)
  • Insecure (Qui Vive), Marianne Tardieu (Fr)
  • Loreak, Jon Garaño, José Mari Goenaga (Sp)
  • Underdog (Svenskjävel), Ronnie Sandahl (Swi)
  • Life In A Fishbowl, Baldvin Zophoniasson, (Ice)
  • ’71, Yann Demange (UK)
  • Melbourne, Nima Javidi, (Iran)
  • Self Made (Boreg), Shira Geffen, (Isr)
  • Manos Sucias, Josef Wladyka (US-Col)
  • The Drop, Michael R. Roskam (US)
  • The Skeleton Twins, Craig Johnson (US)
  • The Midfielder (El 5 Talleres), Adrian Biniez (Arg-Uru-Ger-Fr-Neth)
  • A Moonless Night (Una Noche Sin Luna), Germán Tejeira (Uru-Arg)

The jury will be presided over by director Susanne Bier and includes US actor Val Kilmer, US producer Donald De Line, Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić and French producer Marie Masmonteil.

The winner will receive a cash prize of CHF25,000 ($27,000) as well as an additional CHF 100’000 ($107,000) worth of distribution support.

Documentary competition

The Documentary Feature Film Competition comprises 13 titles and includes Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence, the follow-up to the Danish director’s critically acclaimed The Act of Killing, which has scored strong reviews out of Venice, Telluride and Toronto.

Other titles include Gabe Polsky’s Cold War hockey doc Red Army, which debuted in Cannes; Margaret Brown’s Deepwater Horizon disaster film The Great Invisible, which won the Grand Jury Award at SXSW; Orlando von Einsiedel’s endangered gorilla feature Virunga, which bowed at Tribeca; and Nadav Schirman’s Israeli spy doc The Green Prince, which won the Audience Award when it debuted at Sundance.

  • Iraqi Odyssey (3D), Samir (Swi-Ger-Iraq-UAE)
  • Song From The Forest, Michael Obert (Ger)
  • The Green Prince, Nadav Schirman (Ger)
  • Virunga, Orlando Von Einsiedel (UK)
  • The Look Of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer (Den-Fin-UK-Nor-Indo)
  • Cain’s Children, Marcell Gerö Ungarn (Hun-Fr)
  • Toto And His Sisters, Alexander Nanau (Rom)
  • Walking Under Water, Eliza Kubarska (Pol)
  • Ballet 422, Jody Lee Lipes (US)
  • Red Army, Gabe Polsky (US)
  • Stray Dog, Debra Granik (US)
  • The Great Invisible, Margaret Brown (US)
  • The Rise And Rise Of Bitcoin, Nicholas Mross (US)

The jury will be presided over by Hoop Dreams director Steve James and includes UK doc maker Nick Broomfield, US photographer Greg Gorman and Indian director Nishtha Jain.

The winner will receive a cash prize of CHF25,000 ($27,000) as well as an additional CHF 100’000 ($107,000) worth of distribution support.

Focus competition

As previously announced, the line-up for ZFF’s new Focus: Switzerland, Germany, Austria competition section will include 12 films including Toronto titles Labyrinth of Lies, a post-war German drama from Giulio Ricciarelli; and Baran bo Odar’s computer hacker thriller Who Am I - No System is Safe.

The Focus strand includes first, second or third feature and documentary films from German-speaking countries and replaces the previous German-langauge feature and German-language documentary competitions.

  • Capital C, Jørg M. Kundinger, Timon Birkhofer
  • Children of the Arctic, Nick Brandestini
  • Dark Star - HR Giger’s World, Belinda Sallin
  • The Chambermaid Lynn, Ingo Haeb
  • The Cuckoo and the Donkey, Andreas Arnstedt
  • Die Demokratie ist los, Thomas Isler
  • Labyrinth of Lies, Giulio Ricciarelli
  • Macondo, Sudabeh Mortezai
  • Ohne Dich, Alexandre Powelz
  • Parcours D’Amour, Bettina Blümner
  • Who Am I - No System is Safe, Baran bo Odar
  • Zu Ende Leben, Rebecca Panian

The jury will be presided over by prolific German producer Stefan Arndt, co-founder of X Filme Creative Pool, who has produced Cloud Atlas, Run Lola Run, Good Bye Lenin! and Amour among others.

Endowed with a CHF20,000 ($21,000) cash prize, the winning film will also receive an additional CHF100’000 ($107,000) worth of promotional support.

Gala Premieres

Most of the gala titles have been teased out by Zurich over the past few weeks but new titles include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, featuing Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last leading performance; Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight; and Gabe Ibanez’s Automata, which will see star Antonio Banderas in attendance at the festival.

  • Northmen: A Viking Saga, Claudio Fäh
  • A Most Wanted Man, Anton Corbijn
  • A Walk Among The Tombstones, Scott Frank
  • And So It Goes, Rob Reiner
  • Automata, Gabe Ibanez
  • Birdman, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
  • Chef, Jon Favreau
  • The Cut, Fatih Akin
  • Eden, Mia Hansen-Løve
  • The Equalizer, Antoine Fuqua
  • Escobar: Paradise Lost, Andrea Di Stefano
  • Get On Up, Tate Taylor [opening film]
  • Gone Girl, David Fincher
  • Good Kill, Andrew Niccol
  • In the Basement (Im Keller), Ulrich Seidl
  • To The Wonders (Le Meraviglie), Alice Rohrwacher
  • Life Itself, Steve James
  • Magic In The Moonlight, Woody Allen
  • Manglehorn, David Gordon Green
  • Männerhort, Franziska Meyer Price
  • My Old Lady, Israel Horovitz
  • National Gallery, Frederick Wiseman
  • The New Girlfriend, Francois Ozon
  • Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy
  • The Rover, David Michôd
  • St. Vincent, Theodore Melfi
  • The Salt Of The Earth, Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
  • The Search, Michel Hazanavicius
  • Whiplash, Damien Chazelle
  • Wish I Was Here, Zach Braff

New World View: India

As previously announced, ZFF will focus on India in this year’s New World View section and has unveiled the line-up.

But rather than focus on Bollywood, ZFF will spotlight the latest developments in the type of auteur film that first came to the world’s attention in the mid-50s thanks to such luminaries of the so-called Indian New Wave as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.

Titles include Kanu Behl’s Titli, which debuted at Cannes; Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus, which has won numerous festival awards since it bowed at Toronto 2012; Amit Kumar’s Moonsoon Shootout, nominated for the Golden Camera at Cannes 2013; and Nishtha Jain’s award-winning documentary Gulabi Gang.

  • Court, Chaitanya Tamhane
  • Fandry, Negraj Manjule
  • Gulabi Gang, Nishta Jain
  • I.D., Kamal Km
  • Kurzfilme Aus Indien, Various
  • Liar’s Dice, Geethu Mohandas
  • Lucia, Pawan Kumar
  • Monsoon Shootout, Amit Kumar
  • Powerless, Fahad Msutafa, Deepti Kakkar
  • Micmac Masters, Nalan Kumarasamy
  • Writers, Amit Masurkar
  • Ship Of Theseus, Anand Gandhi
  • Titli, Kanu Behl

Border Lines

ZFF’s Border Lines strand, including films dealing with conflict situations and people in need, includes:

  • Carl Lutz - Der Schweizer Schindler, Daniel von Aarburg
  • Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Andreas Johnsen
  • Hope, Boris Lojkine
  • Maidan, Sergei Loznitsa
  • Return To Homs, Talal Derki
  • We Come As Friends, Hubert Sauper

Special Screenings

Highlights of the Special Screening strand includes Dietrich Brüggemann’s religious drama Stations of the Cross; the latest documentary from ZFF jury member Nick Broomfield, Tales of the Grim Sleeper; vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows; and the new film from Oscar-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, Tigers.

  • Posthumous, Lulu Wang
  • 11:23 - 9:59 (Projekt Angst), Stefan Jäger
  • 15 Corners Of The World, Zuzanna Solakiewicz
  • Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen
  • By The Gun, James Mottern
  • Black & White, Yevgeny Shelyakin
  • Cut Bank, Matt Shakman
  • Der Vampir Auf Der Couch, David Ruehm
  • Freefalling: A Love Story, Mirjam von Arx
  • Güeros, Alonso Ruizpalacios
  • Home, Nicolas McCarthy
  • Stations of the Cross, Dietrich Brüggemann
  • Death Of The Serpent God, Damien Froidevaux
  • Voice Over, Cristián Jiménez
  • Magical Girl Carlos Vermut
  • Padrone e Sotto, Michele Cirigliano
  • Palace Hotel, Emil Berna, Leonard Steckel
  • Pump, Joshua Tickell, Rebecca Harrell Tickell
  • Road, Michael Hewitt, Dermont Lavery
  • Ruth & Alex, Richard Loncraine
  • Tales Of The Grim Sleeper, Nick Broomfield
  • The True Adventures Of Raoul Walsh, Marilyn Moss
  • Tigers, Danis Tanovic
  • Ulrich Seidl - A Director At Work, Constantin Wulff
  • What We Do In The Shadows, Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement
  • When Animals Dream, Jonas Alexander Arnby

 

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