I Am The Keeper, Dreamland and Father’s Garden win at Swiss Film Awards; First Saas-Fee Filmfest honours Soldate Jeannette and Love Steaks.

Sabine Boss’ I Am The Keeper (Der Goalie bin ig) was the big winner at this year Swiss Film Awards in Zurich, picking up four prizes for Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Marcus Signer) and Best Film Score after being nominated in seven categories.

The production by C-Film AG and Carac Film, based on the eponymous novel by Pedro Lenz about an ex-junkie’s past catching up with him as he tries to find a way back into normal life, was released by Ascot Elite Entertainment Group in cinemas in the German-speaking part of Switzerland on Feb 6 and has already posted over 68,000 admissions.

The members of the Swiss Film Academy voted to give the Quartz trophy for Best Actress to Ursina Lardi for her performance as a prostitute in Zurich in Petra Volpe’s Dreamland (Traumland), whileDimitri Stapfer received the award for Best Supporting Role for his part in Germinal Roaux’s Left Foot Right Foot, which also took home the Quartz for Best Cinematography (Denis Jutzeler).

Peter Liechti’s Father’s Garden - The Love of My Parents (Vaters Garten - die Liebe meiner Eltern) was voted Best Documentary and also presented with the newly created Quartz for Best Editing to Tania Stöcklin.

Federal Councillor Alain Berset presented this year’s Honorary Award to the veteran journalist and film producer Alexander J. Seiler in recognition of his contribution to Swiss cinema.

Saas-Fee Filmfest

The Swiss Film Awards were followed at the weekend by the prize-giving ceremony for the first edition of the Saas-Fee Filmfest in the Swiss ski resort close to the border with Italy.

The international jury of Italian actress Sandra Ceccarelli (Luce dei miei Occhi) and directors Urs Odermatt (Mein Kampf) and Jessica Krummacher (Totem) split their $1,130 (CHF 1,000) prize for Best Film between Austrian director Daniel Hoesl’s no-budget feature debut Soldate Jeannette and Berlin-based Jakob Lass’ Love Steaks.

The Critics Jury gave its prize to Frauke Finsterwalder’s feature debut Finsterworld.

Festival manager Gabriel Zurbriggen announced that the festival audience voted for Sitting Next To Zoe by Ivana Lalovic as its favourite film and the winner of this year’s Audience Award.

The Filmfest played host to actors Lana Cooper (Love Steaks), Maurizio Marchetti (The Mafia Only Kills In Summer), Stefano Cassetti (The Third Half), Serge Trinquecoste (The Rendez-vous of Déjà-vu), Antoine Chappey (The Sense Of Humour), Lea Bloch (Sitting Next To Zoe), and directors Daniel Hoesl (Soldate Jeannette) and Dominik Locher (Tempo Girl) who all came to Saas-Fee for Q&As with the audience.

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