Head of programme and guests, Zürich Film Festival
Anja Fröhner sees close ties between her joint roles at Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) looking after the programme and the guests. “It was very important from the start to have filmmakers personally attend the festival and do our best to provide great guest services, so there has always been a close connection between the guest and programme department,” she says.
Fröhner started her career in Zurich in the guest department a decade ago, but this former university film-club member says she always wanted to move up to programming — a promotion that came in 2018. “I’m always looking for films that are trying to convey the human experience in a new way that surprises or touches me,” she says, pointing to ZFF 2023 titles such as The Eternal Memory, Mandoob, Lubo and The Zone Of Interest. How To Have Sex even inspired a conversation at an airport make-up counter after the festival.
“Our two main competitions [for fiction and documentary features] are for first, second and third features only, so the heart of our film programme is about scouting emerging filmmakers,” she adds. Last year Jude Chehab’s Q screened as part of the doc competition, with the Lebanese-American filmmaker having passed through ZFF’s talent programme a few years earlier.
This year marks ZFF’s 20th anniversary and Fröhner is excited for what is in store. “Over the years, the [ZFF] audience has come to trust us more and more and takes risks they might otherwise not [with films].
“What bigger joy is there than to screen smaller independent films to an audience that normally only goes to the cinema for big studio films?”
Contact: Anja Fröhner
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