Switzerland’s Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) has unveiled the full programme for its 2020 edition, which is set to go ahead as a physical event from September 24 to October 4.
Scroll down for list of competition titles
The 16th edition of the festival will comprise 165 films, of which 23 are world premieres and more than half of the competition titles are directed by women. ZFF also revealed that Oscar-winning UK actress Olivia Colman will receive an honorary award and Johnny Depp is set to attend the festival with a new documentary.
The feature film competition includes 14 titles that have proved festival highlights and award-winners throughout the year. These include Cannes label and Toronto title Limbo, from UK filmmaker Ben Sharrock, and Venice titles Apples, directed by Christos Nikou; Shorta, by Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid; and The Disciple, by Chaitanya Tamhane.
The competition line-up also includes Yoon Dan-bi’s Moving On, which won four prizes at Busan and the IFFR Bright Future award; Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which picked up a jury prize at Sundance and won director Eliza Hittman a Berlinale Silver Bear; and Cooper Raiff’s Shithouse, which won the SXSW grand jury award.
Equally, the documentary competition includes acclaimed films such as Radu Ciorniciuc’s Acasa, My Home, which has won several festival awards including the cinematography award at Sundance; and Nathan Grossman’s Greta Thunberg film I Am Greta, which debuted at Venice and will screen at TIFF.
ZFF’s Focus competition, which selects first, second or third features from Switzerland, Germany or Austria, includes Visar Morina’s Exile, which debuted at Sundance and recently won the top prize at Sarajevo.
Stars lined up to attend
ZFF said that US actor Johnny Depp would attend the festival as the producer of documentary Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane McGowan, directed by Julien Temple, which will play in the Gala strand.
Other stars set to attend include Juliette Binoche and Til Schweiger, who will both receive honorary Golden Eye awards and present their latest films, respectively How To Be A Good Wife and God, You’re Such a Prick.
Colman, who stars in Netflix drama The Crown and won the best actress Oscar in 2019 for her performance in The Favourite, will also receive an honorary Golden Eye via a live stream. The Father, in which she stars opposite Anthony Hopkins, will screen at the festival and director Florian Zeller will be in attendance.
German actress Iris Berben was also set to receive an honorary award at the festival but accepted it today at the programme launch, as she will be filming in Greece and would need to quarantine in order to enter Zurich. The festival will host the world premiere of her latest feature, Das Unwort.
As previously announced, ZFF’s Gala strand will include Nomadland, The Courier, Regina King’s One Night In Miami and Venice opener The Ties.
ZFF Competition Strands 2020
Feature Film Competition
Apples (Gre)
Dir. Christos Nikou
Charter (Swe)
Dir. Amanda Kernell
Gagarine (Fr)
Dir. Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh
Limbo (UK)
Dir. Ben Sharrock
Moving On (S Kor)
Dir. Yoon Dan-bi
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (US-UK)
Dir. Eliza Hittman
Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time (Hun)
Dir. Lili Horvát
Shithouse (US)
Dir. Cooper Raiff
Shorta (Den)
Dir. Anders Ølholm, Frederik Louis Hviid
Identifying Features (Mex-Sp)
Dir. Fernanda Valadez
Slalom (Fr)
Dir. Charlène Favier
Sweat (Pol-Swe)
Dir. Magnus von Horn
The Disciple (Ind)
Dir. Chaitanya Tamhane
Wildland (Den)
Dir. Jeanette Nordahl
Documentary Competition
76 Days (US)
Dir. Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous
Acasa, My Home (Rom-Fin-Ger)
Dir. Radu Ciorniciuc
I Am Greta (Swe)
Dir. Nathan Grossman
Jacinta (US)
Dir. Jessica Earnshaw
King Of The Cruise (Neth)
Dir. Sophie Dros
La Mami (Mex-Sp)
Dir. Laura Herrero Garvín
Maya (UK)
Dir. Jamshid Mojaddadi, Anson Hartford
Mayor (US)
Dir. David Osit
Songs Of Repression (Den)
Dir. Estephan Wagner, Marianne Hougen-Moraga
The Earth Is Blue As An Orange (Ukr)
Dir. Iryna Tsilyk
The Painter And The Thief (Nor)
Dir. Benjamin Ree
Time (US)
Dir. Garrett Bradley
Focus Competition
80.000 Schnitzel (Ger)
Dir. Hannah Schweier
Beyto (Swi)
Dir. Gitta Gsell
The Last Austrians
Dir. Lukas Pitscheider
Exile (Ger-Bel-Kos)
Dir. Visar Morina
Why Not You (Aus)
Dir. Evi Romen
Mirage (Swi)
Dir. Nina Stefanka
Not Me: A Journey With Not Vital (Swi)
Dir. Pascal Hofmann
Oeconomia (Ger)
Dir. Carmen Losmann
One Of These Days (Ger-US)
Dir. Bastian Günther
Sami, Joe and I
Dir. Karin Heberlein
Grand Écart (Swi)
Dir. Christian Johannes Koch
Wood (Aus-Rom-Ger)
Dir. Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Michaela Kirst, Ebba Sinzinger
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