Swiss box-office hits Grounding - The Last Days Of Swissair, Mein Name Ist Eugen and Vitus are among 14 films nominated for a new Audience Award launched by Swiss Television SF and the internet portal Bluewin to coincide with their free-TV premieres during 2007.

After each airing in Sunday evening prime-time slots, viewers will able to rate the film by phone, SMS or Internet. At the end of the year, the film with the best rating will receive an Audience Award worth $24,700 (CHF 30,000), to be shared equally between the director and screenwriter.

In addition, an Audience Award worth $16,500 (CHF 20,000) will be presented to the producer of the film that is seen by the most viewers.

The SF co-productions nominated for this new award also include Bettina Oberli's Late Bloomers (Die Herbstzeitlosen) which is being released in Germany on March 29 by X Verleih. This comedy, which was premiered on Locarno's Piazza Grande last August, has now become the fourth most successful Swiss film of all time with over 510,000 admissions from its release in German-speaking Switzerland alone (it opened in the French-speaking part last week).

The nominated films are:

Kleine Fische, dir: Petra Volpe (screening date: 1.4.)

Briefe Und Andere Geheimnisse, dir: Judith Kennel (15.4.)

Nebenwirkungen, dir: Manuel Siebenmann (29.4.)

Mein Name Ist Eugen, dir. Michael Steiner (27.5.)

Liebe Und Wahn, dir: Mike Huber (10.6.)

Undercover, dir: Sabine Boss (1.7.)

Kein Zurueck - Studers Neuester Fall, dir: Sabine Boss (19.8.)

Snow White, dir: Samir (2.9.)

Tod In Der Lochmatt, dir: Daniel Helfer (16.9.)

Jeune Homme, dir: Christoph Schaub (30.9.)

Die Herbstzeitlosen, dir: Bettina Oberli (14.10.)

Grounding, dir: Michael Steiner (9.12.)

Handyman, dir: Juerg Ebe (16.12.)

Vitus, dir: Fredi M. Murer (23.12.)

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