Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone is to receive the Golden Icon Award which is presented for the first time in recognition of an actor or actress's life's work at this year's Zurich Film Festival (Sept25 to October 5).

The award ceremony on Sept 26 will be accompanied by a small retrospective of the Rocky films, First Blood and Copland and followed the next day by Stallone speaking to the participants of the Zurich Master Class about his experiences in the fields of acting, screenwriting and direction.

The dynamic young festival had already announced that veteran UK filmmaker Ken Loach, Norway's Bent Hamer, the Chinese composer Tan Dun (Hero), and German director Andreas Dresen (Cloud 9) and his 'regular' producer Peter Rommel have been recruited as speakers for the Master Class.

This year's festival will once again host the Zurich Producers' Forum from Sept29-Oct 1 with support from the Zurich Film Foundation and Switzerland's Federal Office for Culture (BAK).

Experienced producers, screenwriters and financiers from Switzerland, Austria, and Germany will have an opportunity to discuss the co-production potential of German language feature film projects in one-to-one meetings.

Meanwhile, James Toback will be the subject of a retrospective at next month's Filmfest Oldenburg (Sept 10-14), including the German premiere of his documentary Tyson and screenings of Fingers (1979), Love And Money (1982), Exposed (1983) and When Will I Be Loved (2004).

As in previous years, an international jury will decide in Oldenburg on the winner of the German Independence Award - Best German Film.

The five nominated films are: Morscholz by Timo Müller; Revanche by Götz Spielmann; 10 Seconds (10 Sekunden) by Nikolai Rohde; Die Glücklichen by Hans Georg Schütte; and The Stranger In Me (Das Fremde In Mir) by Emily Atef.

The programme for Oldenburg's 15th edition will also include Mike Figgis' Love Live Long, Brian de Palms's Redacted, Jada Pinkett Smith's The Human Contract, Chris Eigemann's Turn The River and Ben Rodkin's Big Heart City.

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