SWISS FILMS Info
SWISS FILMS Info 2012
Swiss film productions are regularly invited to the major A-category festivals in Venice, Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Locarno – and these films have the best chances of being screened in cinemas beyond the Swiss border and on television. In 2011/2012 this proved to be true with such films as “Abrir puertas y ventanas” (Back To Stay), “Summer Games”, “Sister”, “Die Kinder vom Napf” and “The Substance.”
SWISS FILMS facilitates worldwide intermediation and promotion by providing distribution support and compiling film programmes in collaboration with renowned festival and event organisers. More insight into the combined film promotion provided by SWISS FILMS can be found in the essay “More film culture!”
SWISS FILMS Info 2011
This issue illustrates facts and figures and offers an insight into the film programmes initiated by SWISS FILMS over the last five years. The journalist Brigitte Häring visited a project in Beijing and reports on the dialogue between Swiss and Chinese cineastes. In 2010, SWISS FILMS actively supported the distribution of 20 fiction films, 40 documentaries and 50 short films and granted some 60 films funds for participation in a festival. 18 international cinema premieres were supported. In addition to this international promotional work, SWISS FILMS strengthened awareness within Switzerland through effective public relations events: Through the “Appellations Suisse” series at the film festival in Locarno which, the Short Film Night Tour and the Swiss Film Prize «Quartz».
SWISS FILMS Info 2010
Swiss film productions move the audience. Christoph Schaub's comedy "Giulias Verschwinden", which celebrated its premiere on the Piazza Grande in Locarno in 2009 and won the Audience Prize, has already caught the eye of more than 180'000 viewers in Switzerland. The film went on to enthuse a quarter of a million viewers in Germany and Austria as well. Swiss documentary films are widely appreciated on a national and international level. Not only do they attract large audiences in cinemas, for example, "Die Frau mit den 5 Elefanten", but also enjoy tremendous success at festivals, for instance, "Aisheen (Still Alive In Gaza)". Moreover, Michael Steiner's filming of the Alpine legend "Sennentuntschi" has filled many a film aficionado with great expectations.
Discover the facts & figures for Swiss filmmaking 2009-2010. SWISS FILMS moving movies!
SWISS FILMS Info 2009
Facts & Figures 2008: The star of the cinema last year was "Home". Ursula Meier's first film for the cinema débuted in Cannes and went on to capture the hearts of viewers far beyond the Swiss border. Further bright spots in terms of international attention were "Un autre homme", "Der Freund" and "Fuori dalle corde". The highlights came from all regions throughout Switzerland, with the French-speaking region of Switzerland gaining exceptional ground in terms of both film production and audience interest. Digital cinema opens up new possibilities for distribution. More about the status of digital cinema in Switzerland is provided in the feature article of this issue.
SWISS FILMS Info 2008
Although the resonance which Swiss film productions experienced with the audience in 2006 maintained a steady course in 2007, major successes failed to emerge, especially in the cinema. Public appeal from abroad stemmed less from local blockbusters than from independent films with powerful themes and form. There are indeed beacons of hope on the Swiss horizon, several films which should be taken seriously. The tradition of high-quality documentary films, whose aesthetic strongly influences the fiction films being produced in this country, represents the particularly fertile basis on which Swiss filmmaking may thrive.
In the feature article of this issue of SWISS FILMS Info, film historian Marcy Goldberg examines how films made by the current generation of filmmakers relate to and diverge from the "New Swiss Cinema" of the 1970s.
SWISS FILMS Info 2007
The year 2006 was indeed a breakthrough for Swiss films. The growing popularity among the public, which had already begun in 2005, was transformed into a plebiscite in 2006. Five Swiss films exceeded the mark of 100'000 admissions and contributed to a substantial portion of Switzerland's share in the market: almost 10%, an all-time record.
In the SWISS FILMS Info magazine SWISS FILMS does publish all the numbers and the comments about last year's (2006) swiss movies and sheds more light on the wealth of contrasts of today's reality and the chances of having Swiss films distributed in our neighbouring country to the north.
SWISS FILMS Info 2006
The years 2005 and - it is already certain! - 2006 will both go down as record years in the annals of Swiss film: with an uninterrupted series of success on the domestic market, a confidence has become apparent, a confidence which presses incessantly forward and seeks confirmation at international film festivals and markets. Behind the abstract figures of market shares and festival participation presented in this issue of SWISS FILMS Info are filmmakers whose faces embody this upswing in public. Their names are...
SWISS FILMS Info 2005
A great deal of attention has been paid to the production of short films in Switzerland in this issue of SWISS FILMS Info. It is not only the number of films produced which is impressive, but also the degree of interest shown by the viewers, who are discovering the "short form" with increasing delight: be it in the cinema as an introductory program, at festivals or at special events such as the "Short Film Night", which is organised by SWISS FILMS and scheduled to take place in different cities throughout Switzerland for the third time. Internationally, Swiss short films have also enjoyed success...
SWISS FILMS Info 2004 (formerly: Newsletter)
The facts and figures on filmmaking and the cinema in Switzerland for the year 2003 which are presented in this Newsletter are distinct for two reasons. Firstly, the impact of the decline in attendance figures for the cinema recorded throughout Europe was also felt in Switzerland and secondly, with 5.95 percent, Swiss filmmaking secured a significant part of the market for the first time in years. More information in our Newsletter ISSUE 2_2004.
SWISS FILMS Info 2003 (formerly: Newsletter)
For the fifth time, the Swiss Film Center is publishing statistics and commentaries on Swiss produced films from the previous year (2002). The 14-page brochure contains an article by Justine Moreau who, with her diploma work at the University of Paris, VIII, conducted a comparative study of Swiss film distribution in relation to other European nations.
SWISS FILMS Info 2002 (formerly: Newsletter)
In this edition of the Newsletter, we take a look back at a year of film in Switzerland which was characterised by contrast. Nevertheless, the public interest stimulated by, for example, the documentary film "War Photographer" by Christian Frei - nominated for an Oscar - allows the hope that the cinema can be not only a means of evasion, but also of understanding the complex and sometimes dismal realities of this world.
This 14-page publication also contains the reflections by Thomas Schärer, scientific staff member at the "Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst" in Zurich and co-director of the "Critic' Week" in Locarno, concerning Swiss documentary filmmaking, whose thematic diversity and high-ranking quality is recognised far beyond our national borders.
SWISS FILMS Info 2001 (formerly: Newsletter)
In our first newsletter two years ago we deplored the scarcity of available data on films in Switzerland. This void has now been filled to a great extent by a study published last autumn by Heinz Rütter and Vinciane Vouets entitled "Schweizer Filmbranche und Filmförderung: Volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung und europäischer Vergleich" (Swiss films and film promotion: the branch's importance to the economy, and compared to the rest of Europe).
Using the facts and figures now available we shall again attempt to shed light on various aspects of Swiss film production today and to "take the pulse" of the industry in the year 2000.