Strong Swiss presence at short film festival in Saguenay

Switzerland will be represented with eleven entries at the International Short Film Festival in Saguenay, Canada.

12.03.2013

Switzerland will be represented with eleven entries at the International Short Film Festival in Saguenay, Canada. Tamer Ruggli’s “Hazel” and Kristina Wagenbauer’s “Mila” will be screened in the International Competition. The two directors will present their works personally at the festival. Swiss director Peter Volkart from Zurich will also be attending the festival in conjunction with the retrospective paying tribute to him.

Eleven Swiss film productions will be screened at the International Short Film Festival in Saguenay (March 13-17, 2013), the most important festival for the short film genre in francophone Canada. Two short fiction films will be in the running for the international Grand Prize awarded by the City of Saguenay, endowed with 5,000 Canadian dollars (approximately CHF 4,600): “Hazel” by Tamer Ruggli; and the Canadian-Swiss coproduction “Mila” by Montreal-based Swiss director Kristina Wagenbauer. Both directors will attend the festival to present their films personally. In addition, four animation films from Switzerland will be presented in special programmes, including the festival favourite “Bon voyage” by Bernese director Fabio Friedli and Lena von Döhren’s multi-award-winning “Der kleine Vogel und das Blatt.”

Peter Volkart retrospective
The Canadian festival has devoted a retrospective to the 55-year-old graphic designer and filmmaker from Zurich, Peter Volkart. It has been organised in collaboration with SWISS FILMS, the promotion agency, and comprises five of his whimsical short films. Two of these films are “Terra incognita,” which was honoured with the Swiss Film Prize in 2006, and his most recent film “Zimmer 606,” which launched its very successful festival career at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival last year. Peter Volkart will travel to Québec to present his films personally at the festival.

Zurich, March 12, 2013