Swiss films at three major film festivals in North America

Numerous Swiss film productions will be screened at two major American festivals and one Canadian festival in June.

28.05.2010

Numerous Swiss film productions will be screened at two major American festivals and one Canadian festival in June: “Lauras Party” by Simon Jaquemet will be presented in the international competition at the 16th Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival (June 1-6, 2010) and is thus in the running for an award for Best Short Fiction Film, amounting to 2,500 dollars. The 13th Brooklyn International Film Festival (June 4-13, 2010) will present five Swiss film productions in various competitions. Lutz Konermann’s comedy film “Der Fürsorger” is among the 13 feature fiction films in the competition. The short fiction film Along with “Las Pelotas” by Chris Niemeyer and “Ich bin’s Helmut” by Nicolas Steiner, “Le prince du Japon” will celebrate its premiere at the 16th Palm Springs International ShortFest (June 22-28), with the film director Samuel Chalard in attendance.

Screened in the Short Competition at the festival in Brooklyn are the short film "Zahn um Zahn" by Ivana Lalovic and the Swiss coproduction "Ge.hen'nah" by Mauro Müller, as well as "El futuro es hoy" by Sandra Gomez in the documentary film competition, and "Miramare" by Michalea Müller in the Animation Film Competition. This year's Brooklyn International Film Festival is presenting awards amounting to a total of more than 50,000 dollars and screening over 100 films.

The Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto will screen the animation films "Die Kinder im Mond" by Ursula Ulmi and "Le petit dragon" by Bruno Collet in special programmes. This is the most important festival for the short film genre in Canada. It is recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of the festivals whose award-winners (fiction and animation) qualify for an Oscar nomination.

The Palm Springs International Short Film Festival presents a selection of some 300 films from 40 countries. Parallel to the festival is the film market, with 2,700 productions. As with the festival in Toronto, the award-winners automatically qualify for an Academy Award nomination (short film categories).

Geneva/Zurich, May 28, 2010