Catherine Ann Berger appointed director of SWISS FILMS

Thirty-eight applications were submitted for the vacant position of director at SWISS FILMS. Following a multistage selection procedure, the Board of Trustees decided on Catherine Ann Berger. Josefa Haas, President of SWISS FILMS: “Catherine Ann Berger’s professional, conceptual and communicative competencies will contribute to the future development of the promotion agency. We are looking forward to her commitment to SWISS FILMS.”

Catherine Ann Berger currently works as the editor for coproductions and Pacte de l’audiovisuel (animation films) at Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) and as an independent script consultant for international fiction and documentary film productions. She is a board member of Theater Neumarkt in Zurich and active in numerous commissions in Switzerland and abroad: i.e. the screenplay department at the Austrian Film Institute and in the Script Coaching Pool at Focal, among others. She regularly assumes the role of moderator at film festivals in Switzerland, for example, for the Film Club at the Solothurn Film Festival, the Master Classes at the Zurich Film Festival or the Film Industry Day at Fantoche.

Catherine Ann Berger, born in 1965, with Swiss and English nationality, obtained her degree in Theatre and Film Studies from the University of Vienna (lic.phil.I). She moderated the “Kulturzeit” programme on 3sat (1997 – 2003) and worked as a film critic for Swiss Television. Following her studies as script consultant, she worked as a producer at Catpics Coproductions and was the co-author of the screenplay for “Die Herbstzeitlosen” (director: Bettina Oberli). She led the Discussion Panel Forum at the Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon together with Jean Perret for many years.

Catherine Ann Berger: “A new and exciting responsibility awaits me, one that I will tackle with elan and conviction. I’m looking forward to pooling all of my previous professional experience and utilising it for the presence of Swiss filmmaking here at home and around the world together with Swiss Films.”

The SWISS FILMS Foundation is the promotion agency for Swiss filmmaking. As a partner to Swiss filmmakers, it reinforces the visibility and positive awareness of Switzerland’s film culture at home and abroad. The foundation’s primary tasks include the dissemination, cultural promotion and provision of information on Swiss filmmaking. SWISS FILMS directs its activities towards film distributors, media professionals, special-interest groups, cultural institutions and sectors of the general public interested in film. The foundation has a performance-based contract with the Federal Office of Culture.

Zurich, March 26, 2013