Suspenseful anticipation of the Swiss Film PrizeNominations for 2001 made public

22.12.2000

The Swiss Film Prize, which was initiated in 1998, honours exceptional achievements in acting and filmmaking. It is becoming increasingly well known and has gained growing national and international interest. Among the winners of this prize have been films by renowned filmmakers such as Léa Pool, Marcel Gisler, Clemens Klopfenstein, Jacqueline Veuve, and Samir, as well as works by up-and-coming talents such as Stina Werenfels and Esen Isik. The scope of the prize has been considerably extended this year, the fourth since its inception, with the inclusion of the award for "Best Actress" and "Best Actor".
The Swiss Film Prize will be awarded for the fourth time in conjunction with the Solothurn Film Festival in January 2001. Announcing the nominations for the Swiss Film Prize 2001 affirms which films, and which actors and actresses, have been submitted by the sponsoring organisations for awards in the five different categories of "Best Actress" and "Best Actor", "Best Fiction Film", "Best Documentary Film" and "Best Short Film". The jury, presided over by the actor and cabaret artist from Lucerne, Emil Steinberger, will select the winners of the prize from the nominations. The sum of the film prizes amounts to a total of 150,000 CHF.

Interest in the nominations has increased steadily since the inception of the film prize. Late autumn of each year is met with anticipation and speculation within the film scene - who will or will not make it this year. The nomination for the Swiss Film Prize is now considered a stamp of quality approval.

The Swiss Film Prize - initiated in and organised since 1998 in collaboration with the Federal Office for Culture, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR idée suisse), the Solothurn Film Festival, the Nyon Documentary Film Festival "Visions du Réel", the Locarno International Film Festival, and the Swiss Film Center - distinguishes outstanding Swiss films, as well as honouring the filmmakers for their current work. Recognising exceptional artistic merits achieved by an actress or actor, either of Swiss nationality or residing permanently in Switzerland, was newly introduced with the award in 2000 in connection with Swissperform (Swiss actors' rights society), and was extremely well received by the public and within the film industry.

SWISS FILM PRIZE 2001 - the six sponsoring organisations have nominated the following films for the category of "Best Fiction Film", for which a sum of CHF 50,000 is allocated: "Azzurro" by Denis Rabaglia, "Gripsholm" by Xavier Koller, "Komiker" by Markus Imboden, "Pane e tulipani" (Bread and Tulips) by Silvio Soldini and "WerAngstWolf" (WhoAfraidWolf) by Clemens Klopfenstein. Nominated for the category of "Best Documentary Film", for which another sum of CHF 50,000 is allocated, are: "El Acordeón del diablo" (The Devil’s Accordion) by Stefan Schwietert, "Addio Lugano bella" by Francesca Solari, "Les Bas-fonds" by Denise Gilliand, "Blue End" by Kaspar Kasics and "Do It" by Sabine Gisiger and Marcel Zwingli. The films submitted for the "Best Short Film" prize, which is set at a sum of CHF 20,000, are: "L’arrivée" (The Arrival) by Fernand Melgar, "Château de sable" (Sandcastle) by François Rossier, "Ich habe getötet" (I killed people) by Alice Schmid, "Summertime" by Anna Luif and "Tout est bien" by Vincent Pluss.

Nominated for the "Best Actress" and "Best Actor" awards, each of which is allocated with a sum of CHF 15,000, are Stephanie Glaser for her role as Eli Beck in "Komiker" (Director: Markus Imboden), Dominique Reymond as Julie Desca in "Les Destinées sentimentales" (Director: Olivier Assayas), and Sabine Timoteo as Marie in "L'amour, l'argent, l'amour" (Director: Philipp Gröning). The nominated actors are: Pinkas Braun for his role as Max Wiederkehr in "Komiker", Bruno Ganz as Fernando the waiter in "Pane e tulipani" (Director: Silvio Soldini), and Roger Jendly as Décosterd in "La Beauté sur la terre" (Director: Antoine Plantevin). Swissperform also participated in determining the nominees for this category.

The prizes will be awarded by a 5-member jury on Wednesday, 24. January 2001, in connection with the Solothurn Film Festival. The members of the jury, presided over by author, actor and cabaret artist Emil Steinberger, include for the first time a winner of the Swiss Film Prize - the film director Marcel Gisler, who is from East Switzerland and resides in Berlin, and won the prize for "The Best Fiction Film" in 1999 for "F. est un salaud". The other jury members include actress Tonia Maria Zindel, who was nominated last year for the "Best Actress" award, film distributor Hélène Cardis, Jean-Henry Papilloud, Director of the "Centre Valaisan de l’image et du son", as well as film publicist and distributor Walter Ruggle.

Zurich, 13. November 2000
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