Zurich Film Festival

Zürich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Zürich at the end of September since 2005. The ZFF has developed rapidly in the few years since its foundation and now attracts a total of more than 90.000 visitors. The 13th Zürich Film Festival takes place from September 28 - October 8, 2017.

The festival focuses on the presentation and promotion of new director's talent from around the world. Only first, second or third directing works are eligible to enter the three competition categories. Particular emphasis is placed on the discovery of new talent from the German-speaking world, with a separate competition category created solely for this purpose. Films in the competition line-up, as well as those from established filmmakers, are generally presented in person by the film’s creators. In addition to its multifaceted film programme, the festival is also renowned for its top-class side-events programme, which includes the Zürich Master Class and the international Zürich SUMMIT – events that make ZFF one of the most important international film industry hubs. The main festival award is the Golden Eye, which is awarded in the three competition categories and to the festival’s guests of honour.

The ZFF is organised by Zürich Film Festival AG and Spoundation Motion Picture AG in cooperation with local institutes and sponsors, and collaborates with domestic and international distributors and producers. The idea to create an international film festival was the brainchild of Karl Spoerri, who founded the festival together with Nadja Schildknecht and Antoine Monot Jr.. Karl Spoerri (Artistic and Strategic Director) and Nadja Schildknecht (Managing Director) are the festival’s current Co-Directors.

In 2004, Karl Spoerri and Tim Geser invited the renowned English digital film festival "onedotzero_adventures in moving image" to Zürich, where it was the guest of Zürich University of the Arts from October 29 – 31, 2004. This small-scale event developed into the Zürich Film Festival and brought together its core team.

In the spring of 2005, Karl Spoerri, Nadja Schildknecht and Antoine Monot, Jr. founded Spoundation Motion Picture GmbH, which has since been responsible for implementing the Zürich Film Festival and is currently managed by Karl Spoerri and Nadja Schildknecht. Karl Spoerri is the ZFF’s Artistic Director.

Theatres 1 – 6 at the cinema Plaza in Zürich’s district 4 provided the venues for the 1st Zürich Film Festival (October 5 – 9, 2005). The festival focussed on “Debuts” and screened approx. 8 premieres in one competition category. Further film line-ups included “Debut Classics” and “Züri Bellevue”. The first festival was well received by the public and attracted 8’000 visitors – the press and film industry reacted with initial scepticism towards the young event.

...
Wikipedia