Swiss Industry Information: Fast & Furious Funding for Shorts? (de/en

10:00–11:15

What funding measures exist in Switzerland that allow fast production processes for short films? Unlike the annual «Fast Track» competition by Zürcher Filmstiftung, the funding initiative «Collection Lockdown» by SRG/SSR is not a recurring programme, but both are examples of projects that aim to realize existing ideas quickly. How important is it, in turn, to invest in long-term planning? What measures of promotion and funding exist for the sustained development of short films? What are the pros and cons of these two approaches – «fast and furious» versus «calm and composed»? And what implications and experiences need to be taken into account?

Moderator

Lucie Bader (SUI), Cinébulletin

Lucie Bader has been the publishing director of Cinébulletin since 2014. She is a film lecturer at the University of Fribourg and at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies (CTLS) in London. She is also a member of national and international film juries and of the Swiss Film Academy.

Speakers

Matthias Christen (SUI), BAK

Matthias Christen has been head of film funding at the Federal Office of Culture since 2016. He studied history, geography, and sociology at the University of Bern, and holds a CAS NPO management from the University of Fribourg. From 2010 to 2013, he was an academic associate and project manager at the Universities of Berne and Zurich. From 2013 to 2016, he coordinated the transition from Erasmus to Erasmus+.

Julia Krättli (SUI), Zürcher Filmstiftung

Julia has been the managing director of the Zurich Film Fund since 2019. Previously, she managed a company for visual communication that she had co-founded, working with film, illustrations, visualization, and gamification. Their customers included large international firms. She holds a degree in art history and German philology from the University of Basel, as well as a degree in culture management from the University of St. Gallen.

Patrizia Pesko (SUI), Ciné Forom

Patrizia graduated from the Università Cattolica in Milan with a film history degree in 1997. From 1993 to 1999, she worked in the press office of the Locarno Film Festival. From 1999 to 2008, she was a commissioning editor for fiction, animation, and documentary at RSI – Radiotelevisione svizzera (Swiss Television SRG SSR). From 2003 to 2006, she was a member of the shorts selection committee at the Locarno Film Festival. From 2008 to 2012, she was consultant for Swiss films and crossmedia projects at the SRG SSR headquarters in Bern. Since April 2012, she has been the deputy secretary general and head of film funding at Cinéforom – Fondation romande pour le cinéma (regional film fund for the French-speaking part of Switzerland).

Nadine Adler Spiegel (SUI), Migros Kulturprozent

Nadine Adler Spiegel manages the Migros-Kulturprozent Story Lab, a new laboratory for audiovisual narrative formats founded in 2021. She has been working for Switzerland’s largest private cultural funding institution for seven years. Previously, she conceived and ran marketing campaigns for various distributors and production companies. With her background in film studies and German literature, her career has also included numerous engagements at film festivals, in cinemas, and in editorial teams.

Sven Wälti (SUI), SRG SSR

Since 2012, Sven Wälti has been head of coproductions for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR in Bern. He is in charge of the «Pacte de l’audiovisuel», a national coproduction agreement between SRG SSR and independent Swiss producers. He is also a member of the Federal Film Commission (EFiK) and of ARTE’s programme committee.