SWISS FILMS in Toronto 2016

Toronto

T eam

TABLE OF CONTENTS

in Toronto 2016 SWISS FILMS Desk in Toronto 2016 Visit us at booth #5 in the Industry Office Location at The Hyatt Regency Hotel King Ballroom, 370 King Street West

SWISS FILMS at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival Catherine Ann Berger Managing Director caberger@swissfilms.ch T +41 76 368 02 65

Annick Mahnert Foreign Representative Festivals & Markets amahnert@swissfilms.ch T +33 6 37 12 81 36

TIFF Discovery

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TIFF KIDS

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TIFF Market

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TIFF Docs

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Festival Favourites Documentary Festival Favourites Fiction

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Coming Soon

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Producers Lab

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Cover: MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE by Claude Barras Back Cover: MARIJA by Michael Koch

T I F F D isc o ve r y Sept. 12 Sept. 13 Sept. 14 Sept. 18

6:45 PM 7:15 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 AM

TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3 Scotiabank 7 (Press & Industry) Scotiabank 9 Scotiabank 10

Marija Michael Koch

Germany / Switzerland Fiction, 2016, 100 min.

Original languages: German / Russian World premiere: Festival del film Locarno 2016 Cast: Margarita Breitkreiz / Georg Friedrich / Sahin Eryilmaz / Olga Dinnikova Production: Pandora Film Produktion, Cologne Hugofilm Productions GmbH, Zurich Little Shark Entertainment, Cologne in coproduction with: WDR ARTE SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR World Sales: Luxbox, Paris www.luxboxfilms.com

Marija, a young Ukrainian woman, earns her living as a hotel maid in Dortmund, Germany, but dreams of owning her own hair salon. She puts money aside each month but when she is fired without notice, her dream seems out of reach.

Without work and under financial pressure, she finds herself forced to look for other opportunities. In her determination to reach her goal she sacrifices her body, her social relationships and her own feelings.

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* 1982 in Lucerne. Michael Koch worked as an actor from 1999–2006. In 2008 he graduated from the KHM (Kunsthochschule für Medien) Film and Television department in Cologne. His short films were shown and awarded at various film festivals. His graduation film POLAR (2008) received a special mention from the jury at the Berlinale in 2009 and won the German Short film Award.

MARIJA is Koch’s first feature film.

TIFF KIDS Sept. 8 Sept. 10 Sept. 18

5:00 PM 4:45 PM 12:30 PM

Scotiabank 3 (Press & Industry) Scotiabank 14 TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3

My Life As A Courgette Ma vie de Courgette Claude Barras Switzerland's submission for the 89th Academy Awards ®

* 1973 in Sierre. Claude Barras studied illustration and infographics at École Emile Cohl in Lyon and computer graphics at ECAL in Lausanne. He has already made several award-winning short animation films: ICE FLOE (2005) was presented in the International Short Film Competition in Cannes, while festival hit LE GÉNIE DE LA BOÎTE DE RAVIOLIS (2006) screened at more than 50 festivals. MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE celebrated its world premiere in Cannes, won two awards at Annecy and is Switzerland’s official submission for the 89th Academy Awards ®.

Courgette is a rather unusual nickname for a 9-year-old boy but his unique story is surprisingly universal. After his mother’s sudden death, Courgette is befriended by a kind police officer Raymond, who accompanies Courgette to his new foster home filled with other orphans his age. At first Courgette struggles to find his place in this strange, at times, hostile environment.

Yet with Raymond’s help and his new found friends, he eventually learns to trust, finds true love and at last a new family of his own.

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Switzerland / France Stop Motion, 2016, 66 min.

Original language: French World premiere: Cannes 2016 (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs) Production: Rita Productions, Geneva Blue Spirit Productions, Paris Gébéka Films, Lyon KNM, Monte Carlo RTS Radio Télévision Suisse Rhône Alpes Cinéma, Villeurbanne Canal + France 3 Hélium Films, Lausanne World Sales: Indie Sales, Paris T +33 1 44 83 02 27 www.indiesales.eu North American Distributor: TBA

T I F F M a r ket Sept. 11 Sept. 12

12:00 PM 9:00 AM

TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 5 TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 5

Moka Frédéric Mermoud

France / Switzerland Fiction, 2016, 92 min.

Original language: French World premiere: Festival del film Locarno 2016 Cast: Emmanuelle Devos / Nathalie Baye Production: Diligence Films, Paris Bande à part Films, Lausanne Tabo Tabo Films, Paris Sampek Productions, Paris RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Sales: Pyramide International, Paris T +33 1 42 96 02 20 www.pyramidefilms.com

Diane Kramer is led by one obsession: to find the driver of the mocha color Mercedes which hit her son and devastated her life. With a few belongings, some money and a gun, she goes to Evian, where she's learned the driver lives. But sometimes, the path of revenge is more tortuous than it seems … Diane will have to face another woman, friendly and mysterious.

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* 1969 in Switzerland. Frédéric Mermoud's short film THE STAIRCASE (2003) won Best Short Film at the Swiss Film Awards in 2004. In 2010 he won the Swiss Film Award in the category Best Screenplay for COMPLICES (2009), a French-Swiss coproduction which premiered in Locarno.

Together with Ursula Meier, Lionel Baier and Jean-Stéphane Bron he cofounded Bande à part Films, Lausanne. MOKA won the Variety Piazza Grande Award at Festival del film Locarno.

TIFF DOCS Sept. 10 Sept. 11 Sept. 12 Sept. 14 Sept. 16

9:00 PM 2:00 PM 3:30 PM 1:45 PM 9:00PM

TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 2 Scotiabank 3 (Press & Industry) Scotiabank 3 Scotiabank 8 (Press & Industry) Scotiabank 1

I Am Not Your Negro Raoul Peck

® Dan Budnik

* 1953 in Haiti. From 1980-85 Raoul Peck worked as a journalist and photographer.

In 1988 he graduated from the DFFB (German Film and Television Academy) Berlin. His many films include HAITIAN CORNER (1988), THE MAN ON THE SHORE (1993), SOMETIMES IN APRIL (2005) and the documentary FATAL ASSISTANCE (2013). His films LUMUMBA (2000) and MURDER IN PACOT (2014) screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is his latest feature.

Told entirely in the words of James Baldwin, through both personal appearances and the text of his final unfinished book project, this documentary touches on the tragic deaths of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers to bring powerful clarity to how the image and reality of Blacks in America today is fabricated and enforced.

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France / USA / Belgium / Switzerland Documentary, 2016, 92 min.

Original language: English World premiere: Toronto 2016 Production: Velvet Film, Paris / New York Artémis Productions, Brussels Close Up Films, Geneva ITVS International ARTE RTBF RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Rights: Velvet Film, Paris T +33 9 51 97 43 30 contact@velvet-film.com

Festival Favourites

Documentary

Raving Iran Susanne Regina Meures

Switzerland Documentary, 2016, 84 min.

Original languages: Persian / English / Swiss-German World premiere: Visions du Réel Nyon 2016 Production: Christian Frei Filmproduktion GmbH, Zurich Zürcher Hochschule der Künste SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen 3sat Zurich World Sales: Rise And Shine World Sales UG, Berlin T +49 30 47 37 29 80 www.riseandshine-berlin.com

Anoosh and Arash are at the centre of Tehran’s underground techno scene. Tired of hiding from the police and their stagnating career, they organize one last manic techno rave under dangerous circumstances in the desert. Back in Tehran they try their luck selling their illegally printed music album without permission. When Anoosh is arrested, there seems to be no hope left. But then they receive a phone call from the biggest techno festival in the world. Once landed in Switzerland, the haze of the instant euphoria evaporates quickly when the seriousness of the situation starts to dawn on them. www.ravingiran.com

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* 1977 in Germany. Susanne Regina Meures studied Photography and Art History in London 2000–06. She received a Master’s degree in Film from the University of the Arts in Zürich (ZHdK). RAVING IRAN is her first feature film which has been shown at various inter­ national film festivals and won several awards such as Best Int. Documentary at Guanajuato International Film Festival.

Festival Favourites

Documentary

Spira Mirabilis Massimo D'Anolfi / Martina Parenti

Massimo D’Anolfi * 1974 in Italy Martina Parenti * 1972 in Italy Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti have been making films together for the past decade. They have shared the development, research, writing, production, filming and editing of several acclaimed documentary films such as THE CASTLE (2011) which was selected at international festivals such as Visions du Réel, Hot Docs Toronto, EIDF, Montreal and was awarded at Hot Docs with the Special Jury Prize among others.

The filmmakers pay tribute to humankind's aspirations for immortality by showing us a portrait of our efforts to overcome our own limits.

They share their discoveries in a visual symphony to the power and harmony of nature's elements: water, earth, air and fire. From Milan to Wounded Knee, USA, from Bern to Shirahama, Japan, the traces of the filmmakers' travels spiral into a symbol of perfection and infinity: Spira Mirabilis.

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Italy / Switzerland Documentary, 2016, 121 min.

Original languages: North American Indian / Swiss-German / English / French / Japanese World premiere: Venice 2016 Production: Montmorency Film, Milan Lomotion AG Filmproduktion, Bern SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR RAI Cinema World Sales: The Match Factory GmbH, Cologne T +49 221 539 70 90 www.the-match-factory.com

Festival Favourites

Documentary

The Chinese Lives Of Uli Sigg Michael Schindhelm

Switzerland Documentary, 2016, 93 min.

Original languages: Swiss-German / German / English / Chinese Festival del film Locarno 2016 Production: T&C Film AG, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen RTS Radio Télévision Suisse RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera World Sales: Autlook Filmsales GmbH, Vienna T +43 720 34 69 34 www.autlookfilms.com

The Swiss Uli Sigg had an impact on China’s shifting economic policy after the Mao era. He has also established the world’s most significant collection of contemporary Chinese art.

The majority of this collection will be transfer­ red to Hong Kong’s M+ museum, due to open in 2019. A documentary about the entrepreneur, diplomat and art collector Uli Sigg in the tense and ongoing transformation of Chinese society from the late 1970s until today. www.ulisiggmovie.com

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* 1960 in Germany. Michael Schindhelm is a writer, filmmaker, performing arts expert and cultural advisor for international organisations. He worked also as playwright, television presenter and translator.

His previous film BIRD’S NEST (2008), co-directed with Christoph Schaub, on the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in China was screened at several international festivals.

Festival Favourites

Fictio n

Aloys Tobias Nölle

* 1976 in Zurich. Tobias Nölle studied film at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

His short film RENÉ (2008) was screened at numerous festivals worldwide and won several awards such as the Pardino d’oro in Locarno for the Best Swiss Short. Nölle is one of the directors of WONDERLAND, which premiered at the Festival del film Locarno 2015 (International Competition). ALOYS is his first feature, which he wrote, directed and edited. It premiered at the Berlinale 2016 where it won the FIPRESCI Award.

Aloys Adorn is a middle aged private detective who experiences life from a safe distance, through a video camera he keeps recording 24 hours a day. After a night of heavy drinking, Aloys wakes up on a public bus to find that his camera and observation tapes have been stolen.

Soon after he is contacted by a mysterious woman who pulls him into a mind game known as ‘telephone walking’. Fascinated by her voice, Aloys discovers an imaginary universe that allows him to break out of his isolation. www.facebook.com/aloysfilm

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Switzerland / France Fiction, 2016, 91 min.

Original languages: German / Swiss-German World premiere: Berlinale 2016 Cast: Georg Friedrich / Tilde von Overbeck Production: Hugofilm Productions GmbH, Zurich Petit Film, Paris SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR ARTE World Sales: New Europe Film Sales, Warsaw T +48 600 173 205 jan@neweuropefilmsales.com www.neweuropefilmsales.com

Festival Favourites

Ficti on

The Idea Of A Lake La idea de un lago

Milagros Mumenthaler

Switzerland / Argentina Fiction, 2016, 82 min.

Original language: Spanish World premiere: Festival del film Locarno 2016 Cast: Carla Crespo / Rosario Bléfari Production: Alina film Sarl, Geneva RTS Radio Télévision Suisse Ruda cine, Buenos Aires World Rights: Alina film Sarl, Geneva T +41 76 372 21 96 info@alinafilm.com www.alinafilm.com and Ruda cine, Buenos Aires www.rudacine.com.ar

Inès, 35 years old, is a photographer. She is in an emotionally fragile phase and begins putting together a book of personal poems and photographs. Gradually, the process of bringing a book to fruition becomes a very personal and unfettered exploration of her past: of her relationship with her mother; the role of the family home in the south, which seems to have been frozen in time; and how the absence of her father – who disappeared in 1977 during the dictatorship – influenced all of those years.

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* 1977 in Argentina. Joint Swiss and Argentinian citizenship. Milagros Mumenthaler received her degree in film directing from the Universidad del Cine Buenos Aires in 2005. She has directed four short films, selected and awarded at many festivals. Her first feature ABRIR PUERTAS Y VENTANAS (2011), developed at the Cannes residence Cinéfondation, won the Pardo d’oro at the Festival del film Locarno and was screened at numerous international festivals.

C o mi n g S o o n

Expected November 2016

Dark Fortune Finsteres Glück Stefan Haupt

* 1961 in Zurich. Stefan Haupt is especially known for THE CIRCLE (2014), Switzerland’s Official Submission for Foreign Lan‑ guage Film at the 87th Academy Awards®, and was honoured with the Panorama Audience Award and the Teddy Award at the Berlinale. Also his successful documentaries SAGRADA (2012) and ELISABETH KÜBLER-ROSS (2003) have been shown and awarded worldwide. His latest film DARK FORTUNE is based on the well-known novel by Swiss author Lukas Hartmann.

Late at night, the psychologist Eliane Hess is called to the hospital to take care of Yves, an eight-year-old boy, who just has lost his parents and siblings in a car accident. Eliane is both shocked and curiously drawn to the traumatized boy. As time goes by, she loses the professional distance to the patient, and when Yves’ relatives begin a heavy dispute about the boy's future, Eliane makes an unorthodox decision, that throws her life off track.

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Switzerland Fiction, 114 min.

Original language: Swiss-German Cast: Eleni Haupt / Noé Ricklin / Elisa Plüss / Chiara Carla Bär / Martin Hug / Peter Jecklin / Alice Flotron / Rebecca Indermaur et al.

Production: Triluna Film AG, Zurich Fontana Film GmbH, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR Teleclub AG World Sales: WIDE, Paris T +33 1 53 95 04 64 www.widemanagement.com

C o mi n g S o o n

Expected Fall 2016

Double Sentence Léa Pool

Switzerland / Canada Documentary, 100 min.

Original languages: English / French / Nepali / Spanish Production: Catpics Ltd, Adliswil / Zurich Cinémaginaire International Inc., Montreal World Rights: Catpics Ltd, Adliswil / Zurich T +41 44 455 99 00 www.catpics.ch

Most women in prison are mothers. When a mother is imprisoned, her newborn or her young child can remain with her in prison or they can be separated and taken in by a family member or by the State. These situations aren’t without risk for the child. The film takes the child’s point of view and its goal is to cast a light on them: too often they are forgotten, invisible and bare scars for their entire life. The filmmaker follows the daily lives of some of these kids in Bolivia, Nepal, New York and Montreal.

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* 1950 in Geneva. Léa Pool emigrated to Quebec in 1975, where she worked as a filmmaker since 1978. Pool is known for her award-winning fiction films ANNE TRISTER (1996), A CORPS PERDU (1987), EMPORTE-MOI (SET ME FREE) (1999) as well as her latest film LA PASSION D’AUGUSTINE (2015). Her last documentary PINK RIBBONS INC. (2011) on breast cancer premiered at the Toronto Inter­ national Film Festival.

C o mi n g S o o n

Expected Fall 2016

Miséricorde Fulvio Bernasconi

* 1969 in Lugano. Fulvio Bernasconi received a degree in Political Science from University of Geneva in 1991 and a degree in directing from ECAL in Lausanne in 1996. Since then, he directed several TV fictions and documentaries in Switzerland and Italy. Bernasconi is especially known for his award-winning fiction film OUT OF BOUNDS (2007), which received the Golden Leopard for Best Actor at the Festival del film Locarno.

Thomas, a European, has come to Québec for some recreational fishing on his own. He then embarks on the road leading to the north of Canada, chasing after a black truck that killed the son of a young Amerindian woman. This Swiss cop in exile wants justice to be done. He has, however, other reasons for wanting to do the right thing.

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Switzerland / Canada Fiction, 90 min.

Original language: French Cast: Jonathan Zaccaï / Evelyne Brochu / Daniel Gadouas / Charlie Arcouette / Marco Collin / Marie Hélène Belanger / Marthe Keller / Isabelle Caillat Production and World Rights: PointProd SA, Geneva www.pointprod.ch 1976 Productions Inc., Montreal www.1976.tv KNM, Monaco RTS Radio Télévision Suisse

C o mi n g S o o n

Expected Spring 2017

Stray Bullet Jean-Cosme Delaloye

Switzerland Documentary, 80 min.

Original language: English Production: Tipi'mages Productions sàrl, Geneva RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Sales: Cargo Film & Releasing, New York T +1 212 995 81 39 www.cargofilm-releasing.com

On July 5, 2014, 12-year-old Genesis Rincon was the innocent victim of a settling of scores between two gangs in Paterson, a town in the suburbs of New York. She collapsed before the eyes of her 11-year-old sister Alexis as they were on their way home from the grocer's. This is the chronicle of a child's death foretold in a moribund American town.

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* 1975 in Switzerland. Jean-Cosme Delaloye works as a journalist and director in New York City. Since 2009 he specializes in radio documentaries in Central America. His second documentary about kidnappings in Guatemala, LA PRENDA (2015), has been selected for many festivals such as FICG Guadalajara and Hot Docs Toronto.

C o mi n g S o o n

Expected Spring 2017

The Divine Order Die göttliche Ordnung

Petra Volpe

* 1970 in Switzerland. Joint Swiss and Italian citizenship. After studies in art and working as an AVID editor, Petra Volpe studied drama and screenwriting at HFF (Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen) Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. Since 2001 she has been working as an independent writer and director.

Her last fiction film DREAMLAND (2013) was shown at festivals such as Zurich Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken and won a Swiss Film Award.

Switzerland 1971: Nora is a young housewife and mother, living in a quaint little village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Nora’s life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.

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Switzerland Fiction, 96 min.

Original language: Swiss-German Cast: Marie Leuenberger / Max Simonischek / Sibylle Brunner / Therese Affolter / Rachel Braunschweig / Bettina Stucky / Nicholas Ofczarek / Ella Rumpf Production: Zodiac Pictures Ltd, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen Teleclub AG World Sales: TBA

C o mi n g S o o n

Expected Spring 2017

The Song Of Scorpions Anup Singh

Switzerland / France Fiction, 120 min.

Original language: Hindi Cast: Golshifteh Farahani / Irrfan Khan / Waheeda Rehman / Shashank Arora Production: Feather Light Films, Geneva Ciné Sud Promotion, Paris World Rights: Feather Light Films, Geneva T +41 79 218 97 35 info@featherlightfilms.com www.featherlightfilms.com

A contemporary tale of twisted love, revenge and the redemptive power of a song, which unfurls like a folktale. Nooran is a singer, a scorpion healer, a mid-wife and a medicine woman for the Sindhi community of Rajasthan. When Aadam, a camel trader in the desert community, realizes that Nooran, the woman he passionately loves, does not care about him, he seeks redress by paying a young thug to sexually attack her. Feeling herself poisoned by the brutal violation, Nooran sets off on a mystical journey to seek and avenge herself on her unknown attacker through the power of her song. www.thesongofscorpionsfilm.com

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* 1961 in Tanzania. Indian origin, British citizenship. Anup Singh lives in Geneva.

He has directed films for Indian TV and worked as a consultant for BBC2. His first feature film THE NAME OF THE RIVER (EKTI NADIR NAAM, 2003) was selected for over 30 festivals worldwide and won several awards. He is best known for QISSA – THE TALE OF A LONELY GHOST (2013), an IndianGerman fiction film which premièred at the Toronto International Film Festival, and won more than 12 awards worldwide.

P r o d u ce r s L ab

Christof Neracher Filmography (selection) Marija

by Michael Koch Fiction, 2016 Germany / Switzerland

Aloys

by Tobias Nölle Fiction, 2016 Switzerland / France

Producers Lab Toronto brings together selected producers from Europe, Australia and New Zealand with Canadian producers for three days of workshops, seminars, pitching sessions, 1:1 meetings and social events at Canada’s premiere festival. Representing Switzerland, as recommended by SWISS FILMS, is Christof Neracher (Hugofilm Productions, Zurich).

Since 2002, Christof Neracher has produced over 20 fiction and documentary films with Zurich-based Hugofilm Productions, including award-winning feature films such as Fredi Murer's VITUS, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Academy Awards, Simon Jaquemet's CHRIEG, and Tobias Nölle's ALOYS. He is currently deve­loping Steven Michael Hayes' drama JILL as a coproduction with Winnipeg-based Buffalo Gals to shoot in Manitoba in 2017.

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Chrieg

by Simon Jaquemet Fiction, 2014 Switzerland

Pepperminta

by Pipilotti Rist Fiction, 2009 Switzerland / Austria

Vitus

by Fredi M. Murer Fiction, 2006 Switzerland

Distribution Support

Film Sales Support

Get support to release a Swiss film in European cinemas

Get support to promote Swiss films outside of Europe

We support distribution of Swiss films in our neighbouring countries Germany, France, Italy and Austria with a new maximum amount of CHF 50'000 per theatrical release/country and with CHF 30'000 for all other European countries as of July 1, 2016.

This is a support scheme by the Swiss Federal Office of culture (FOC) in collaboration with SWISS FILMS, the promotion agency for Swiss films.

Film Sales Support (FSS) is EFP's support scheme for the promotion of European films outside of Europe. With the support of SWISS FILMS it is also available to eligible European sales companies promoting Swiss films. FSS covers 50 % of a sales company's film-related marketing budget (with grants up to € 5,000 for one film and € 2,500 for subsequent films) for the attendance at selected international film festivals and markets outside of Europe, in particular at Toronto International Film Festival, Asian Film Market, American Film Market, Sundance Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film & TV Market and Canadian International Documentary Festival Hot Docs.

Please contact us for further information or visit our website www.swissfilms.ch/distribution

Coming 2017 New Distribution Support for the release of Swiss films outside of Europe For further information please contact swillemse@swissfilms.ch

Please contact us for further information or visit our website www.swissfilms.ch/filmsales

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Neugasse 6 | Postfach | CH-8031 ZĂźrich T +41 43 211 40 50 info@swissfilms.ch | www.swissfilms.ch

SWISS FILMS in Toronto 2016 Visit us at our booth #5 in the Industry Office Location at The Hyatt Regency Hotel King Ballroom, 370 King Street West Visit our stands at: Short Film Market in Clermont-Ferrand Berlinale European Film Market EFM Cannes Village International Festival del film Locarno