140,000 visits: The Zurich Film Festival breaks attendance records
The film festival brought a lot of star shine and great premieres to Zurich for its anniversary edition. But the future also has some construction sites in store.
The ZFF closing ceremony in the opera house and the new festival center took place on Saturday evening in the pouring rain.
Image: Walter Bieri / Keystone
Hollywood on the Limmat: This newspaper quote is the title of the book that the Zurich Film Festival gave itself as a gift for its 20th anniversary. It is a commemorative publication that in some respects fits the occasion. Pompous presentation with routinely reeled-off content, with empty enthusiasm and proven marketing character, more self-promotion than heartfelt concerns.
A touch of Hollywood on the Limmat could actually be felt more literally this year than ever before. In ZFF-speak this means: one highlight followed the next. The eleven days of the festival flew by. Barely a moment to catch his breath before the next star got out of one of the electric limousines at Sechseläutenplatz, paraded across the green carpet and delighted waiting fans with selfies.
The big surprise: Pamela Anderson
Although the program was significantly reduced – and it makes sense – there was still a lot of emphasis on the anniversary when it came to celebrities: Jude Law, Pamela Anderson, Kate Winslet, Richard Gere, Howard Shore, Alicia Vikander, Ralph Fiennes, Sebastian Stan, Iris Berben and numerous others others picked up the handle. Emil, the much-loved Swiss star, was able to keep up in his home game. The performances of “Typisch Emil”, the documentary about the life of the great humorist, sold out faster than people could call for more Moët.
The festival team showed a good hand in selecting the gala section. “Conclave,” Edward Berger’s thriller about a papal election that goes awry, was thrilling. And “The Last Showgirl,” about an aging vaudeville dancer, turned out to be the better, more subtle “The Substance.” Lead actress Pamela Anderson, of all people, without make-up and occasionally visiting CG Jung’s house, brought something to Zurich that sometimes falls by the wayside between the glamor and glory: a surprisingly warm authenticity.
Some novelties that would have been the focus elsewhere were shown here more or less in passing, such as “Blitz” by Steve McQueen. And many an insider tip disappeared in the flash of lightning. “Memoir of a Snail” by Adam Elliot was about three-quarters sold out on Friday evening, even though the stop-motion film was highly praised in advance. And rightly so: the story of a snail lover who self-pityingly wrestles with her comically morbid existence, created entirely by hand, is a filmed piece of humanism. There are a lot of tears (realized with lubricant in the cartoon), people cry in solidarity.
With all this on offer, eyes and attention quickly move away from the competitions, which have also been reduced. The tragicomedy “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” by Rungano Nyoni, which uses magical realism to reveal the secrets of a family in Zambia, was awarded the best feature film. In the documentary film category, “Black Box Diaries” by Shiori Itō received the Golden Eye. The film, in which the director wants to bring her rape by a Japanese government member to court, also won the audience award.
The optimists were right
The omnipresent evocation of the past and the rocky path that the ZFF had traveled seemed somewhat laborious. The tenor: Hardly anyone believed in us at the beginning, but today we are a cultural lighthouse in the city. Constant self-assurance has been part of the essence of the festival for at least several years. And it is not entirely alien to the character of the city of Zurich itself. She actually didn’t need the festival.
The success automatically proves him right: the festival announced 140,000 visits. A new record result. Festival director Christian Junge said he had expected far less because of the autumn holidays, when the festival had to be postponed because of the World Cycling Championships. But the optimists would have been right, as always.
So everything is paletti for the celebration? Not quite, there will be some long-term construction sites waiting in the future: the fluctuation in the team is quite high. The contract of main sponsor UBS (taken over by CS) expires in 2025. A decision has not yet been made about whether to continue. There are increasing voices from the NZZ, which owns the festival, who would like to get rid of the expensive festival. If a buyer could be found. Also Cinema Frame isn’t running smoothly yet. “The best is yet to come,” Christian Junge often says. We wish the festival that the best is actually yet to come and that the phrase doesn’t become a fate.
