PRESS RELEASES
Sylvester Stallone to receive Zurich Film Festival’s inaugural Golden Icon Award / 3rd Zurich Master Class: workshop with Sylvester Stallone on September 27, 2008
Academy Award® nominated Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone will personally accept the inaugural Golden Icon Award at this year’s Zurich Film Festival on September 26, 2008. The Golden Icon Award honors the lifetime achievements of an actor or actress and will be awarded for the first time this year. The day after the award ceremony, on September 27, Stallone will give an account of his experiences as an actor, writer and director in a workshop conducted by British author and film historian Peter Cowie. Zurich Master Class participants of 2006, 2007 and 2008 will be invited to this exclusive Zurich Master Class. As part of the award ceremony, the Festival will pay tribute to Stallone’s unprecedented achievements as a legendary actor and filmmaker and will present a special retrospective on Friday, September 26, which will include installments of the “Rocky” series, as well as “Rambo” and “Cop Land”. The films will be screened for audiences at the Corso Cinema. [more]
ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL UNVEILS DETAILS FOR 2008 MASTER CLASS
Ken Loach, Tan Dun, Bent Hamer, Andreas Dresen and Peter Rommel Among Participants
Several Master Class Workshops Open To The Public For The First Time
The first group of lecturers for the highly regarded Zurich Master Class include such industry notables as acclaimed British director and writer Ken Loach (“Cathy Come Home,” “Just a Kiss”), winner of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or for “The Wind that Shakes the Barley”; Chinese composer and Oscar and Grammy winner Tan Dun (“Hero,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”); Norwegian director and writer Bent Hamer (“Factotum,” “O’Horten”); and German writer and director Andreas Dresen (“Halbe Treppe,” “Wolke 9”) as well as his producer Peter Rommel.
The esteemed group of filmmakers will share their knowledge with twenty-five young Swiss, Austrian and German filmmakers in several workshops during the 4th Zurich Film Festival. The Zurich Master Class, which is being organised in cooperation with the Swiss Television and the Canton of Zurich, will be presented by renowned British writer and film journalist Peter Cowie and Swiss film journalist and chief editor of “films and series” for Swiss Television, Michel Bodmer.
For the first time in the Festival’s history, several workshops from the Zurich Master Class series will be open to the public.
Zurich Master Class – 5 Days of Inspiration and Exchange
The second Zurich Master Class, held in cooperation with Swiss Television, came to a successful end on Sunday, October 7, with a further highlight: Oliver Stone, this year’s “A Tribute To...” guest at the third Zurich Film Festival, spoke to and answered questions from 25 budding directors and producers in an intensive workshop talk. “I feel very strongly that we as filmmakers and artists have a really important position in the frontlines of this “war” - to keep the expression honest – to say things that cannot be said or won’t be said. Fight that battle – as Milan Kundera said, of memory against forgetting.” (Oliver Stone) Up-and-coming filmmakers from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France and Italy experienced 8 exciting and controversial workshop talks with renowned international guest speakers including Pavel Lungin from Russia (director of “Taxi Blues”, “Luna Park”, “The Island” and others), Stanislaw Mucha (director of “Absolute Warhola”, “Die Mitte”, “Hope” and others), Jim Stark (producer to Jim Jarmusch and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson et al.) and Quirin Berg (producer of “Das Leben der Anderen” and others). The members of the 3rd Zurich film Festival Albert S. Ruddy, Moritz Bleibtreu, Matthew Modine and Bettina Oberli also dedicated half a day to interacting with the new talent. For Christine von Fragstein, director of the Zurich Master Class, the workshop talks were a huge success: “An energetic, controversial exchange between extremely promising young filmmakers, between low budget and big budget, the young and the very experienced, European and American professionals.” [more]
The 3rd Zurich Film Festival’s Positive Account
Following eleven festival days, 69 screenings and numerous periphery events, the 3rd Zurich Film Festival comes to an end today, Sunday, October 7. The festival organisers are extremely pleased with the outcome: More than 27000 visitors streamed into cinemas and plunged into the world of film. The Zurich Film Festival has found its audience in just three years. The films were enthusiastically received. We are particularly pleased that the viewers chose the world premiere “Twelve in a Box” by John McKenzie for the Audience Award. The series New World View, which presented films by young Russian directors, also met with great enthusiasm from public and trade visitors alike – the eight films were screened several times to sell-out audiences. The periphery events and trade meetings also met with approval: Over 50 participants from Switzerland, Germany and Austria met on October 5 and 6 for the first Zurich Producer’s Forum to discuss new feature film projects and film financing in these three countries.
The Zurich Master Class, the Zurich Film Festival’s talent workshop, offered young directors, producers and authors the unique opportunity to form a dialogue with film greats like Oliver Stone, Jim Stark and Pavel Lungin. The encounters were a great enrichment for all the participants. We look forward to the fourth edition of the Zurich Film Festival.
