This year, the promotion agency SWISS FILMS is collaborating with European film festivals to present Swiss film productions and coproductions that have been nominated for or honoured with a European Film Award. The impetus for this Tour d’Europe is the European Film Awards 2024, which will take place in Lucerne in December. Festivals in Stuttgart and Linz will kick things off.
The Tour d’Europe begins at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) (April 23–28, 2024). The festival will screen the feature-length animation film INTERDIT AUX CHIENS ET AUX ITALIENS (France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium), which won the award for Best European Animation Film in 2022. The renowned Geneva-based animation film studio Nadasdy Film coproduced the film.
Producer Nicolas Burlet at Nadasdy Film will be a jury member of the AniMovie section in Stuttgart. At the workshop talk “Sauvages – The Making of an Ecological Tale” on Saturday, April 27, he will speak about the production of the stop-motion animation film SAUVAGES!, the new feature-length animation film by Swiss filmmaker Claude Barras (MA VIE DE COURGETTE).
Swiss animation filmmaker Elie Chapuis, who also worked as an animator on INTERDIT AUX CHIENS and SAUVAGES!, will be giving a masterclass: “Elie Chapuis, A Passion For Puppets” (Saturday, April 27). Chapuis’ latest short film CANARD will also be screened in the International Competition. Further six short films from Switzerland will be screened in various competitions at the festival.
As part of the HSLU school presentation meets [adult swim] BA and MA graduation films from the Lucerne School of Art and Design will be screened. And director Katrin Rothe will speak about the making of the German-Swiss coproduction JOHNNY & ME in the “Film Talk: Johnny & Me – Behind the Scenes, Making of, VFX Breakdown”.
NEXT STOP: LINZ
The Tour d’Europe heads next to the Crossing Europe Film Festival (April 30–May 5, 2024). The festival in Linz will also screen a variety of awarded Swiss films: BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY will celebrate its Austrian premiere in attendance of the director Elene Naveriani. The Swiss-Georgian coproduction was shortlisted for European Feature Film 2023, with lead actress Eka Chavleishvili receiving a nomination for European Actress. The film was also honoured with three Swiss Film Awards in March.
Also screened at Crossing Europe will be the Italian-French-Swiss coproduction LAZZARO FELICE by Alice Rohrwacher – nominated for Best European Film in 2018 – as well as THE SOUND OF INSECTS by Swiss director Peter Liechti, who passed in 2014 and was honoured with the European Documentary Award in 2009.
Swiss films with European awards will next be travelling to the FID Marseille as part of the Tour d’Europe. Also planned over the course of the year are screenings at the Festival dei Popoli Firenze, Porto/Post/Doc, Jihlava Film Fest, Tbilisi International Film Festival and Reykjavík International Film Festival.
Picture: INTERDIT AUX CHIENS ET AUX ITALIENS by Alain Ughetto