Festival Highlights
The 19th Zurich Film Festival is scheduled from September 28 to October 8, 2023. It promises to be more thrilling than ever with a lineup of 148 films, including 52 debut works and an impressive 52 world and European premieres – a significant jump from 38 in the previous year. This festival is not just a showcase but an experience for all film lovers.
Event details and Good to knows:
- Dates: September 28 – October 8, 2023.
- Festival Centre, located on Sechseläutenplatz, hosts most of the festival activities. You can come there by trams #2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 15 until the tram stop “Bellevue”.
- You will find a bar, lounge and the ZFF store at the Festival centre as well as the tickets centre. Moreover, Green Carpets and photo-calls are also taking place here.
- Working hours of the Festival Centre: Daily 11:00 – 00:00.
- As for tickets, you can purchase them either on the ZFF official website, on starticket.ch or at the festival locations.
- The Zurich Film Festival is the only festival in the world where the carpet is green. The first festival and its Green Carpet took place in 2005. From that time forward, it has been its aim to raise the public’s awareness of the need to protect the environment.
- Moreover, first fully electric fleet of cars thanks to Mercedes-Benz will be accompany guests of the festival this year.
ZFF MOVIE THEATRES
- Corso Cinema: Theaterstrasse 10, 8001, Zurich. You can reach it by trams #2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 15 until the tram stop “Bellevue”.
- Arthouse Le Paris: Gottfried-Keller-Strasse 7, 8001, Zurich. The trams #2, 4, 5, 8, 9 until the Bellevue tram stop; the trams #11, 15 till the Bahnhof Stadelofen tram stop.
- Arthouse Piccadilly: Mühlebachstrasse 2, 8008, Zürich. The trams #11, 15 to the Bahnhof Stadelofen tram stop.
- Arena Sihlcity: Kalanderplatz 8, 8045, Zurich. The trams #5, 13, 17 to the Sihlcity Nord.
- Filmpodium: Nüschelerstrasse 11, 8001, Zurich. The trams #2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13 until Paradeplatz; the trams #2, 9 to the Sihlstrasse tram stop.
- Riffraff Kino/Bar/Bistro: Neugasse 57-63, 8005 Zürich. Röntgenstrasse (bus 32) / Limmatplatz (tram 4, 13, 17)
- Kosmos: Lagerstrasse 104, 8004 Zürich. Bus 31, 32 until the stop Militär-/Langstrasse.
More films by women than ever before
The ZFF presents more films by women directors across almost all sections of the festival than ever before, namely 55. That amounts to an increase of 39% on last year.
Following that, two strong women will also receive two of the festival’s most prestigious Golden Eye awards. The Hollywood star Kristen Stewart will receive the Career Achievement Award when she brings SEBERG to Zurich. And the Golden Icon Award will be presented to the two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett on October 5. When she will present her latest movie WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE by Richard Linklater. After Glenn Close in 2017 and Judie Dench in 2018, it is the third time in a row that this award has gone to a woman.
Gala Premieres and focus
The ZFF will screen a total of 171 films – that’s nine more than last year. Twelve of these are world premieres and five European premieres. The three Golden Eye competitions focus on young, original cinema with a total of 44 debut films competing. The 14-title International Feature Film Competition line-up features two Iranian films: the cop thriller JUST 6.5, which became one of the biggest box office hits of all time in Iran, and the European premiere of Mahnaz Mohammadi’s directorial debut SON-MOTHER.
This year, the festival once again screens the season’s hottest titles as GALA Premieres, several of which will later join the race for the Oscars, including JOKER by Todd Philipps, THE LAUNDROMAT by Steven Soderbergh, LE MANS ’66 by James Mangold, MARRIAGE STORY by Noah Baumbach, PAVAROTTI by Ron Howard, THE FAREWELL by Lulu Wang and DEUTSCHSTUNDE by Christian Schwochow.
The “New World View” section this year introduces cinema from the exciting film-producing country Colombia. And the strong presence of Central and South American cinema is striking in other sections of the festival, too. In addition to the 14 Colombian titles, the programme contains 26 more feature and documentary films from this continent.
The complete program you can always find on the ZFF official website.
Enjoy your TIME AT THE CINEMA! And share your favourite movies in the comments below.
As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me -> GET IN TOUCH.