A feast of cinema
The opening night of this, the 18th Festival, was celebrated in our Convention Hall with a screening of the gripping film adaptation of the life of professional swimmer Yusra Mardini. Those present not only included illustrious guests such as Federal President Ignazio Cassis and Zurich’s Mayor, Corine Mauch, but even Yusra Mardini herself – together with some of the people who were involved in filming her story: director Sally El Hosaini and actors Nathalie Issa and Matthias Schweighöfer.
In addition to these guests, many other stars from the film industry graced the green carpet outside the Convention Center. They included Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne who presented his latest movie, The Good Nurse, but we were also pleased to welcome Til Schweiger, Iris Berben and Christoph Maria Herbst.
«The Zurich Film Festival has once again brought a touch of Hollywood to Zurich Convention Center – and it was a feast of cinema!»
The «guest country» for this year’s Festival was Spain, so it was impossible to miss the smell of paella that surrounded the Festival’s hub at Sechseläutenplatz, accompanied by the sound of flamenco melodies. The «New World View» section of the Festival’s programme showed 16 works by young Spanish film-makers.
A total of 38 films were screened as world or European premieres – which is a record. Tickets sales this year also broke previous records: 13,000 had already been sold within just three hours of booking being opened, which is 2,000 more than in the same period last year. The first showing to sell out was Dalíland starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Eddie Redmayne’s thriller The Good Nurse sold the most tickets. Overall, this year’s ZFF holds the record with 137,000 visitors.
We congratulate Zurich Film Festival on its success, and are already looking forward to next year!
Pictures: © Zürich Tourismus, Pascal Bovey, Tim Hughes, Sven S.
