Big World Premieres at the ZFF

From October 3–13, 2024, the 20th Zurich Film Festival will present artistic and popular auteur films in the Gala section, once again bringing a diverse selection to its screen.

‘The fact that we have the opportunity to present so many world and European premieres goes to show that the ZFF holds a strong position in the international calendar,’ explains Christian Jungen, Artistic Director of the Zurich Film Festival. ‘With FRIEDAS FALL and AIMING HIGH – A RACE AGAINST THE LIMITS, we are presenting the world premieres of two exceptional Swiss films, which will be the subject of many discussions. The ZFF is an important platform for the launch of local Films with great public appeal.’

The complete program of the 20th ZFF will be made official on the ZFF website on Thursday, September 19, at noon. Stay up-to-date with all the important information about the festival on our social media channels. The presale starts on Monday, September 23, 2024. 

© Apprentice Productions Ontario Inc. / Profile Productions 2 APS / Tailored Films LTD. 2023

THE APPRENTICE

Drama

Canada Denmark, Ireland, 2024

Director: Ali Abbasi

Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally

1970s New York. Determined to emerge from his powerful father’s shadow and make a name for himself in Manhattan real estate, aspiring mogul Donald J. Trump is in the earliest days of his career when he encounters the man who will become one of the most important figures in his life, political fixer Roy Cohn. Seeing promise in young Donald, the influential attorney—who secured espionage convictions against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and investigated suspected Communists alongside Senator Joseph McCarthy—teaches his new acolyte how to amass wealth and power through deception, intimidation and media manipulation. The rest is history.

© El Deseo, photo by Iglesias Más

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR

Melodrama

Spain, USA, 2024

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola

Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.

Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson / © Niko Tavernis

BABYGIRL

Thriller

USA, 2024

Director: Halina Reijn

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor

A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much younger intern.

© Babe Nation Films

BONJOUR TRISTESSE

European Premiere

Drama, Novel adaptation

Canada, Germany, 2024

Director: Durga Chew-Bose

Cast: Lily McInerny, Chloë Sevigny, Claes Bang, Naïlia Harzoune, Aliocha Schneider

At the height of summer, 18-year-old Cécile (Lily McInerny) is languishing by the French seaside with her handsome father, Raymond (Claes Bang) and his lover Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune) when the arrival of her late mother’s friend Anne (Chloë Sevigny) changes everything. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of their surroundings, Cécile’s world is threatened and, desperate to regain control, she sets in motion a plan to drive Anne away with tragic consequences. An adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming of age novel by the same title, Durga Chew-Bose’s BONJOUR TRISTESSE masterfully captures the complexity of relationships between women and how they wield influence over one another’s fates.

© Agora Films

BERGERS

International Premiere

Drama

France, Canada, 2024

Director: Sophie Deraspe

Cast: Félix-Antoine Duval, Solène Rigot, Guilaine Londez, Michel Benizri, David Ayala, Véronique Ruggia Saura,Younès Boucif, Bruno Raffaelli, Aloïse Sauvage

Mathyas, an aspiring writer, trades his life in Montreal as a young advertising executive for that of a shepherd in the South of France. But the road to his desired pastoral tranquillity is filled with hard work. A visit from Elise, a civil servant who boldly quit her job, gives Mathyas' quest a new direction. Together, they embark on a transhumance. Facing the challenges of the mountains, with a herd to take care of, they will forge a new life for themselves.

© Les Films du Losange

SICILIAN LETTERS

International Premiere

Mafia, Drama

Italy, France, 2024

Director: Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza

Cast: Toni Servillo, Elio Germano, Daniela Marra, Barbora Bobulova, Giuseppe Tantillo, Fausto Russo Alesi, Betti Pedrazzi, Antonia Truppo, Tommaso Ragno

SICILY, EARLY 2000s. After serving several years in prison for Mafia-related crimes, Catello, a long-serving politician, has lost everything. When the Italian Secret Service “persuades” him to help capture Matteo, the last major Mafia boss still on the run, whom Catello has known since he was a boy, he sees an opportunity to stage a comeback. A shrewd man of a hundred masks, a tireless illusionist who turns truth into falsehood and falsehood into truth, Catello begins a correspondence with the fugitive, as unique as it is improbable, exploiting the younger man’s emotional emptiness. A gamble which, with one of the most wanted criminals in the world, is always going to involve a degree of risk…

© Kehana Krumme

THE UNHOLY TRINITY

World Premiere

Western

USA, 2024

Director: Richard Gray

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson, Brandon Lessard, Veronica Ferres

Montana. 1873. In the moments before his execution, Isaac Broadway gives his estranged son Henry (Brandon Lessard) an impossible task: murder the Sheriff who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Intent on fulfilling his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, only to discover that the man he’s come to kill is already dead. But before he can leave, an unexpected turn of events traps him in town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove (Pierce Brosnan), the town’s upstanding new Sheriff, and a mysterious figure, cryptically named St. Christopher (Samuel L. Jackson). As Henry’s quest for revenge turns into a struggle for his own survival, he discovers that his father built the town of Trinity on a dark secret — and a stash of stolen gold that St. Christopher is hell-bent on retrieving. To stay alive, Henry will have to face his father’s demons and the history of violence that threatens to put the town at war with itself.

Gijs Naber als Hagen von Tronje / © Constantin Film

HAGEN

World Premiere

Fantasy, History

Germany, Czech Republic, 2024

Director: Cyrill Boss & Philipp Stennert

Cast: Gijs Naber, Jannis Niewöhner, Dominic Marcus Singer, Lilja van der Zwaag, Rosalinde Mynster, Jördis Triebel, Jörg Hartmann, Bela Gabor Lenz, Alessandro Schuster, Johanna Kolberg, Emma Preisendanz 

The Burgundian weapon master Hagen von Tronje (Gijs Naber) is keeping his crisis-ridden kingdom together with a sense of duty and an iron fist. At the same time he suppresses his secret love for the King’s daughter, Kriemhild (Lilja van der Zwaag), and his own dark past. When the famous dragonslayer Siegfried von Xanten (Jannis Niewöhner) appears in Worms and endangers the old structures with his unpredictability, Hagen increasingly cuts a tragic figure. King Gunter (Dominic Marcus Singer), who is young and also inexperienced on account of the sudden death of his father, sees in Siegfried a chance to save the kingdom. He asks him to help him secure the hand of the dangerous Valkyrie Brunhild (Rosalinde Mynster) in marriage. When Kriemhild falls in love with Hagen’s antagonist Siegfried, he has to decide between love and loyalty to his king.

© 2024 Condor Films AG

FRIEDA'S CASE

World Premiere

Social Drama

Switzerland, 2024

Director: Maria Brendle

Cast: Julia Buchmann, Stefan Merki, Rachel Braunschweig, Max Simonischek, Marlene Tanczik, Liliane Amuat

In 1904, in an era of social upheaval, two lawyers fight for justice and humanity in a moving case. The tragic story of the young seamstress Frieda Keller sparks a debate about shame, ethics and emancipation. The lawyers and their families struggle with individual and moral conflicts while the stirring trial challenges the legal system of the time.

© Filmgerberei

AIMING HIGH - A RACE AGAINST THE LIMITS

World Premiere

Documentary

Switzerland, 2023

Director: Flavio Gerber & Alun Meyerhans

Cast: Marco Odermatt, Lara Gut-Behrami, Aleksander Kilde, Johan Eliasch, Franz Julen

The ambitious plan to hold the world’s first transnational and highest ski race at the foot of the Matterhorn becomes a harrowing tale of disaster and climate struggle, forcing participants to confront the emotional highs and lows of preparation and the crucial question: What are the future limits of ski races? In this gripping documentary about the planned ‘Matterhorn Cervino Speed Opening’, the film closely follows the International Ski Federation (FIS), top international athletes such as Marco Odermatt, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Lara Gut-Behrami, as well as the entire organizing committee led by Franz Julen.