TENZING to Open the 22nd Zurich Film Festival

Global stars and a Himalayan adventure set the stage for a spectacular kick-off: ZFF opens its 22nd edition on the evening of September 24 with Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe, and other celebrity guests. 

A Worthy Festival Opening 

«This year's ZFF motto is 'dream big.' Our breathtaking opening film TENZING fits perfectly, because it shows how you can grow beyond yourself when you have a big dream», Zurich Film Festival CEO Christian Jungen explains. « We are proud that not one but two Hollywood stars are coming to Zurich to present TENZING together with acclaimed director Jennifer Peedom. The film offers powerful emotion and mountain scenery of sublime beauty. But it also carries an important message for our time: The first ascent of Mount Everest only succeeded because the climbers respected the local Sherpa people and the laws of nature.» 

Among the evening’s guests of honor are Swiss Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Zurich Mayor Raphael Golta. The Opening Night is presented by Gisada.  

Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe and director Jennifer Peedom (SHERPA, MOUNTAIN) are expected to walk the Green Carpet in person at the festive opening gala on September 24, where they will present the film together. 

«At its heart, TENZING is about a man who dared to imagine a life beyond the limits the world had placed on him, and the courage, sacrifice and belief it took to reach the highest point on earth», says director and producer Jennifer Peedom. «The spirit of ‘dream big’ feels incredibly fitting, and I’m thrilled that TENZING will open the Zurich Film Festival and be shared with audiences there.» 

Opening Night Film – TENZING 

Based on a true story, TENZING tells the little-known story of Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phuntsok), a gifted mountaineer from the Himalayas who, together with New Zealand alpinist Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), became the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 8,849 metres above sea level, in 1953. Encouraged by his wife Dawa (Thinley Lhamo), Tenzing finds an ally in expedition secretary Jill Henderson (Caitríona Balfe). Together, they convince Colonel John Hunt (Willem Dafoe) that Tenzing should not merely serve the British expedition team but belong to it as a full-fledged member. While Western climbers regard "Everest" as a peak to be conquered, Tenzing reveres «Chomolungma» as a sacred mother goddess. What follows is an ascent shaped as much by tensions of origin, class, and conflicting ambitions as by the dangers of the mountain itself. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Peedom, TENZING tells the story of a greatness that refuses to be diminished – and of the love that makes it possible. 

Following its European premiere at Zurich Film Festival, TENZING will premiere in select theaters October 9 and on Apple TV on Friday, October 16, 2026. 

TENZING in Zurich 

Tom Hiddleston, who portrays Edmund Hillary, is one of the most versatile stage and screen actors of his generation. The British actor rose to worldwide prominence alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Emily Watson as Captain James Nicholls in Steven Spielberg's WAR HORSE (2011), and as the mischievous god Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a character with a devoted international fanbase that accompanied him for more than a decade, from THOR and several AVENGERS films to his own Disney+ series LOKI. Alongside these roles, he has repeatedly proven himself as a character actor: as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen's MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, as Hank Williams in the biopic I SAW THE LIGHT, and as secret agent Jonathan Pine in the literary adaptation THE NIGHT MANAGER, for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor. His work on THE NIGHT MANAGER also earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, both as lead actor and as executive producer. Hiddleston is also regularly appears on the stages of London and New York, captivating audiences time and again in Shakespeare classics (Othello, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing) as well as in works by literary legends such as Anton Chekhov and Harold Pinter – his Broadway role in Pinter's Betrayal earned him a Tony Award nomination in 2020. In TENZING, he now takes on one of the most unusual and at the same time most demanding, roles of his career. 

Character actor Willem Dafoe, who plays British expedition leader John Hunt, will also be present at the Opening Night. For decades, the American actor has been one of Hollywood's most versatile and multifaceted performers and is equally at home in blockbusters and arthouse cinema: Appearing in films such as WILD AT HEART, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, AMERICAN PSYCHO, the SPIDER-MAN franchise, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, JOHN WICK, POOR THINGS, and NOSFERATU, he has long since become one of the most memorable figures in cinema history. Dafoe has been nominated for the Oscar four times – for PLATOON (1986), SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE (2000), THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017), and for his masterful portrayal of Vincent van Gogh in AT ETERNITY'S GATE (2018). The first three of these films also earned him a Golden Globe nomination, as did his role in POOR THINGS. Through his collaborations with celebrated directors such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Robert Eggers, he has built a reputation as one of the most influential figures in international arthouse cinema. With TENZING, Dafoe returns to one of his signature themes: men pushed to the very limits of their physical and moral endurance. 

Jennifer Peedom is a BAFTA-nominated Australian director and producer whose work spans documentary and narrative film.

Peedom has spent more than two decades working in the Himalayas and on Everest. Her relationship with the region and the Sherpa community began through her early work as a filmmaker in high-altitude environments and has shaped some of the defining projects of her career.

Peedom’s directing credits include the internationally acclaimed feature documentaries SOLO, SHERPA, MOUNTAIN, RIVER and DEEPER. SHERPA premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival, and was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Documentary. It became one of Australia’s most successful theatrical documentaries—a benchmark Peedom surpassed with her next film, MOUNTAIN, made in collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Peedom’s work has screened at major international festivals including Telluride, TIFF, SXSW, San Sebastián and Busan, and has received numerous awards and nominations, including recognition from the Australian Directors’ Guild and the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.

Peedom co-founded and runs the Sydney-based production company Stranger Than Fiction Films, whose credits include DAVID STRATTON: A CINEMATIC LIFE, which screened at Cannes Classics, and HARLEY & KATYA, winner of the International Emmy Award for Sports Documentary. The company’s most recent release, SILENCED, is a documentary feature about human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson and her fight against the weaponisation of defamation laws to silence women in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The film premiered to acclaim at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

You can find the official media release here.