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Glamourous evening at the Zurich Opera House
The Zurich Film Festival came to an end last night with the Gala Première “Dans la Maison” , a suspenseful thriller from French director, François Ozon. It could not have been a better choice for a closure, knowing that the film won the award for the best screenplay at the San Sebastian International Film Festival the previous night.
Nadja Schildknecht, Herbert Grönemeyer and Karl Spoerri
The closing ceremony of ZFF took place for the second year in a row at the Zurich Opera House on Saturday evening. Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri, the two directors of the festival, welcomed their guests on the green carpet in front of the majestic opera, all lit up in pink. Inside they were met up by the charming and entertaining American presenter, Steven Gätjen, who led the evening like a maestro.
“Tonight you are all stars”, he said to the audience. There were two performances, a Figaro’s aria from a young opera singer and the song “We don’t eat” from Irish folk singer, James Vincent McMorrow.
Moritz Bleibtreu, Heather Graham with presenter of the evening
Glamour started on the green carpet with 900 hundreds guests marching and pausing for the cameras. Some of them were, the musician Dieter Meier, founder of the group Yello with his wife Monique, the friendly couple Karina Berger (ex Swiss Miss) and her husband Thomas Russenberger, the member of the German Jury, actress Julia Jentsch and Swiss actor, Carlos Leal, the politician Doris Fiala and her daughter Noemy, the model Raquel Marquard with husband Juerg and the Hollywood actress, Heather Graham.
Of course the two main jury members, American film director, Frank Darabont and singer and actor, Herbert Grönemeyer, were also there. Who does not know them yet? Darabont is known for the “Green Mile” and the “Shawshank Redemption” and Grönemeyer for his role in “Das Boot” and selling more than 13 Million albums since his debut in the 1979.
Many women had come with colorful dresses and shawls, beautiful high heel shoes and shiny purses. The hostess of the evening, Nadja, looked like a princess in her long ivory dress. Mrs Jacqueline Siegel, who had come for the screening of her documentary film “The Queen of Versailles” with the producer, Lauren Greenfield, wore a dress from Roberto Cavalli with Versace shoes.
The 1 hour 1/2 ceremony saw the presentation of the last seven Golden Eye awards to the winners for best international film & documentary, best German film and documentary and the audience and critic’s awards. The prizes went to:
- Rufus Norris (first time director from Great Britain) for the drama “Broken”
- Pola Beck (first time director from Germany) for “Am Himmel der Tag”
- Bart Layton (first time director from the USA) for the documentary “The Imposter”
- Gerald Igor Hauzenberger (Austrian director) for the documentary “Der Prozess”
Gerald Igor Hauzenberger with a Golden Eye Award
- Christian Labhart (Swiss director) received the audience award for “Appassionata”
- Armando Bo (Argentinian and first time director) got the critic’s award for “El ultimo Elvis”
After a moving speech, the German actor, Moritz Bleibtreu, delivered the last Golden Eye of the 8th Zurich Film Festival, a tribute award to Director Tom Tykwer. The two know each other quite well having worked together in the 1998 thriller of Tom Tykwer, “Run Lola Run”. At the Zurich Master Class at the Film Podium, Tykwer talked about Bleibtreu and said he was an amazing actor with so much energy. Moritz confessed that he would love to work with Tom again. It has been 15 years already. “It is an amazing luck to play a role that you wrote”, he said to Tom.
Tom Tykwer was moved having received the award. “I see this as an award of encouragement for the next 20 years”. He came to Zurich to present his newest film “Nairobi with his wife Marie Steinmann. He is also remembered for “Heaven” (2002) and “the Perfume” (2006).
Moritz Bleibtreu and Tom Tykwer
This year the Zurich Film Festival was a success with more than 120 films and 14% more attendance than in 2011 with 58,000 entrances. It will be back next Fall (Sept. 26th – Oct. 6th) with more exciting films and awards. So, put it on your calendar!
