Villi Hermann receives honorary award of the Swiss Film Prize 2026
Director, screenwriter, and producer Villi Hermann will be awarded the Honorary Prize at the 2026 Swiss Film Awards. A pioneer of the 1970s, he has had a significant influence on Swiss cinema with films such as «San Gottardo» and «Matlosa» and has been actively supporting up-and-coming talent in Ticino for years.
Villi Hermann will receive the Honorary Award of the Swiss Film Prize 2026. Born in Lucerne and now living in Lugano, the director, screenwriter and producer has had a significant influence on Swiss filmmaking in his career spanning over 50 years. His work is characterized by courage, social commitment and artistic finesse and distinguishes him as an international reference in Swiss filmmaking.
Pioneer of Swiss film
Driven by his strong sense of social issues, Villi Hermann began his career in the 1970s with films on the borderline between documentary and fiction. His first feature film "San Gottardo" (1977) was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in the "L'Air du temps" section and won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.
With internationally acclaimed works such as "Matlosa" (1981), "Innocenza" (1986) and "Bankomatt" (1989), Villi Hermann was a highly regarded and recognized representative of Swiss filmmaking at major festivals around the world in the 1980s, including the Venice International Film Festival and the Berlinale.
Promoter of young talent in Ticino
Villi Hermann founded his production company Imagofilm Lugano in 1981 and initially devoted himself to his own film projects. At the same time, he became increasingly involved in promoting young talent and established a growing community of local filmmakers. Since the end of the 2000s, he has specifically supported film productions by up-and-coming filmmakers from Ticino - such as Alberto Meroni, Erik Bernasconi, Niccolò Castelli and Francesco Rizzi - and has thus made a decisive contribution to the emergence of a "new wave" of Ticino film.
The honorary award for Villi Hermann recognizes the work of an important filmmaker and the artistic power of a person who has strengthened Italian-language Swiss film and helped define its independent identity.
Award ceremony in March
The Swiss Film Awards ceremony will take place on Friday, March 27, 2026 at the Kongresshaus Zurich. The award for local filmmaking is organized by the Federal Office of Culture FOC with its partners SRG SSR and the Association "Quartz" Genève Zurich and in collaboration with Swiss Films, the Swiss Film Academy and the Solothurn Film Festival. Further information can be found at www.quartz.ch.
