Record attendance and female dominance in Winterthur

Visitors award the Audience Award to young director Rhona Mühlebach from Eastern Switzerland. The Short Film Festival counted 17,000 admissions, around 500 more than in 2013.

The five jurors of the 18th Winterthur International Short Film Festival look back on an intensive week of short films: 37 films from 27 countries had to be screened and evaluated in the International Competition alone. The jury, consisting of Jonathan Pouthier, Michael Sennhauser, Joke Ballintijn, Yael Bartana and Monia Chokri, selected the short fiction film "A Million Miles Away" by American Jennifer Reeder as the winner of the main prize (12,000 Swiss francs, SRG SSR). Reeder, who was on the Short Film Festival jury herself just a year ago, particularly impressed her "colleagues" this year with the narrative structure of her film: through music, references to pop culture and the surprising role reversal of generations, the film combines healthy aggression with empathy and celebrates female strength. The jury awarded the sponsorship prize (10,000 Swiss francs, Sulzer Foundation Winterthur) to "Kuhani" by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine. The 47-year-old Ugandan-American dual citizen impressed the jury with his story about a homosexual priest in Uganda - told in images that unabashedly address homophobia, prejudice and human rights violations, while at the same time surprising and shocking.

Best Swiss Film by Ursula Meier

The jury awarded the prize for the best Swiss film in the amount of CHF 10,000 (suissimage/SSA) to "Tišina mujo" by Ursula Meier from Geneva, who lives in Belgium. The 43-year-old was last successful in Winterthur in 2001, when her film "Tous à table" was awarded the sponsorship prize.

"We've been talking for some time about the fact that short films are no longer just a calling card for feature-length films for filmmakers in Switzerland either. Meier's career confirms this: Since 2001, she has won the Swiss Film Prize twice with feature-length films and was even awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlinale for 'Sister'," says John Canciani, Artistic Director of the Short Film Festival, delighted with the jury's choice. The jury praised "Tišina mujo" as a moving example of how much a short film can achieve. Meier's work bridges the gap between private and collective pain, loss and memory and deals with the sad history of an entire country in an intimate way. Olga Titus from Thurgau, who lives in Winterthur, also received an honorable mention for her experimental film "o my".

The Swiss Camera Award, endowed with 11,500 francs (non-cash prize, Nikon), goes to Basel-based Aurelio Buchwalder for his work in the film "Wandelzeit - Eine Gletscherperformance" by Winterthur filmmaker Jan-Eric Mack. Buchwalder convinced the jury with his "great use of close-ups and wide-angle shots, light and darkness in the same image and the wonderful way in which he transforms people, landscapes, ice and water into a cinematic experience".

Up-and-coming Swiss director wins Audience Award

Of the 37 films in the International Competition and 19 films in the Swiss Competition, "Off the Highway" by Rhona Mühlebach was best received by the audience: The short fiction film by the St. Gallen native, who lives in the canton of Thurgau, was awarded the Audience Award (Zürcher Kantonalbank), which is endowed with CHF 10,000. "Abseits der Autobahn" is the first work by the 24-year-old - with the Audience Award of the Short Film Festival, she is building on her success at the Festival del Film Locarno last summer. The prize for the best Swiss school film, worth CHF 5,000 (SRG SSR), was awarded on Thursday. After 2013, this went once again to a Bachelor graduate of the Geneva Haute école d'art et de design HEAD: Moïra Pitteloud impressed the jury with her graduation film "L'offre". For their part, the youth judged the youth program put together especially for them and awarded the youth film prize of 500 francs to "Tastes Like Chicken?" by Brazilian Quico Meirelles. The out-of-competition Short Run Award for the most promising screenplay goes to Samuel Morris for his project "Doug & Walter". The award includes post-production services in kind amounting to CHF 12,000 (tweaklab).

Industry discusses the future of short film

At the industry event "Producers' Day" on Friday, around 200 representatives of the national and international film industry, including Sirkka Moeller (Berlinale Talents), Alessandro Marcionni (Festival del Film di Locarno) and Katie Metcalfe (Sundance Film Festival), discussed emerging trends in short film financing and production, hybrid genres in short film and the new online audience under the title "Crossing the Border". The conclusion of Simon Koenig (Promotion Short Film at Swiss Films): "Various co-productions show that the borders between countries have long been permeable. The task now is to create structures that favor co-productions in the future. At festivals, on the web and on TV, we need to develop concepts that are beneficial to short film and allow for cross-fertilization rather than competition between these parallel worlds."

In addition to the Producers' Day, which is very well established in the industry, the Short Film Festival launched the "Writers' Room" this year, which focused on screenplay development and promotion. Swiss screenwriters, bloggers, columnists and up-and-coming authors met with filmmakers to exchange ideas in the form of speed dating. Remo Longhi, Commercial Director of the Short Film Festival, is delighted with the success of the Writers' Room: "We were able to welcome over 60 participants to the first edition. We have succeeded in creating a second industry day that ideally complements the Producers' Day." The Short Film Festival counted 17,000 admissions across all festival days, 500 more than the previous year.

The 19th Winterthur International Short Film Festival will take place from November 3 to 8, 2015.