Successful Swiss film "The Circle" sold to Netflix

The success story of this Swiss film began with its world premiere and two awards at the 2014 Berlinale. This was followed by screenings at over 100 festivals, 13 international awards and sales in 18 countries on 4 continents.

The Swiss feature film "The Circle", directed by Stefan Haupt and produced by Contrast Film Zurich, is one highlight after another. It has just become one of the first Swiss films to be sold to the US streaming service Netflix for a six-figure sum (source: Swiss Films). The docudrama about the legendary Zurich homosexual organization of the same name will therefore be available on the VOD platform in the USA and Canada from spring 2015.

A record at the start

"The Circle" premiered in February 2014 in the Panorama section of the 64th Berlinale. It was the first film in the history of the Berlinale to win both the Teddy Award, the world's most important prize for gay and lesbian films, and the Audience Award. This is the first time ever that the audience award of the Berlin Film Festival has been brought to Switzerland.

"The Circle" went on to become the biggest Swiss festival and sales success of 2014. This was followed by requests from film festivals worldwide - last week the Swiss film was screened at its 100th festival. The number of international film awards the film has received along the way is also high - almost as many jury awards as audience awards. In addition, 18 international distributors on four continents have acquired the exploitation rights for the Swiss film to date.

Oscars and Golden Globes

In fall 2014, the Federal Office of Culture (FOC) included "The Circle" as an official Swiss contribution in the Race for the Oscar for "Best Foreign Language Film". Although it was not enough for an Oscar nomination, the film achieved a result with rare value: "The Circle" managed to convince the Hollywood Foreign Press Association HFPA and qualify for the to qualify for the Golden Globesthe second most important award in the film industry. No other Swiss film has achieved this in the last 20 years. The last one to make it this far was the Swiss co-produced film "Trois Couleurs: Rouge" by Polish old master Krzysztof Kieslowski in 1994 (source: Swiss Films).

"The Circle" is currently being shown simultaneously at film festivals in Spain, Australia and France. It is also currently being shown in cinemas in the USA (Wolfe Releasing), Denmark (Reel Pictures), France (Outplay, theatrical release: March 4) and Thailand (Bioscope). The film will be available on DVD in Switzerland from March 12 (Ascot-Elite) and as a stream on Netflix later in the spring.