"The Circle" is the big winner of the 2015 Swiss Film Award

The documentary film "Electroboy" by Marcel Gisler was able to enjoy two trophies. The success of "Der Kreis" at the big film gala in the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices is also a victory of experienced Swiss filmmakers over the newcomers. Alongside "Der Kreis," the debut film "Chrieg" by Simon Jaquemet entered the race for the 2015 Quartz as a co-favorite with five nominations - "Chrieg" had to settle for a single award ("Best Cinematography") in the end, however.

The big winner "Der Kreis" combines fictional and documentary elements and tells the love story of Röbi Rapp and Ernst Ostertag between their involvement in the gay organization "Der Kreis" and the confinement of 1960s Zurich. Rapp and Ostertag were the first homosexual couple to register their partnership. The two attended the award ceremony together with the film team. In his acceptance speech, director Stefan Haupt recalled that Switzerland was one of the first countries to decriminalize homosexuality during World War II. At the same time, the filmmaker called for setting an example in terms of humanity today as well. Other trophies were awarded to "The Circle", which has already won numerous prizes abroad, in the categories "Best Actor" (young actor Sven Schelker), "Best Screenplay (Stefan Haupt, Christian Felix, Ivan Madeo, Urs Frey) and "Best Supporting Actor" (Peter Jecklin).

Ivan Madeo was a concept copywriter and film supervisor for over ten years at various major agencies in Switzerland, Italy and Germany, including Y&R Group Switzerland, McCann-Erickson Milano, Draftfcb-Lowe Group Zurich, Euro RSCG Zurich and Publicis Communication Switzerland. Madeo has won over 70 advertising awards, most recently two Bronze Lions in Cannes in 2014 for the "Hide Yesterday" campaign for L'Oreal (agency: Publicis Zurich). For more than 20 years, Urs Frey was the owner and producer of TWIN Productions in Biel, which for a long time was one of the largest commissioned film production companies in Switzerland and owned one of the largest film studios in French-speaking Switzerland. He has produced over 1000 commissioned films, from large commercials to industrial/event/training films to small and fast commissioned reportages. Today, Ivan Madeo and Urs Frey, together with Stefan Eichenberger, run Contrast Film's two production companies based in Zurich and Bern, producing feature films and documentaries for cinema and television.

Even though co-favorite and first-timer "Chrieg" failed to score in the important categories; for today's up-and-coming filmmakers, the 2015 Film Award is nevertheless an important milestone, because a strikingly large number of young filmmakers and actors were nominated by the Film Academy. Which proves that Swiss film faces a promising future.

Timoteo the only woman to receive an award

The second winner alongside "Der Kreis" on Friday evening was "Electroboy" by Marcel Gisler. In his documentary, the director tells the rise and fall of former snowboarder, party organizer and advertiser Florian Burkhardt - and with it a tragic family story. In addition to the award for "Best Documentary Film," "Electroboy" also received the award for "Best
Montage" (Thomas Bachmann). As the only woman on the evening, Bernese actress Sabine Timoteo was awarded "Best Actress" for her role in "Driften". The drama by Karim Patwa had celebrated its Swiss premiere at the Solothurn Film Festival and received much critical praise.

"They translate the mundane into poetry".

The award gala took place for the second time in Geneva, the French-speaking Swiss metropolis hosts the most important Swiss film award ceremony in rotation with Zurich. As in the previous year in Zurich's Schiffbau, Maria Viktoria Haas from the Grisons led the evening with a somewhat well-behaved moderation. The 18th Swiss Film Awards were presented by important personalities of the local film industry such as Oscar winner Xavier Koller, Academy head and documentary filmmaker Christian Frei or last year's winner Sabine Boss. Federal Councillor Alain Berset was given a particularly honorable task: the Minister of Culture held the laudatory speech for honorary prize winner and directing legend Jean-Luc Godard. However, the 84-year-old had to stay away from the award ceremony for health reasons and was connected via video message. Godard translates "everyday things into poetry" and makes films imbued with "clever dilettantism, sad madness and cheerful pessimism," Berset said. "They are sometimes sociological, sometimes political. They are sentence music and sound grammar. These films are jazz." (SDA/pd)