Where are the young people?
On June 19, Publicitas will host the «Swiss Party» in Cannes, with active participation from the Swissfilm Association. The «Young Director Award» finals will also take place in Cannes on the same day. Unfortunately, however, no Swiss filmmakers will be participating.
Last week in Zurich, a jury of experts from the Swissfilm Association spent a day screening films and selecting the finalists for «The Young Director Award,» a competition for emerging filmmakers. This contest is currently held in 17 countries across Europe. It is organized by the CFP (Commercial Film Producers) association. The media partner is the trade magazine «Shots,» which reports globally on new developments in the advertising film industry. This year, 300 films were in the running. The same jury tool is used in all member countries. This tool allows entries to be viewed in various categories and rated directly within the system. The categories include «Animation,» «Broadcast,» «Charity,» «Music Video,» «Short Film,» «Video Art,» «Web Film,» as well as «Film School» and «Test Commercial.» As such a «test,» an advertising film can also be submitted for a purely fictional product. The Swiss jury is led by Rudi Haller. The head of Solid & Hallerfilm took over the role from Martin Fueter in 2007. Haller’s team, which includes producers and directors from the Swissfilm Association, is passionate about the competition, as new trends can always be discovered among up-and-coming talent from all over Europe. Participation from Switzerland, however, still leaves much to be desired. Although Rudi Haller is in contact with all Swiss film schools and our «old hands» are also promoting the competition among their young colleagues, there was no Swiss surprise to be found this year either. For the coming year, therefore, we aim to generate even more attention for the «Young Director Award» right here. «The opportunities are truly attractive,» Haller notes.
Young Role at Cannes
In Cannes, potential finalists from Switzerland could do more than just make interesting connections. The shortlist of works by the «Young Directors» will be presented to a jury of renowned filmmakers from across Europe. The jury may award up to three prizes per category. All award-winning films will be uploaded to the website www.youngdirectoraward.com, where they will reach an audience eager to discover new talent from all over the world. «This can turn out to be a valuable door-opener for the career of a new talent,» Rudi Haller is convinced. He regrets that this opportunity isn’t being seized more actively in Switzerland. In Germany, with its more than a dozen film schools, interest in supporting emerging talent is also much greater than in Switzerland. «I can only speculate about the reasons,» says Haller, for whom the «Young Director Award» will nevertheless remain a major priority. However, the competition is also facing a bit of headwind on the Mediterranean. There, the organizers of the «Cannes Lions» would prefer to integrate the «Young Directors» into their already overflowing portfolio of competitions and call the shots themselves in the future. But the representatives of the CFP want to protect their young talents from this growing appetite of the Lions for as long as possible. «We’re fighting for our competition,» says Haller, who is already looking forward to exciting visions and creative ideas in Cannes.
Andreas Panzeri
