TENZING Opens the 22nd Zurich Film Festival

Over 1,000 leading figures from the worlds of business, culture, politics, and society are expected to attend the glamorous opening night.

A fitting start to the festival

«The theme of this year’s ZFF is ‘dream big.’ Our breathtaking opening film, TENZING, fits perfectly with this theme because it shows how you can surpass yourself when you have a big dream,» explains Christian Jungen, CEO of the Zurich Film Festival. «We are proud that two Hollywood stars are coming to Zurich to present TENZING alongside acclaimed director Jennifer Peedom. The film offers powerful emotions and mountain imagery of sublime beauty. But it also conveys an important message for our times, because the first ascent of Mount Everest was only possible because the climbers respected the local Sherpa people and the laws of nature.»

Among the guests of honor for the evening are Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and the Zurich Mayor Raphael Golta. Opening Night is presented by Gisada.

Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe and director Jennifer Peedom (SHERPA, MOUNTAIN) will walk the Green Carpet in person at the festive opening gala on September 24 and present the film together.

«At its core, TENZING tells the story of a man who dared to imagine a life beyond the limits the world had set for him—and of the courage, sacrifice, and faith it took to reach the highest point on Earth,» says Director and Producer Jennifer Peedom. «The motto ‘dream big’ fits incredibly well here, and I’m very excited that TENZING will open the Zurich Film Festival and be shown to the audience there.»

Opening Night Film – TENZING

Based on a true story, TENZING tells the little-known story of Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phuntsok), a gifted mountaineer from the Himalayas who, together with New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), became the first person to reach the 8,849-meter summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Encouraged by his wife Dawa (Thinley Lhamo), Tenzing finds an ally in expedition secretary Jill Henderson (Caitríona Balfe). Together, they convince Colonel John Hunt (Willem Dafoe) that Tenzing should not only serve the British expedition team but be considered a full-fledged member. While Western climbers view «Everest» as something to be conquered, Tenzing reveres «Chomolungma» as a sacred mother goddess. What follows is an ascent marked as much by tensions of origin, class, and conflicting ambitions as by the dangers of the mountain itself. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Peedom, TENZING tells the story of a giant who refuses to be diminished—and of the love that makes it all possible.

Following its European premiere at the Zurich Film Festival, TENZING will be shown in select theaters starting October 9, 2026, and will be available on Apple TV starting Friday, October 16.

TENZING in Zurich

Tom Hiddleston, who plays Edmund Hillary, is one of the most versatile theater and film actors of his generation. The British actor gained worldwide recognition, among other things, for his role as Captain James Nicholls alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Emily Watson in Steven Spielberg’s *War Horse* (2011) and in his role as the mischievous god Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe—a character with an international fan base who has been part of his career for more than a decade, from *THOR* and several films in the *AVENGERS* series to his own Disney+ series, *LOKI*. In addition, he has repeatedly proven himself as a character actor: as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen’s MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, as Hank Williams in the biopic I SAW THE LIGHT, and as secret agent Jonathan Pine in the film adaptation of the novel of the same name, THE NIGHT MANAGER, for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor. He also received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on *The Night Manager*, both as lead actor and as executive producer. Hiddleston can also be seen regularly on the theater stages of London and New York, where he consistently captivates audiences in Shakespearean classics (Othello, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing) as well as in works by legendary playwrights such as Anton Chekhov and Harold Pinter: For his Broadway role in Pinter’s Betrayal He was nominated for a Tony Award in 2020. In TENZING, he now takes on one of the most unusual and, at the same time, most demanding roles of his career.

Character actors as well Willem Dafoe, who plays British expedition leader John Hunt, will be in attendance on opening night. For decades, the American actor has been one of Hollywood’s most versatile and multifaceted performers, equally at home in both blockbuster and arthouse cinema: Through films such as *Wild at Heart*, *The English Patient*, *American Psycho*, the *Spider-Man* franchise, *The Grand Budapest Hotel*, *John Wick*, POOR THINGS, and NOSFERATU, he has long been one of the most memorable figures in film history. Dafoe has been nominated for an Oscar four times—for PLATOON (1986), *Shadow of the Vampire* (2000), *The Florida Project* (2017), and for his masterful portrayal of Vincent van Gogh in *At Eternity’s Gate* (2018). The first three films each earned him an additional Golden Globe nomination, as did his role in POOR THINGS. Through collaborations with renowned directors such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Robert Eggers, he has established a reputation as one of the most influential figures in international auteur cinema. With TENZING, Dafoe returns to one of his major themes: male characters pushed to the limits of their physical and moral endurance.

Jennifer Peedom is a BAFTA-nominated Australian director and producer whose body of work includes documentaries and feature films.

Peedom has been working in the Himalayas and on Mount Everest for more than two decades. Her connection to this region and to the Sherpa community dates back to her early work as a filmmaker at high altitudes and has shaped some of the most defining projects of her career.

Pedom's directing credits include the internationally acclaimed documentaries SOLO, SHERPA, MOUNTAIN, RIVER, and DEEPER. SHERPA premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the BFI London Film Festival, and was nominated for a BAFTA in the Best Documentary category. It became one of Australia’s most successful theatrical documentaries—a benchmark that Peedom surpassed with her next film, MOUNTAIN, produced in collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Peedom's films have screened at major international festivals such as Telluride, TIFF, SXSW, San Sebastián, and Busan, and have received numerous awards and nominations, including from the Australian Directors‘ Guild and the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.

Peedom is a co-founder and head of the Sydney-based production company Stranger Than Fiction Films, whose works include DAVID STRATTON: A CINEMATIC LIFE—which was screened in the Cannes Classics series—as well as HARLEY & KATYA, which won the International Emmy Award for Best Sports Documentary. The company’s latest production, SILENCED, is a documentary about human rights attorney Jennifer Robinson and her fight against the misuse of defamation laws to silence women in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2026.

The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is the second-largest film festival in the German-speaking world and, every fall, presents the year’s most delightful discoveries and most anticipated films over the course of 11 days. It fosters dialogue between emerging directors, established filmmakers, the film industry, and the audience. The 22nd edition will take place from September 24 to October 4, 2026. More information: Zurich Film Festival | ZFF Industry