Co-Production Boost and Sturdy Funding System Fuel a Healthy Crop of Swiss Films at Visions du Réel

Yahoo

05-04-2025

Those looking for homegrown talent and stories at the largest documentary film festival in Switzerland, Visions du Réel, will be spoiled for choice in 2025. This year's edition, which runs April 4-13, features a whopping 31 Swiss productions or co-productions, including the festival's opening film, Christian Frei's 'Blame.' Veteran Frei, the first-ever Swiss filmmaker to be nominated for an Oscar back in 2002 for 'War Photography,' stands alongside a crop of new talent in feature debuts such as Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter's 'The World Upside Down.'
On the healthy crop of Swiss productions and co-productions this year, Charlotte Ducos, documentary and marketing strategies consultant at the country's national agency Swiss Films, says it is 'incredibly important to have Swiss films across the program and to have the opening film of the festival not only be Swiss but also a very expected title by a renowned filmmaker.' Ducos also emphasizes how 43% of Swiss films are currently co-productions, a testament to the importance of collaborating with their European neighbors such as Italy, Germany and Austria. Last year, Switzerland was the Country in Focus at Cannes's Marché du Film, another possible booster.
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Frei praised the support available to filmmakers in his home country, saying that he is 'deeply grateful for the subsidy system we established in Switzerland.' It was thanks to that that the director raised enough to spend the time needed on such an ambitious project as his denouncement of COVID-19 misinformation. 'I was able to do so without having to speculate on box office or commercial interest,' he highlights.
Financing-wise, Switzerland offers various sources of funding at national and regional levels and from the private sector. The main avenue is the Film Investment Refund Switzerland (PICS), which primarily focuses on Swiss-international co-productions and is administered by the Federal Office of Culture. PICS refunds between 20-40% of eligible film production expenses if a project shoots for a minimum of five days in the country.
With topics that range from AI's relationship with human creativity to the woes and joys of modern fatherhood, the Swiss films at this year's Visions du Réel look into the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow through classic journalistic investigations, hybrid docu-fiction, and first-person narratives to showcase the best of national talent. With such a wealth of titles, Variety has selected a handful of films to look out for, which you can find below:
'Blame,' dir. Christian Frei
Frei, who made history as the first Oscar-nominated Swiss filmmaker with his searing investigation of war photography in the eponymous 2002 doc, returns to Visions du Réel with just as controversial of a proposition: a deep dive into the wave of misinformation that turned the scientists fighting the spread of SARS and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic into social pariahs. The festival's opening film, 'Blame,' poses a vital investigation into the relationship between politics, science and the media. Rise and Shine handles world sales.
'The World Upside Down,' dir. Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter
This Swiss-Argentinian co-production taps into magical realism, mysticism and popular folklore to blend documentary and fiction as it follows the inhabitants of a small village nestled in the Argentine countryside. It is there that Omar, a village elder and farmer, witnesses a strange light in the sky. Curious, he embarks on an inquisitive journey alongside his grandson, just as Roxane and Lily prepare a holiday home for a family in Buenos Aires, where they make a discovery that will open a path to new forms of knowledge. Indox Films handles festival sales.
'Wider Than the Sky,' dir. Valerio Jalongo
Veteran Italian filmmaker Jalongo, whose work has played widely at festivals such as Venice and Rome and who has collaborated with the likes of Brendan Gleeson and Valeria Golino, returns to Visions du Réel with a film looking at how AI interacts with human emotion and creativity. 'Wider Than the Sky' parades scientific labs and artists' studios with those working close to the intersection of AI and neuroscience to pose the question: can AI positively shape the future of humanity?
'Colostrum,' dir. Sayaka Mizuno
Mizuno's 2016 mid-length documentary 'Kawasaki Keirin' won the Prix du Jury at Visions du Réel for most innovative Swiss film of all competitive sections. She returns to the festival with 'Colostrum,' a look at the relationship between a farmer in the Swiss Alps and his seasonal volunteer, a thirty-something woman from the city who is passionate about animal welfare and ecofeminism. The film zooms into the characters' differences to find their commonalities, as well as pay homage to the rhythms of traditional farming. Stranger Films Sales handles world sales.
'Dads,' dir. David Maye
After screening his feature debut 'Les Grandes Traversées' at Visions du Réel in 2017, Maye is back at the festival with a close look at modern fatherhood. The film follows four fathers or fathers-to-be as they talk through expectations, fears and taboos around fatherhood, such as questions about abandonment, raising daughters, and perpetuating harmful masculine stereotypes.
'Sons of Icarus,' dir. Daniel Kemény
On his third feature documentary, Kermény goes personal by sharing the story of his family: the director is European, and his brother is Cuban, with their father having left West Germany in the 1970s to escape the ghosts of fascism and finally settling in Cuba years later. In 'Sons of Icarus,' the filmmaker sets off to North America in search of his family, eventually struggling to connect with his reserved father. Through the medium of film, Kermény finds a space to mend old wounds and tell a visual story where words would fail.
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