Zurich Film Festival to kick off for the 21st time in late September
One of the brightest events for German-speaking cinema lovers, the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF), will be running its 21st season over 11 days, from 25 September 2025 till 5 October 2025. With the record-breaking number of 114 films this year, the festival follows its traditional aim of discovering new talents and creating a dialogue platform for both the acknowledged and the emerging filmmakers as well as the audience to join.
The main ZFF competitions, namely, live-action and documentary films, feature 14 nominees, among which there are both debuts and second /third works by film directors. Two of the nominees, the German drama film Obhut by Veronica Hafner and the Swiss movie Wolves by Jonas Ulrich, are world premieres. Some of the participants, such as Babystar by Joscha Bongard, Marama by Taratoa Stappard, and Retreat by Ted Evans have recently been shown at the Toronto Film Festival, yet they will still be premiered at the ZFF for the European audience.
All films in the main ZFF categories will compete for the top prize, the Golden Eye. The winners will be announced in each category by a reputable international jury. For the live-action films, the decision will be made by American film director Reinaldo Marcus Green, who will be accompanied by German actress Leonie Benesch, Italian producer Carlo Cresto-Dina, Iranian director Ali Asgari, and Swiss film curator Nicole Reinhardt. The Academy Awards-nominated film director Matthew Heineman will head the jury panel for documentary films, with producers Odessa Rai and Helle Faber, filmmaker David Osit, and film editor Katharina Bhend joining him.
The main favorites of the season will traditionally be gathered under the umbrella of gala premieres. The comedy movie Splitsville presented by its director Michael Angelo Covino and the leading actress Dacota Johnson will open the festival. The actress will also have the honor of raising the curtain and receiving the Golden Eye. Apart from Johnson, the awards at the ZFF will be granted to actors Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell, actress Claire Foy, and film producer Ann Wexler.
The list of world premieres in the festival program would be incomplete without the screenings of historical films Desert Warrior directed by Rupert Wyatt and Nuremberg by James Vanderbilt. Among other things not to miss at the ZFF are the psychological thriller After the hunt by Luca Guadagnino, the gothic science fiction film Frankenstein by Guillermo del Toro, and the comedy thriller Bugonia by Yorgos Lanthimos.
As the ZFF director Christian Jungen notices, more than 1/3 of the films featured in the festival program this year are considered international or European premieres, which isn’t just a remarkable result but a sign of growing interest in the ZFF activities on the global scale.