Swiss Competition 2023
A fish is attacked by seagulls (“Pond”), a young woman searches for clues in Armenia (“Armat”), and a plumber ends up in a gay fetish club (“Pipes”) – the diversity of stories in the Swiss Competition is vast, ranging from films with and about animals to political family stories and the confrontation of one’s own fears.
The selection team has chosen 16 short and feature-length animated films from 64 submissions to form two programmes. This is where renowned and established filmmakers such as Claudius Gentinetta (“Think Something Nice”), Maja Gehrig (“Empty Roles”) and the grand master Georges Schwizgebel (“From One Painting… to Another”) meet with emerging talent such as Valentine Moser and Loïc Kreyden.
While Moser depicts the monotony of everyday life in her stop motion film “Movement”, Kreyden presents a new world in his film “Not Worried. But Confused.”, an atmospherically rich play on light and shadow, perception and fantasy created at the Royal College of Art.
There are also several works by young teams. For example, Sven Bachmann, Noémi Knobil, Jill Vágner and Elina Huber tell the story of a young woman who confronts her fear of pregnancy in “Crevette”, their bachelor’s graduation film at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Alongside methods such as stop motion, CGI and painting on glass, the majority of the films were made using traditional 2D techniques. This is the case with Marjolaine Perreten’s 29-minute “Pebble Hill”, which tells of climate change from the perspective of the very small: the acclaimed multimedia designer immerses us in the story of a family of shrews forced to find a new home after a severe flood. (Monika Schärer)
Presenting Partner: Migros-Kulturprozent