One Oscar is small consolation for Swiss

Double Oscar winner Clint Eastwood swept the board Keystone

Swiss film-makers have come away with only one Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards, even though four films with Swiss involvement were nominated 11 times.

Finding Neverland by Swiss director Marc Forster, which was up for an award seven times, won the Oscar for best music.

Only The Aviator , which received 11 nominations, was tipped more times. The film by Martin Scorsese won five awards on Sunday.

The Swiss producer and six-times Oscar winner, Arthur Cohn, and his co-producer, Ruth Waldburger, failed to win in the categories best film song and best foreign language film for Les Choristes (The Choir).

In the latter category, Les Choristes was up against several productions, including Der Untergang (The Downfall), a German film about the last days of Hitler’s life, starring Swiss actor Bruno Ganz.

Instead the best foreign language film went to a Spanish production, Mar adentro (The Sea Inside).

A short film, Little Terrorist, by Indian director Ashvin Kumar and Swiss cameraman Markus Hürsch also failed to come away with a golden statuette.

The film has already won several European film prizes.

The Swiss film association said before this year’s Academy Awards that a better Oscar take could have given a further boost to the Swiss film industry, which has experienced an upturn in recent years.

swissinfo

Key facts

Best film: Million Dollar Baby
Best director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Best actor in a leading role: Jamie Foxx, Ray
Best actress in a leading role: Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby