Solothurn film festival ends on high note

Many of the films played to packed cinema halls. Journées de Soleure

This year’s Solothurn film festival has come to an end, after selling 42,000 seats and showing 257 films.

About 180 productions – including full-length features, short films and documentaries – made in Switzerland were showcased during the annual event.

Attendance was up five per cent on the previous year, according to the organisers.

This was mainly due to the retrospective devoted to Swiss actor, Bruno Ganz, and a programme of films from the former Yugoslavia.

The organisers also added that participating cinemas were full to bursting, usually during the evening showings.

Earlier in the week, first-time director Greg Zglinski won the award for best feature film – and SFr60,000 ($50,000) – for Tout un hiver sans feu (All winter without fire).

The prize for best documentary film, also worth SFr60,000, went to Stefan Schwietert for Accordion Tribe, which follows five accordion virtuosos on a journey across Europe.

Finances capped

On the festival sidelines, Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin responded to criticism from Swiss film-makers by telling them to remain realistic when it came to government subsidies.

Couchepin said that the federal budget for film finance would remain capped for the next few years.

Nevertheless, he confirmed that French- and Italian-speaking Switzerland would be granted SFr800,000 ($675,000) over the next three years to promote Swiss cinema.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

Next year’s Solothurn film festival will take place from January 16-22, 2006.

In brief

The 40th Solothurn film festival has finished.

42,000 seats were sold this year and 257 films shown.

180 Swiss productions were part of the offering.