Swiss cinema is a hit: several films exceed 100,000 admissions!

Several Swiss films have exceeded the 100,000 admissions mark worldwide this year. “The Trial of the Dog”, the first feature film by and with Franco-Swiss director Laetitia Dosch, has already recorded 130,000 spectators in France alone.

Sold in more than 17 territories, Laetitia Dosch's legal comedy on animal rights – co-produced, mainly by Switzerland, by Lionel Baier, of the company Bande à part Films and RTS – has become the best-marketed Swiss film in internationally in 2024, indicates Swiss Films in its retrospective.

Several co-productions, with a minority Swiss participation, recorded even more admissions: “La chimère” by Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, 245,000; “Sidonie in Japan” with Isabelle Huppert, 241,000; “Gloria!”, produced by the young Italian actress and singer Margherita Vicario, 215,000; “Marguerite’s Theorem” by Franco-Swedish director Anna Novion (134,000) and “Stella. A life” on a betrayal during the Nazi era, 127,000.

“It is rather a good result,” Swiss Films told Keystone-ATS. In 2022 and 2023, only three co-productions per year have achieved more than 100,000 admissions worldwide.

The journey of “Reinas”

If the film “Reinas” (Queens) by Klaudia Reynicke, a Swiss, Peruvian and Spanish co-production, was not selected for the Oscar for best international film, its journey abroad does not stop there.

Sold in 15 countries including the United States, “Reinas” was nominated in the best international film category at the Satellite Award, an American prize awarded since 1997 by journalists from the International Press Academy. After a first selection at the Sunday Festival, the film also won the Generation Kplus prize at the Berlinale and the audience prize at Locarno.

Swiss actors also stood out. Actress Ella Rumpf was crowned Best Female Revelation at the 2024 Césars for her lead role in “Marguerite’s Theorem”. Two other actresses appear on the “shortlist” for the Female Revelations at the 2025 Césars: Melodie Simina and Souheila Yacoub.

Documentary at the cinema

Swiss documentaries have also found their audience in cinemas. Awarded in Angers, Biarritz and Montreal, “Riverboom”, a crazy road trip by French-speaking filmmaker Claude Baechtold in Afghanistan in 2002, recorded nearly 40,000 admissions in French cinemas.

Portrait of the Dalai Lama, “Wisdom of hapiness – a heart-to-heart with the Dalai Lama” by Barbara Miller and Philip Delaquis has already been seen by more than 34,000 people since its theatrical release in Germany and Austria in November.

Swiss documentary cinema also got off to a flying start at festivals this year. To name just one, the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam offered no less than ten titles on the program.

“Davos 17”, the most expensive series

The series are not left out. “Davos 17”, the most expensive co-produced series in Swiss cinema to date, according to Swiss Films, has been sold in more than 20 territories on four continents and broadcast in many European countries (DE, AT, IT, PT, ES , EE, PL, HU). Swiss-American actress Dominique Devenport stars in this historical spy drama.

Another Swiss series to have joined international streaming platforms, “Winter Palace”, a Franco-French Netflix production by Friborg director Pierre Monnard, celebrated its world premiere during the Geneva festival, GIFF, and is broadcast in Switzerland from December 26. It will be available on Netflix in many European countries from February 2025 (notably in CH, FR, DE, IT, AT, ES).

This summer, the Locarno Film Festival included for the first time a Swiss and French-speaking series in its programming: “Threatened Species” with notably the comedian Vincent Veillon (Rita Productions, RTS). Available on Swiss streaming platforms, it will be broadcast on television in early 2025.

The fourth and final season of the Swiss-German detective series “Tschugger” (“Cops” in Upper Valais dialect) was presented at the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) in the format of a film, entitled “Tschugger – Der Lätscht Fall” (Cop – The Last Case) Launched this fall in Swiss cinemas, it has so far recorded 90,000 admissions. From 2025, it will be available on Netflix. and on Sky in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Swiss cinema in Cannes

Country of honor at the Cannes Film Market in 2024, Switzerland has a leading presence. On the festival side, four French-speaking productions were presented as world premieres, including “The Dog Trial” by Laetitia Dosch. Indian actress Anasuya Sengupta, who stars in the Swiss co-production “The shameless” by Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov, won the best actress prize at Cannes in the “Un certain regard” section.

Presented at Cannes, “Sauvages”, the animated film by Valais director Claude Barras – co-produced, mainly by Switzerland, Nadasdy Film in Geneva – appeared shortly after in competition at the Annecy animated film festival. His festival career continued at Locarno and the BFI in London. “Sauvages” was nominated twice for the European Film Prize and to date has more than 120,000 admissions in France.

The Rotterdam International Film Festival presented fifteen Swiss films in 2024 and the Berlinale September. Swiss cinema once again put on a show at the Venice Film Festival, Toronto, San Sebastian in Spain, Thessaloniki in Greece and Tallinn in Estonia .