Six new Swiss doc projects, ripe for selection at festivals during 2026, will be presented April 22 in Nyon to industry professionals from the international sales, distribution and finance sectors, as well as festival programmers from all across the globe.
One of these projects, Summer Drift (Virages) by Céline Carridroit and Aline Sute, has already been selected for Cannes ACID 2026.
The Swiss Films Previews event has proven to be highly effective over past years. The 2025 edition saw great returns with the selection of Heat by Jacqueline Zünd for International Competition at Visions du Réel 2026; the world premiere of Tristan Forever by Tobias Nölle in Berlinale Panorama 2026, and the selections at Zurich FF, Chicago and Ji.hlava of The Beauty and the Donkey by Dea Gjinovci.
Other recent successes have been The Boy From The River Drina by Zijad Ibrahimovic which premiered at Sarajevo Film Festival in 2025 after its Swiss Films Previews pitch in 2024; A Free Daughter for a Free Kyrgyzstan by Leigh Iacobucci (Swiss Films Previews, 2023) which premiered at DOC NYC 2025 before later selections at One World (Prague) and Movies that Matter in 2026; and Misty (Swiss Films Previews, 2023) by Georges Gachot which premiered at Dok Fest München in 2024 before travelling to BAFICI, FIFA Montréal and ENCOUNTERS.
This year’s crop of projects at Swiss Films Previews, to be presented April 22, are:
- Summer Drift (Virages) by Céline Carridroit, Aline Suter. 89 mins. Producers: Aurélien Marsais, Cécile Lestrade (Cavale Films, Alter Ego Production). Synopsis: It’s summer in Geneva. Johanna works on the assembly line of a luxury watch factory and she’s not going on vacation. As she considers getting rid of her old VW Beetle, she decides instead to bring it back to life and confront the world of mechanics that once rejected her. Status: Completed and selected for Cannes ACID 2026. World sales: Cavale Films.
- Habiter la nuit (Inhabiting the Night) by Victoria Maréchal. 105 mins. Producers: Charlotte Klinke, Gaspard Vignon (Marmotte Productions). Synopsis: During the summer months in the Vaud Jura, while the authorities believe they can solve the problems posed by wolves by killing them once again, Eliane, François, Anouck and Corinne look for other ways to live together. Day and night, they invent new ways of inhabiting this shared territory, with gestures marked by attention and curiosity, to learn again and again how to live alongside animals. Status: Post-production, delivery planned for 4th quarter 2026. World sales: Marmotte Productions.
- Journey to the End of the Night by Frank Matter. 120 mins. Producers: Madeleine Corbat, Frank Matter (Recycled TV AG, soap factory GmbH). Synopsis: In an unnamed city, we follow the traces of a wide variety of people through an imaginary night. Darkness blurs the clear logic of the day, and even time loses its sharp contours. This narrative is a melancholic and sometimes ecstatic meditation on modern life between reason and unreason, control and escape, longing and disappointment. Status: Post-production, delivery planned for 4th quarter 2026. World sales: Recycled TV AG, soap factory GmbH.
- Il nostro mira-colo (Two Donkeys and a Saint) by Davide Tisato. 90 mins. Producer: Michael Graf (Cloud Fog Haze Pictures). Synopsis: A Tuscan village threatened with extinction rebels against institutional neglect. Nine fearless villagers join forces with the local filmmaker and embark on a 200 km pilgrimage to Rome, with two donkeys in tow and their village saint on their shoulders. They believe the Pope is their last hope to save their collapsing rectory and their community. Status: Post-production, delivery planned for 4th quarter 2026. World sales: Cloud Fog Haze Pictures.
- Small Talk by Mateo Ybarra. 90 mins. Producers: Madeline Robert, Mateo Ybarra (L’ARTIFICE). Synopsis: Hoping to launch a career in the luxury world, Charlie enrols at Institut Villa Pierrefeu – the last finishing school still operating in Switzerland. Here, women from all over the world are prepared to move within the circles of the international elite. Over the course of a summer, their daily life unfolds through lessons in elegance, protocol and the art of conversation. Status: Post-production, delivery planned for 4th quarter 2026. World sales: Recycled TV AG, soap factory GmbH. Post-production, delivery planned for 4th quarter 2026. World sales: L’ARTIFICE.
- Sunset Don’t Matter (WT) by Alexandrea Rüegg, Lasse Linder. 80 mins. Producers: Philipp Ritler, Jonas Ulrich, Luzius Fischer (Dynamic Frame GmbH). Synopsis: Throughout her life, seventy-four-year-old Bigmama has kept moving forward, striving to adjust to life in the United States while raising three daughters – never looking back on the abuse she endured as a teenager in Bangkok. Now retired, she lives behind closed curtains in sun-drenched Florida. As the daughters try to heal from their intergenerational trauma, the family discovers that Bigmama’s emotional unavailability may have saved them all. Status: Post-production, delivery planned for 4th quarter 2026. World sales: Recycled TV AG, soap factory GmbH. Post-production, delivery planned for 4th quarter 2026. World sales: Dynamic Frame GmbH.
“From six of the films, we have four first features,” points out Charlotte Ducos, Doc Consultant at Swiss Films. “And in terms of production, it’s also a good balance between Swiss-German, Swiss-French and one project with a Swiss-Italian director. Three are directed or co-directed by women, and three are produced by women producers, which is also an important role to highlight. I think we have a lot of first feature directors or newcomer producers who are women, and are now getting to the stage, and therefore to more visibility.”
Ducos adds that the past 12 months have been very strong for Swiss documentaries, with the likes of GEN_ by Gianluca Matarrese continuing its festival run after its Sundance 2025 bow. Peter Mettler’s epic 7-part While the Green Grass Grows premiered in full at TIFF 2025, and won the Student Jury Award at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival. Also Elephants & Squirrels by Gregor Brändli, which premiered in Dok Leipzig 2025, continued its journey to IDFA 2025 and is next scheduled for Hot Docs 2026.
Visions 2026 sees 26 Swiss productions and co-productions in selection, including three in International Competition: Saudades Eternas by Emma Boccanfuso; Dentro by Elsa Amiel; Heat by Jacqueline Zünd), and one in Burning Lights Competition (The Echo of the Herd by Matthias Joulaud & Lucien Roux).
Additionally, thirteen films are selected for National Competition, from which Ducos singles out the hybrid Alma (Rafael Palacio Illingworth) and the feature doc To the Moon and Back by Elisa Gomez Alvarez for particular mention. “Alma is a film about grief and inspired by literary auto-fiction, while To the Moon and Back is changing the perspective on what the space mission would be like if it allowed participants from the Global South to join.”
Ducos continues: “There’s been a continuation of a strong Swiss presence over the last four or five years or so. We are in this positive, very dynamic cycle and a lot of production companies have different projects at various stages of production. There is a kind of a cycle of developing and delivering films that allows this presence internationally. And that’s a good sign for the industry.”
She further points out that Switzerland is a strong co-pro partner, and not only with their immediate neighbouring countries of France, Italy and Austria Germany. The country has signed additional co-pro treaties with Mexico, Canada, Luxembourg and the French-speaking Belgian Community, and works within the existing European co-production convention that applies to most European countries, including the UK.
Elsewhere in Nyon, Ducos will be busy during the Switzerland Meets… programme which welcomes this year delegations from four Central European countries: Austria, Croatia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Other Swiss projects up for consideration during VdR Industry are:
VDR–PITCHING
- A Season in Europe by Jean-Stéphane Bron (Switzerland). Production: Lionel Baier (Bande à part Films), Philippe Martin (Les Films Pelléas). Switzerland, France
PRIX RTS DE SOUTIEN À LA CRÉATION DOCUMENTAIRE
- Amore e Mentalità by Karim Sayad (Switzerland, Algeria). Production: Jaber Debzi (Les films de l’alambic).
- Switzerland
- Chasing the Sun by Yelena Ganshof van der Meersch (Switzerland), Tom Keller (Switzerland). Production: Yelena Ganshof van der Meersch (Inside Tomorrow), Alex Martin (European Star Cinema), Julian Alexander Oliver (Conscious Create). Switzerland, United Kingdom
- Loris by Gaël Métroz (Switzerland). Production: Bertrand Coppey (EPYC Films), David Borgeaud (Roue Libre Production). Switzerland, Belgium
- She Eats by Céline Pernet (Switzerland). Production: Stéphane Goël (Climage). Switzerland
- The Invisible Mountain by Ludmila Claude (Switzerland). Production: Agnieszka Ramu (Bande à part Films). Switzerland
- The Missing Piece by Camille Budin (Switzerland, France). Production: Vanessa Droz (Point Prod). Switzerland
- Warriors’ Whisper by Elena Avdija (Switzerland, Kosovo). Production: Flavia Zanon (Close Up Films). Switzerland
- You’re Welcome by Noémie Schmidt (Switzerland), Joris Avodo (France). Production: Pierre-André Thiébaud & Samy Thiébaud (PCT cinéma télévision). Switzerland
MIGROS CULTURE PERCENTAGE STORY LAB PITCHING (dedicated to innovative approaches in non-fiction cinema)
- 22’000 Screams from the Mine by Noa Epars (Switzerland). Production: Léa Génique & Xavier Derigo (IDIP Films). Switzerland
- Beyond Dad’s Moustache by Raphaël Harari (Switzerland). Production: Sophie Martin-Achard (Point Prod), Céline Loiseau (TS Productions). Switzerland, France
- Flight 7014 to Algiers by Yamina Zoutat (Switzerland). Production: Xavier Grin (P.S. Productions), Richard Copans (Les Films d’ici). Switzerland, France
- Spirits We Didn’t Ask For by Jonathan Jäggi (Switzerland, Argentina), Tobias Kubli (Switzerland). Production: Tobias Kubli, Jonathan Jäggi, Lea Fröhlicher & Andreas Weber (point de vue). Argentina, Switzerland
- Amada Libertad by Celina Escher (Switzerland, El Salvador). Production: Sereina Gabathuler (Roundabout Film GmbH). Switzerland, El Salvador, Sweden
“Last year was a good year for Swiss cinema in Nyon with the opening film Blame by Christian Frei and two films in the Burning Lights Competition (El Mundo al Reves by Leon Schwitter and Agostina di Luciano and La Muraille by Callisto McNulty). And this year is a very good one as well, that’s for sure,” Ducos signs off.
