Visions du Réel will be particularly busy this year for Charlotte Ducos, Documentary & Marketing Strategies Consultant and Deputy Head of Festivals & Markets at Swiss Films. 31 films from Switzerland are selected for the Nyon doc event, and 15 new projects will be pitched over the coming days, including the SWISS FILMS Previews presentation of six new documentary films nearing completion and soon to be launched onto the festival circuit.
As earlier published, two Swiss projects have been selected to compete in Visions du Réel’s VdR–Pitching showcase. These are The Big Boom (Mira Productions), directed by filmmaker Gabriel Tejedor (Kombinat VdR2020, Rue Mayskaya VdR2017), and Call Me When the Wind Blows by Arami Ullón, produced by Aline Schmid (Beauvoir Films) whose 2024 feature film The Landscape & The Fury took away the top award In Competition at Visions du Réel in 2024. Both projects will be eligible for over CHF 80’000 in prizes.
Additionally, the festival’s partnership with RTS will see seven “romand” projects (from the French speaking part of Switzerland) pitch for up to CHF 10,000 in development funds during the festival, as part of the Prix RTS de soutien à la création documentaire competition.
The central pillar of Charlotte Ducos’s VdR Industry offer is the SWISS FILMS Previews presentation on April 9 of six promising, upcoming docs in production, all of which are soon to be launched onto the festival circuit and/or for worldwide distribution. The SWISS FILMS event is designed to offers sales agents, international distributors and festival delegates the opportunity to embrace these new films. All six films are seeking sales representation.
The Nyon presentation comes hot on the heels of a busy FIFDH Impact Days (Geneva) when Ducos also introduced four Swiss projects ripe for the full impact treatment.
“Two approaches I’ve noticed is there are protagonist looking for their identity, be It in a different country or a group of people who in exile for example,” Ducos suggests of the six SWISS FILMS Previews projects. “Secondly, they are addressing timely topics, not directly war, but mostly the consequences of conflict or migration or climate change.”
“We have two first feature and three second features, so it means that it’s a strong signal saying that we have newcomers, but also directors able to do their second feature and therefore get to the next step.”
One such debutant is Benjamin Bucher, whose Sweet Belonging tells the story of Joyce, a 22-year-old African-Chinese dancer, who is trying to find her way in Europe – torn between artistic and identity-related self-discovery and the financial dependence on her mother’s TikTok business. Ducos points out that Sweet Belonging is a very 21st century tale. “Joyce speaks in three different languages and must navigate through different cultures. It’s story that is both fascinating and inspiring.”
Other first-timers are Amélie Bargetzi and Christelle Jornod whose Huntresses details the hunting practices of four women living in the Swiss canton of Valais. By following them on their hunting trips, as well as during the preparation and handling of the meat, the film shows the special relationship they have with nature, the landscape and the environment. “It’s their first feature, shot in the Alps. It’s an observational documentary about a traditionally male hobby that is still not so well-known,” says Ducos. “Both directors come from photography backgrounds and both have strong ecological concerns.”
Tristan Forever is the second feature doc of Tobias Nölle whose non-fiction debut Preparations for a Miracle was selected last year in Nyon’s Burning Lights section. (His fiction feature debut Aloys won the FIPRESCI prize at the Berlinale in 2016). Tristan Forever concerns a French doctor who is contemplating a permanent relocation to Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most isolated, inhabited island. Ducos describes Tristan Foreveras “a striking hybrid film. He wants to quit his previous life as a doctor and wants to settle there, but of course it’s not that easy and is really a journey towards a utopia, and ultimately becomes a blur between documentary and fiction.”
Anne-Frédérique Widmann’s sophomore feature Shewit follows an Eritrean refugee for ten years after her arrival alone in Geneva. “It’s a strong and moving story about exile and how she must find her place in the Swiss society,” Ducos observes.
The Beauty of the Donkey is Swiss-Albanian Dea Gjinovci’s second doc feature after her celebrated Wake Up on Mars (2020). Set in post-war Kosovo, the new film sees the filmmaker and her exiled father return to his childhood village to recreate his memories with the help of local villagers. “It’s a very poetic and intimate story, and very much a dialogue between the past and the present.”
Heat, meanwhile is the latest film from acclaimed Swiss documentarian Jacqueline Zünd. A cinematic exploration of heat as a condition, the feature doc focuses on the Persian Gulf as the hottest region on the planet, painting a panorama of human stories, moods, and
survival strategies. “Jacqueline is a big name in documentary in Switzerland and internationally, and this is her fourth film. She’s addressing climate change by filming in Dubai and Kuwait, following people who are working in different, impossible conditions, such as a delivery driver, someone in an ice bar in the middle of the dessert, and a meteorological researcher in a country where climate issues are not taken seriously. It is a very timely film.”
The new projects being pitched at VdR Industry run in parallel with a slew of Swiss films that include the opening film Blame by Christian Frei (also selected for Grand Angle section); the International Competition Obscure Night – “Ain’t I a Child? by Sylvain George, and two Burning Lights selections, The Other World by Callisto McNulty and The World Upside Down by Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter.
All of which makes Ducos’s job of promoting Swiss films internationally that much easier. “There is a big interest from the world sales companies and distributors because they know they can find quality in Switzerland. Of course, the established names are very important, like Christian Frei for example, or Nicole Vögele whose The Landscape and the Fury won the Grand Prix at Visions du Réel 2024 as well as the Doc Alliance Award. Sales people are looking for strong titles and they know that the rest of the Swiss industry is following close behind in the footsteps of these successful filmmakers. When you have newcomers developing so well, it promises a lot for the future.”
