Zurich Hands Out Awards After Turbulent Festival

A scene from Vassily Sigarev's "Wolfy." Image courtesy of the Zurich International Film Festival.

After a remarkably eventful beginning, the 5th Zurich Film Festival came to a close last night by handing out awards to a list of recipients that was to include Roman Polanski. Polanski was arrested en route, igniting a worldwide storm of publicity that pushed aside the actual focus of the film festival, which organizers state as "filmmaking by young talents competing in three competitions."

Those three competitions found their winners last night, with prizes being handed out for "International Feature Film", "German-Language Feature Film" and "International Documentary Film" by a jury led by actress Debra Winger. The Russian film "Wolfy," directed by Vasilij Sigarev won the International Feature Film Competition, the best German-Language Feature Film award went to "66/67 - Fairplay is over," directed by Carsten Ludwig and Jan-Christoph Glaser and the German/Swiss co-production "The Sound After the Storm," directed by Patrik Soergel, Ryan Fenson-Hood and Sven O. Hill won the International Documentary Film Competition. The documentary film "Defamation," an Israeli production by Yoav Shamir, and the German-language films "13 Semesters" by Frieder Wittich and "Gravity" by Maximilian Erlenwein each received a special mention.

The winners of Variety's New Talent Award and the Critics' Choice Award were announced yesterday. Variety awarded Cherien Dabis's "Amreeka," while Danish production "Applause," directed by Martin Pieter Zandvliet received The Swiss Association of Film Journalists' Award.

The ceremony also saw actor Morgan Freeman receive the "Golden Icon Award" and Michael Keaton being awarded the first ever "Career Achievement Award".