As Swiss Films Expand International Reach, English-language Works Are on the Rise

Swiss cinema is resonating domestically and abroad as homegrown films and international co-productions continue to entice local audiences and festival goers around the globe.

At Venice this year, Swiss titles and co-productions boasting high-profile talent unspool throughout the festival. Switzerland is also a country of focus at the Venice Production Bridge industry strand with seven projects taking part in the Gap-Financing Market and two in the Immersive Market.

“For a relatively small and multilingual market, the combination of domestic relevance and international reach is significant,” says Nicola Ruffo, director of promotional organization Swiss Films.

“Last year proved that there is a real appetite — fiction, documentaries, films from different linguistic regions and very different kinds of stories all found their audiences. Several of these films also traveled extremely well internationally. Petra Volpe’s ‘Late Shift,’ for example, was a box office success on the domestic market but also sold more than 670,000 tickets outside Switzerland by the end of 2025,” adds Ruffo.

Venice, Ruffo notes, has in recent years “become a very good snapshot of the vitality of Swiss cinema. We have Swiss films and co-productions appearing across very different parts of the festival. Last year there were the world premieres of ‘Memory of Princess Mumbi’ by Damien Hauser or this year’s Swiss Oscar-entry, ‘Who Is Still Alive,’ by Nicolas Wadimoff, who also received an award in Venice.”

Indeed, this year Pauline Julier and Nicolas Chapoulier’s historical drama “The Indies,” from Spain’s Lastor Media and Switzerland’s Alina Film, is competing in Giornate degli Autori, while Wim Wenders’ documentary “From Inside Out — The Architecture of Peter Zumthor,” about one of Switzerland’s most internationally renowned architects, premieres in Venice Open — Out of Competition. The film is produced by Wenders’ Road Movies and German-Swiss shareholding partner DCM group.

In addition, Geneva-based Sunny Independent Pictures is among the producers of Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari’s main competition title “A Bit of Light,” which centers on a dejected doctor whose suicidal tendencies are checked by his family’s compassion.

The producers of Venezia Spotlight premiere title “Guria,” Levan Koguashvili’s feature about a stubborn, widowed hazelnut farmer looking to improve his prospects in a Georgian village left destitute by the collapse of the Soviet Union, include Zurich’s Cineworx Filmproduktion, while Gilles Jobin’s “Sunset Motel,” from Geneva’s Nadasdy Film and Cie Gilles Jobin, represents Switzerland in the Venice Immersive competition.

“What excites me is really the range,” Ruffo stresses. “It is difficult to reduce contemporary Swiss cinema to one aesthetic or a specific topic — and I think that is a strength.”

Indeed, this year’s Swiss selection at the Venice Production Bridge offers a glimpse of “what may be coming next,” he adds.  

Among them are works by both up-and-coming and well-established filmmakers such as Flurin Giger, who is developing “A Year Without Summer,” Valentin Merz, who presents “Chocolat Amer,” Stéphanie Argerich with “Kyushu Moon,” Kaveh Bakhtiari, who is developing “The Smuggler,” and Ursula Meier with “Quiet Land.”

“These are very different filmmakers and projects, many of them working internationally from an early stage, which is precisely what makes the current generation interesting,” Ruffo notes. “There is also an interesting bridge between this emerging generation and established filmmakers who continue to reinvent themselves.“

Meier’s upcoming “Quiet Land,” for example, is a Swiss-French-Canadian project selected for the Venice Gap-Financing Market that’s set to shoot in North America. “Kyushu Moon,” another Gap-Financing Market title, will lens in Japan, while “The Smuggler” will film in Greece.   

Ruffo points out that Switzerland is seeing “a continued stream of strong international co-productions” characterized by universal themes.

“Projects such as ‘Quiet Land’ bring together Switzerland, France and Canada; ‘The Smuggler’ connects Switzerland, Greece and France; and ‘A Year Without Summer’ is Swiss-German.

“At the same time, many of these films remain rooted in very specific places, communities and personal experiences. There is a recurring interest in questions of identity, belonging and how individuals navigate social and cultural boundaries.”

There is another development that Ruffo finds particularly interesting: “the move toward English-language filmmaking.” At the Venice Production Bridge, Swiss filmmakers Tim Fehlbaum (“September 5“), Ursula Meier and Michael Koch will come together at a panel to discuss precisely this question: What opportunities does work in English create for Swiss directors in terms of international casts, financing and audiences? And what does it mean for the identity of Swiss cinema?

“Michael Koch’s English-speaking debut ‘Erosion,’ with Peter Sarsgaard in the lead role, has entered post-production; Meier’s ‘Quiet Land’ will be shot next year. Petra Volpe received standing ovations in Sundance and just recently won the Locarno audience award for her first English-language film, ‘Frank & Louis’; Denis Rabaglia has a new film, ‘Butterfly Stroke,’ starring Judy Davis, also shot in English, to conquer the international festivals,” says Ruffo, who is not worried about a trend.

“I do not think becoming more international necessarily means becoming less Swiss. Switzerland has always been multilingual and culturally interconnected. Perhaps our filmmakers are simply taking that reality one step further: telling stories from a particular perspective without allowing language or national borders to define where those stories can travel.

“So, if I had to describe the direction in a few words, I might say: international, yet unmistakably Swiss. There is a confidence today in moving between languages, countries, formats and disciplines without feeling that this dilutes the identity of the work.”