Zurich Unveils Second Wave of Gala Titles Including Films Starring Tilda Swinton, Sebastian Stan, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson

The Zurich Film Festival has announced the second wave of Gala titles, which will include films starring Tilda Swinton, Sebastian Stan, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.

The 10 titles added include four world premieres, two international premieres and one European premiere.

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The films to be shown in Zurich include “The Apprentice” by Ali Abbas, starring Stan, “The Room Next Door” by Pedro Almodóvar, starring Swinton, and “Babygirl” by Halina Reijn, starring Kidman.

The programme also includes two Swiss productions – “Frieda’s Case” by Maria Brendle and “Aiming High – A Race Against the Limits” by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans, as well as the German epic adventure “Hagen”.

STUDENT
Drama
Canada, Denmark, Ireland, 2024
Director: Ali Abbasi
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally
1970s New York City: Determined to emerge from the shadow of his powerful father and make a name for himself in Manhattan real estate, aspiring tycoon Donald J. Trump meets early in his career the man who will become one of the most important figures in his life, political fixer Roy Cohn. Seeing potential in the young Donald, the powerful lawyer—who secured the convictions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage and investigated suspected communists with Senator Joseph McCarthy—trains his new acolyte in the art of amassing wealth and power through deception, intimidation, and media manipulation. The rest is history.

PEACE NEIGHBORHOOD
Melodrama
Spain, USA, 2024
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola
Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid became an autofiction novelist and Martha a war reporter, but life circumstances drove them apart. After years of being apart, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.

GIRL
Jail
United States, 2024
Director: Halina Reijn
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor
A high-profile CEO risks her career and family when she begins a passionate affair with her much younger intern.

BONJOUR TRISTESSE
European premiere
Drama, Novel adaptation
Canada, Germany, 2024
Director: Durga Chew-Bose
Cast: Lily McInerny, Chloë Sevigny, Claes Bang, Naïlia Harzoune, Aliocha Schneider
In the height of summer, 18-year-old Cécile (Lily McInerny) is languishing on the French coast with her handsome father Raymond (Claes Bang) and his mistress Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune) when the arrival of her deceased mother’s friend Anne (Chloë Sevigny) changes everything. Amid the sunny splendor of her surroundings, Cécile’s world is threatened and, desperate to regain control, she sets in motion a plan to exile Anne, with tragic consequences. Adapted from Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming-of-age novel of the same name, Durga Chew-Bose’s film masterfully captures the complexities of relationships between women and how they shape each other’s destinies.

BERGERS
International premiere
Drama
France, Canada, 2024
Director: Sophie Deraspe
Cast: Félix-Antoine Duval, Solène Rigot, Guilaine Londez, Michel Benizri, David Ayala, Véronique Ruggia Saura, Younès Boucif, Bruno Raffaelli, Aloïse Sauvage
Mathyas, an aspiring writer, swaps his life as a young advertising executive in Montreal for a life as a shepherd in the South of France. But the path to the desired pastoral peace is full of hard work. A visit from Elise, a civil servant who has boldly quit her job, gives Mathyas’s aspirations a new direction. Together they set out on a transhumance. Facing the challenges of the mountains, with a herd to care for, they will create a new life for themselves.

SICILIAN LETTERS
International premiere
Mafia, Drama
Italy, France, 2024
Directed by: Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza
Cast: Toni Servillo, Elio Germano, Daniela Marra, Barbora Bobulova, Giuseppe Tantillo, Fausto Russo Alesi, Betti Pedrazzi, Antonia Truppo, Tommaso Ragno
Sicily, early 21st century. After serving several years in prison for crimes related to the Mafia, Catello, a long-time politician, has lost everything. When the Italian secret service “convinces” him to help catch Matteo, the last major Mafia boss still at large, whom Catello has known since childhood, he sees an opportunity to return. A clever man of a hundred masks, a tireless illusionist who turns truth into falsehood and falsehood into truth, Catello begins a correspondence with the fugitive, as unique as it is improbable, taking advantage of the younger man’s emotional emptiness. A gamble that, in the case of one of the most wanted criminals in the world, will always involve a certain degree of risk…

UNHOLY TRINITY
World premiere
Western
United States, 2024
Director: Richard Gray
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson, Brandon Lessard, Veronica Ferres
Montana. 1873. Moments before his execution, Isaac Broadway tasks his son Henry (Brandon Lessard) with an impossible task: assassinating the sheriff who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Determined to keep his promise, Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, only to discover that the man he was supposed to kill is already dead. But before he can leave, an unexpected turn of events traps him in the town and leaves him caught between Gabriel Dove (Pierce Brosnan), the town’s honest new sheriff, and a mysterious figure named St. Christopher (Samuel L. Jackson). As Henry’s quest for revenge turns into a fight for his own survival, he discovers that his father built the town of Trinity on a dark secret—and a stash of stolen gold that St. Christopher is hell-bent on recovering. To survive, Henry will have to confront his father’s demons and a history of violence that threatens to ignite a war between the town and itself.

Hagen
World premiere
Fantasy, History
Germany, 2024
Directed by: Cyrill Boss and Philipp Stennert
Cast: Gijs Naber, Jannis Niewöhner, Dominic Marcus Singer, Lilja van der Zwaag, Rosalinde Mynster, Jördis Triebel, Jörg Hartmann, Bela Gabor Lenz, Alessandro Schuster, Johanna Kolberg, Emma Preisendanz
Burgundian master of arms Hagen von Tronje (Gijs Naber) holds his crisis-ridden kingdom together with a sense of duty and an iron fist. At the same time, he suppresses his hidden love for the king’s daughter, Kriemhild (Lilja van der Zwaag), and his own dark past. When the famous dragon slayer Siegfried von Xanten (Jannis Niewöhner) appears in Worms and threatens the old structures with his unpredictability, Hagen becomes an increasingly tragic figure. King Gunther (Dominic Marcus Singer), who is young and inexperienced due to the sudden death of his father, sees in Siegfried a chance to save the kingdom. He asks him to help him secure the hand of the dangerous Valkyrie Brunhild (Rosalinde Mynster) in marriage. When Kriemhild falls in love with Hagen’s adversary, Siegfried, she must choose between love and loyalty to her king.

THE FRIEDA CASE
World premiere
Social drama
Switzerland, 2024
Director: Maria Brendle
Cast: Julia Buchmann, Stefan Merki, Rachel Braunschweig, Max Simonischek, Marlene Tanczik, Liliane Amuat
In 1904, during an era of social upheaval, two lawyers fight for justice and humanity in a moving case. The tragic story of young seamstress Frieda Keller sparks a debate about shame, ethics, and emancipation. The lawyers and their families grapple with personal and moral conflicts as the moving trial challenges the legal system of the time.

AIMING HIGH BIG BIG – RACE AGAINST LIMITATIONS
World premiere
Documentary
Switzerland, 2024
Directed by: Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans
Cast: Marco Odermatt, Lara Gut-Behrami, Aleksander Kilde, Johan Eliasch, Franz Julen
The ambitious plan to organize the world’s first transnational and highest ski race at the foot of the Matterhorn becomes a harrowing tale of disaster and climate change, forcing participants to confront the emotional ups and downs of preparations and the key question: what are the future boundaries of ski racing? In this gripping documentary about the planned “Matterhorn Cervino Speed Opening”, the film closely follows the International Ski Federation (FIS), top international athletes such as Marco Odermatt, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Lara Gut-Behrami, as well as the entire organizing committee under the chairmanship of Franz Julen.

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