* Zurich Film Festival 2022 *

First held in 2005, Zurich Film Festival established itself very quickly on the national and international film festival scene. The formula for its success it's probably a mix of an attractive location: an international but small city of Zurich; a great selection of movies and different programs/events like ZFF Masters, ZFF Talks, Film Music Competition, ZFF for Kids and a few others.

The best way to explain Zurich Film Festival's success is to quote/paraphrase the sentence I found in the industry booklet a few years ago. Basically, the organizers agree on a few basics for a successful film festival: "content is king, collaboration is key and encounters among creative folks are essential". I am glad to confirm that even after this many years, the organizers are still taking "these basics" seriously while developing the festival further and, most importantly, in the right direction.

2022 was another successful year for Zurich Film Festival.

The 18th edition of Zurich Film Festival broke all records and attracted 137'000 visitors (20k more than in 2019), had 580 screenings, with 90 sold-out ones, 38 world and European premieres and, at 41.4%, the highest proportion of female directors than ever before.

As usual, the organisation was impeccable, thanks to the brilliant team behind Zurich Film Festival and dedicated volunteers. The press team was supportive and helpful, especially Claudia Wintsch, handling the interview requests and Fabienne Kipfer from her team. This year I also attended the press conference for the first time and realized that I should do this every year. All because of Christian Jungen, artistic director of the festival who held our attention throughout the press conference with excellent summaries that showcased his knowledge and personal excitement for the movies. 

In addition to providing a significant number of female stories and movies from female directors, Zurich Film Festival continued with #FemaleFilmmakers and #FemaleLife hashtags, making it easy for me to follow them and select female-related movies of my choice. I also managed to see much more, and as in previous years, I was again truly impressed by the balance of different genres, aspiring filmmakers and (potential) blockbusters.

All of this made it easier for me to explore the female factor of the festival as Gimme A Beat. I still had to manage the busy schedule, running around the town's cinemas to see all the planned movies and catching some female directors for interviews. What helped to get more organized was the fact that this year, press ticket purchasing got digitalized as well. Instead of running to the press centre every day, I could order my tickets online and have them all saved in my phone wallet. Super easy, practical and a huge time saver for me.

As listeners of Gimme A Beat (and my family and friends) already know, having a busy schedule is business as usual for me, and with so many great movies, definitely a pleasure. Zurich Film Festival is all about watching movies. My most enjoyable moment is sitting in the dark cinema, fully immersed in the storyline. This year, even if many fabulous events were happening on the festival ground, I haven't attended/seen any of them.

Most importantly, I have seen 30 movies (only a few less than the last year) and managed to get together with 3 female directors, one lead actress and one movie inspiration for quick interviews. 

Considering the number of movies I've seen (30), I will not be reviewing all the movies and posting them on Gimme A Beat page. But, I will continue posting the reviews after tonight's show until the end of the year since most of the movies from the festival are coming to the cinemas next year. If you follow the search with the following hashtags: #zff #zff2022 #gimmeabeat you'll find the ones that I reviewed until today (10) and the new ones. You can also find my highlights if you follow the search with the following hashtags: #zff #zff2022 #highlight #gimmeabeat (8 until today).

In tonight's Gimme A Beat I will be focusing on the following movies:

- The Swimmers, directed and co-written by Sally El Hosaini. I had a chance to interview Sally, Nathalie Issa, lead actress and Yusra Mardini, movie inspiration

- Unruly / Ustyrlig, directed and co-written by Malou Reymannm, whom I had a chance to interview.

- Blue Jean, directed and written by Georgia Oakley, whom I had a chance to interview.

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Tune in to Gimme A Beat (21.11.2022) tonight to hear my impressions of the Zurich Film Festival, the reviews of the movies in the focus and relevant interviews combined with selected music from female artists.

Tune in for...

Zurich Film Festival 2022  

with click-to-play or playlist

from 22:00 - 00:00 on:
webradio lora

featuring:
gimme a beat reviews movies at ZFF 2022

Kisses, Babymonster
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for the info about old shows please go to previous entries

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