25/03/2024 - The Academy also honoured Sonia Rossier with a Special Prize for her work as first assistant director on Let Me Go

The director of Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, Elene Naveriani, during the awards ceremony (© Swissinfo.ch)

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elene Naveriani
film profile] by Georgian director Elene Naveriani walked away with the prestigious prize for Best Swiss Fiction Film in Zurich on Friday, while Lisa Gerig’s The Hearing [+see also:
film review
film profile] scooped Best Documentary. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry also bagged the awards for Best Screenplay (courtesy of Elene Naveriani herself) and Best Editing (Aurora Franco Vögeli), but the odds-on favourite Bisons [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Pierre Monnard didn’t walk away empty handed either, nabbing itself three Quartz awards: Best Photography (Joseph Areddy), Best Film Score (Nicolas Rabaeus) and Best Actor (Karim Barras). The winners of this year’s event highlight the power of Swiss cinema, which doesn’t shy away from controversy. The winning films are striking and essential works which aren’t afraid to explore the world’s complexity or the beauty of diversity when experienced as a strength rather than a weakness.

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The big winner, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, revolves around Ethéro, a single 48-year-old woman who lives in a small Georgian village where traditional values are sacrosanct. Once again, we find Elene Naveriani exploring her homeland of Georgia and the difficulties faced by those who try to live their lives without allowing themselves to be influenced by the taboos of a heteropatriarchal society which sees itself as invincible. The film world premiered during Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2023 and has since enjoyed an impressive international trajectory.

In the documentary field, The Hearing by Lisa Gerig, which follows four asylum seekers as they relive the hearing they attended as part of the asylum seeking process, isn’t to be outshone either. The film was previously presented in a world premiere in Copenhagen’s prestigious CPH:DOX, as well as being shortlisted in the category of European Documentaries for the European Film Awards.

The trophy for Best Actress was won by Ella Rumpf thanks to her part in Anna Novion’s French-Swiss co-production Marguerite’s Theorem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Novion
film profile], while Maud Wyler scooped Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Path of Excellence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Valais-based director Frédéric Marmoud. Armat by Genevan director Elodie Dermange, who homes in on her family’s Armenian roots, bagged the Best Animation Film Award, and Jela Hasler’s Gravidity Best Short Film. Nicolas Rabaeus, who was in the running for three Quartz awards for Best Film Score, eventually walked away with two: one for the music in Bisons and the other for Fisnik Maxville’s The Land Within [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fisnik Maxville
film profile]. The accolade of Best Graduate Film, meanwhile, went to Nathalie Berger’s Chagrin Valley (ZHdK), which previously won the National Competition Prize in the Visions du Réel Festival. The award for Best Sound went to Xavier Lavorel for Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], while the Honorary Swiss Film Prize went to producer Robert Boner.

The winners of the 2024 Swiss Film Awards are as follows:

Best Fiction Film
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elene Naveriani
film profile] – Elene Naveriani (Georgia/Switzerland)

Best Documentary
The Hearing [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Lisa Gerig

Best Animated Film
Armat - Elodie Dermange

Best Screenplay
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry – Elene Naveriani

Best Actress
Ella Rumpf – Marguerite’s Theorem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Novion
film profile] (France/Switzerland)

Best Actor
Karim Barras - Bisons [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Switzerland/France)

Best Supporting Actress
Maud Wyler – The Path of Excellence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (France/Switzerland)

Best Film Score
Nicolas Rabaeus – Bisons
Nicolas Rabaeus – The Land Within [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fisnik Maxville
film profile] (Switzerland/Kosovo)

Best Cinematography
Joseph Areddy - Bisons

Best Editing
Aurora Franco Vögeli – Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

Best Sound
Xavier Lavorel - La chimera [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Italy/Switzerland/France)

Best Short Film
Gravidity - Jela Hasler

Best Graduate Film
Chagrin Valley - Nathalie Berger

Swiss Film Academy Special Prize
Sonia Rossier, first assistant director – Let Me Go [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Switzerland/France/Belgium)

Swiss Film Academy Honorary Prize
Robert Boner

(Translated from French)