French drama named best Swiss film
French-language work La petite chambre has picked up the prize for best Swiss fiction film at the Quartz 2011 awards.
The film, by directors Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond, tells the story of a relationship between an ailing man and a home care nurse grieving for her dead newborn child.
It beat others in the category: Sennentuntschi, Der Sandmann, Stationspiraten and Cosavoglio di più.
La petite chambre also won the prize for best screenplay. The directors said the film’s success was due to the lead actors’ performances.
Best documentary went to Cleveland versus Wall Street, a film about the United States subprime crisis. Antony Vouardoux’s science fiction work Yuri Lennon’s Landing on Alpha 46 won best short.
Isabelle Caillat won best actress for her performance in All That Remains, while 19-year-old Schwerin Amini won best actor for playing a young cancer victim in Stationspiraten.
The jury selected Gerald Damovsky as the winner of the special jury prize for his production design in the horror Sennentuntschi.
The gala event at the KKL in Lucerne marked the 14th edition of the awards. Some 300 members of the Swiss Film Academy voted on the nominations and prize-winners.
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