Switzerland Today

Greetings from Bern!

Choices, choices – today we explain how portfolios are allocated to new cabinet ministers, and what the chances are of Switzerland’s nomination for Best International Feature Film at this year’s Oscars. Plus the latest news from Switzerland on Thursday.

Keystone / Hannibal Hanschke

In the news:  The number of billionaires and their total wealth has declined slightly this year, partly as a result of high volatility in financial markets and the end of very accommodating monetary policies.

• In 2022 UBS counted some 2,668 billionaires across the globe – 41 in Switzerland – with a total wealth of $12.7 trillion (CHF12 trillion), compared with 2,755 billionaires and a total wealth of $13.1 trillion a year earlier. Overall, 360 individuals left the ranking and 273 joined it.
• Switzerland will participate in the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. Parliament today approved the CHF17.6 million ($18.7 million) budget for the Swiss Pavilion without opposition. The Swiss Pavilion will focus on life sciences, environmental protection and artificial intelligence, themes that allow Switzerland to position itself in the world, said Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.
• An activist group erected protest billboards in FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s Swiss hometown of Brig to demand world football’s governing body compensate migrant workers for alleged human rights abuses in Qatar, current host of the football World Cup. The mobile billboards carried the messages “Infantino: your family were migrants”, “Thousands like them were victims of this World Cup” and “Compensate them now”. Infantino was born in Brig to parents who had emigrated from Italy.

Keystone / Stefano Spinelli

Yesterday we learnt the names of the two new ministers in Switzerland’s seven-person government. Today we’ll find out which portfolios they’ll be given. But how does the reshuffle work? Here’s an explainer.

Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Albert Rösti will join the Swiss cabinet on January 1, replacing the retiring Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga and Finance Minister Ueli Maurer. So will Baume-Schneider and Rösti slip straight into the same ministries? Not necessarily – discover why.

Pandora Film Produktion

Christmas is coming, and Oscar campaigns are moving up a gear. Switzerland’s nomination for Best International Feature Film, Drii Winter (A Piece of Sky), is no exception, but director Michael Koch explains why he’s not stressed.

When Koch started shooting the film in early 2020, he had no idea it would become Switzerland’s submission at the 2023 Academy Awards. In fact, for quite some time his main concern was just completing it. “We’d finished ten of the scheduled 70 shooting days when Covid-19 restrictions kicked in,” the Lucerne-born filmmaker told us. Fortunately, Koch and his team were able to finish filming after a few months, with not a single Covid-19 case on set.

Does the Academy Award factor increase the pressure on Koch when he presents the film at festivals? “I don’t feel it,” he says. “The film is still the same, and I feel the same about it. It was helpful for the theatrical release, though. We opened in German-speaking Switzerland on September 1, and the movie is still playing in cinemas.” Drii Winter has also enjoyed a very successful festival run, starting with its debut at the Berlinale, where it received a Special Mention from the jury led by M. Night Shyamalan.

Last month Koch spent a week in New York and Los Angeles making the case for the film in front of Academy members. He’s optimistic about the American response to his film. “We had our US premiere at the Chicago Film Festival, and it went very well,” he said. For him, the film’s strength is in its universal appeal. “It’s not a clichéd image of Switzerland,” he says. Here is a synopsis of Drii WinterExternal link.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will choose a shortlist of 15 films on December 21, which will then be whittled down to the final five films at the end of January. The winner will be announced at the Oscar ceremony on March 12. It’s been more than 30 years since a Swiss actor or director won an Oscar. Director Xavier Koller is the most recent winner, picking up the award for his immigrant drama Journey of Hope, named Best Foreign Language Film in 1991.