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Local council wants to give more funds to Zurich film festival

feet on green carpet
The Red Carpet of the Zurich film festival is green. © Keystone / Michael Buholzer

Zurich's local government has proposed to increase by CHF100,000 ($101,412) public subsidies to the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF).

The proposal, published on Wednesday, is valid for the years 2023 to 2026. The city of Zurich has been supporting the ZFF since 2007 with an annual amount of CHF350,000.

Since its founding in 2005, the ZFF has developed into a renowned major cultural event and is now well established, the local council says in justifying its application. The local parliament will discuss the application at one of its next meetings.

This year’s festival offered a rich palette of unconventional approaches to Swiss history: from a reassessment of national painter Albert Anker to a fascist-hunting Heidi.

And British actor Ben Kingsley was awarded the festival’s Golden Icon award.

This year’s ZFF, which ended last Sunday, counted 137,000 admissions. That is 15% more than in the pre-Covid year 2019, making the ZFF the largest film festival in Switzerland ahead of the Locarno film festival.

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